If you spend just ten minutes scrolling through your feed on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook, you’ll likely encounter dozens of ads. Many of these ads will make sense given your search history and personal interests, while others might feel random or less personalized to you. You may even be tempted to click on those that pique your curiosity to learn more.

This is the daily experience of more than five billion internet users across the globe. Surfing the internet is not a passive experience but an active one. The more often a brand can get in front of its target audience, the better its chances of turning that audience into paying customers.

Digital marketing and advertising is expected to reach over $900 billion by 2027, and if you want your business to be part of the conversation, you need to narrow your focus. Converting leads into customers is the end goal, but attracting leads to your website is an effective means to that end. These tips can help you do it effectively.

Who is your audience, and where can you find them?

Before you can think about how to attract new leads to your website, you need to have a clear picture of who your audience is and the places they frequently go online. For example, if you lead a financial services firm and your target audience is retirees, you may not want to put all your time and money toward TikTok ads.

Look at your client database or CRM, and then ask yourself the following:

• Who do I enjoy working with?
• What do my top clients do for a living?
• Where do most of my clients live?
• What kind of lifestyles do my clients have?
• What do my clients value?

These questions can help you start to determine the types of clients you work best with and those you’d want to attract. You’ll need to get to know your target demographic first to create the kind of content that will speak to them and convert them.

What’s more, you’ll want to monitor how your target audience behaves online by paying attention to the times they are most active, what kinds of content they are most likely to interact with, and what information they are willing to give you. There is a lot of data out there about when the general public is most active. For example, early on weekday mornings is a popular time to post, but you’ll want to pull numbers for your specific audience. One way to do this is to look at the analytics on your most recent ad or post. Review information like the time it was posted and who engaged with it and how (e.g., Did they click to learn more? Leave a comment? Save the post?), and how many people viewed it. If the engagement on your posts aligns with your target audience, then you’ll know you’re on the right path; if not, you’ll want to pivot and test by posting at different times and on different platforms until your engagement analytics are more satisfactory.

You can also do research into your direct competitors’ engagement since they are likely to have a similar target audience. Pay attention to the types of posts they have success with, who is commenting or interacting and when, and the time of day they most frequently post. Use this information as a guide to improve your own engagement.

Methods for attraction

Once you know your audience, the kind of content they respond to, and when they’re most active, you can begin thinking through and improving your content strategy. While there are numerous ways to attract clients to your site, the ideas that follow are some of the most efficient and cost effective.

Social media ads

Many businesses have found success through targeted social media ads. This should be a tactic in every business’s marketing arsenal, but not many people are aware of how to streamline the process. There are three types of ads I recommend every business runs:

• Branding ads
  Solidify your position as the go-to expert in your industry by making your name and business synonymous with it. These ads will not immediately generate leads, but they will keep you top of mind with your audience.
• Product ads
  Tout a specific product or service that you offer. You could prompt visitors to buy directly through such ads or redirect them to a landing page or your website.
• Lead magnet ads
  A lead magnet is an item of value you give to someone in exchange for their email address and other contact information. You can save contact information from these new leads, add it to your database, and retarget the leads with different ads.

Platforms like Facebook allow you to narrow the target audience of your ads by factors like location, age, and interests to make them even more effective. These ads are also inexpensive (costing less than a cup of coffee a day in some cases) and allow you to manage the cost by manipulating the frequency and reach of your ads.

Landing pages and lead magnets

As previously mentioned, you can direct people to a landing page through your ads; however, landing pages can also be stand-alone tools. They are designed to be lead-converting machines, encouraging visitors to give their information in exchange for an item of value (a lead magnet) or to buy something directly from your website. When designed well with a clear call to action, landing pages are a highly effective way to gather information from qualified leads that are already looking for what you have to offer.

The item of value you offer should depend on your audience. For example, a property management company might want to present a downloadable guide for purchasing a rental property or an e-book on the best practices for landlords. Think about what kind of information your audience needs, and then make sure you give them just enough of it to trust your authority and want to learn more. After you’ve collected contact information from the people who clicked on and downloaded it, be sure to input it into your database for retargeting.

Content marketing and social proof

In addition to ads and lead magnets, sharing relevant content is guaranteed to help you stay top of mind with your audience and encourage visitors to spend more time on your website and social pages. There are a variety of approaches you can take, including blogging about topics important to your industry, posting videos of client testimonials, and sharing industry updates. For any strategy you use, the most important thing to remember is consistency. Posting content on an irregular basis will not drive the results you want; you need to be posting on a consistent schedule—for instance, every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday—while keeping in mind when your audience is most active.

At its core, content marketing presents you as the authority, promotes trust, and draws more attention to your business. This helps generate social proof, which is the idea that the more people see others engaging with and enjoying your content, the likelier they will be to do the same. When people recognize and trust you, they will keep coming back for more, increasing your conversion and referral rates.

What’s next?

Drawing people to your website without a clear follow-up strategy is like catching a fly in a trap and letting it go. As with any new lead, you want to make sure people have a reason to keep in touch. You can ensure that people return to your website—whether it be for entertainment purposes, information on new products or services, or business updates—by keeping in front of them through additional ads, emails, and social posts. Never allow a new lead to forget about you because, once they do, they will move on to somebody else.