Check out these 10 underutilized sources of traffic

What channels can you use to increase traffic to your website as a startup marketer?

My experience shows that most marketers are focused on paid and organic search as well as social media marketing and email marketing. Sound familiar?

It may happen, but that's okay. These are all very important channels. These channels should be included in any marketer's strategy, startup or not.

They're not the only channels that can drive traffic. This is something that many marketers forget.

It pays to think outside of the box.

These are 10 traffic sources that startups should not be overlooking.

1. Reddit

Reddit is a great way to drive thousands to your website if you are able to play the game. This is evident when you consider that the site has received an average of 1.7 billion page views per day for this year, and that subreddits such as Data is Beautiful boast more than 16,000,000 members.

Reddit doesn't like marketers. Reddit hates marketers.

Don't let this discourage you.

Yes, your job might be a bit more difficult because of the Reddit/marketer vendetta. It doesn't make it impossible.

Reddit is best used as a Redditor, not as a marketer.

This means that you can use the site just like any other Redditor. You can share links that are not associated with your brand, and you can comment on existing threads.

Join the conversation.

“If you started promoting your site on Reddit now, it'd be easy to join thousands of Reddit Marketers that are ridiculed on the site. Reddit marketing is all about not marketing.

Self-promotion is not a favorite of Redditors. Redditors aren't big fans of self-promotion.

Your goal is to make normal usage patterns. Reddit users should not be able to distinguish you from them.

It is easiest to not think like a marketer. Participate in subreddits you are interested in. This will allow you to contribute naturally and no one will suspect that you have an ulterior motive.

Once you have mastered the site's navigation, you can start getting involved in subreddits related to your brand or the links you wish to promote.

Remember…

• Before you publish any promotional content, create both a site-wide as well as a subreddit-specific history.
• Reddit will only save the best content and links.
• Do not post links from your domain too often or too often. This can cause spam filters to flag you.

Travis Levell from Project Pivotal has written a post about how to win Reddit's game. He used Reddit to enroll 625 students in his Udemy course.

The key takeaway: Share your top Reddit links to drive traffic, but make sure you don't appear like a marketer by building your profile organically.

2. Email

Email can be used as a traffic-generating tool in many different ways by marketers.

Email Marketing is the obvious choice. As mentioned, it's one the most commonly-used methods of driving traffic. I urge you to create an email marketing campaign if you haven't done so yet. It has been proven time and again that it is the most effective digital channel in terms ROI.

Email signatures and autoresponders have proven to be a great way to leverage email for traffic generation.

Use email signatures to promote your digital activities. It is natural and discreet. Once you have created your signature, you will be completely self-sufficient.

Depending on what project or projects I am working on, I tend to update mine quite often.

Here's how it looks right now:

Here's an example:

Autoresponders are email that fire off an automatic reply to any person who emails them. When you travel, do you send an “out of office message”? You've then used an autoresponder.

Autoresponders can be a handy tool for those times when you are too busy or distracted to respond immediately. Autoresponders help us manage expectations by telling people that they can expect delays in receiving a reply. This allows us to continue our work or whatever else we are doing without interruptions.

They are also great for marketing and driving traffic to your site.

They do both.

I use an autoresponder to let people know that I am currently focused on ContentMarketer.io.

It fulfills both of these purposes. It meets the expectations of everyone who emails me and drives traffic to ContentMarketer.io.

To reply to subscribers to my newsletter, I use an autoresponder. This is to increase traffic to my top blog posts.

The key takeaway:Email Marketing is a powerful platform for traffic generation. However, you can make it even more effective by using your signature and an Autoresponder.

3. The Viral Loop Referral

A viral loop referral, as you probably guessed by the name is a type referral scheme.

Referral scheme with a very unique twist.

It is designed to create a pyramid effect.

This means that a company can start with just one customer and then refer three more customers to the company. Each customer will soon have 13 customers. The company will quickly have …. customers if the cycle continues. Many customers.

Dropbox is the most well-known viral loop referral program.

Dropbox is often cited by many as an example of successful referral marketing.

Dropbox was not original in its referral program, just as Shakespeare copied his predecessors.

They did it so well, that it would be what all other referral programmes aspire to.” – Visakan Veerasamy (Referral Candy)

Dropbox, a cloud storage provider, is the answer to your nine-year-old problem of living in darkness. Although it's an excellent service with limited storage space, it is still a great option.

You get 2GB space when you create your first Dropbox account. You have two choices if you need more space.

1. Upgrade your account by paying
2. Refer new users

For each successful referral, users who choose option 2 receive an additional 500MB of space. They can continue referring people until they have 16GB more space. They must pay after that.

This means that users must refer 32new customers to obtain the full 16GB space.

Imagine if all 32 of these users were referred by each one.

This adds up to a lot of users.

Of course they won't. This is just unrealistic. However, if Dropbox users refer just two people (bearing mind that many will refer more), the viral loop referral program will start to pay off.

It did, of course. Dropbox went from 100,000 users in to 4,000,000 in only 15 months .

The key takeaway: Maximize the impact of referrals by offering a program that rewards customers for each referral.

4. Comment on Facebook

Facebook ads and Facebook business pages are two of the most common ways that you think about Facebook marketing.

That's fine. Both of these are great tools for businesses, and I encourage their use.

These are not the only ways to capitalize on Facebook.

Commenting on posts from other pages can bring significant traffic to your page and, in turn, your website.

It is important to search for pages that are relevant to your industry and to take action quickly. It is important to be the first to comment on a new article.

Your comment must add value.

You want to get as many people to like your comment as you can. If you get enough likes, your comment will be voted “top comment.”

It will stay at the top of your post when that happens. If you choose the right Facebook page, thousands or even thousands could view it.

This post is from The New York Times.

The top post has 444 likes, and has triggered a dialogue with its author. There have been 63 comments.

Why? Because comments add value to the conversation. It also mirrors popular opinion which is very important in this context. You want to attract positive attention and not wind people down.

You may find similar results depending on which page or post you are looking at.

The Onion is a spoof news site. The top comments almost always include jokes that are a play on the original post's content.

Siimon Sander, SVTMedia, has a great post about how to use Facebook comments to drive traffic and engagement to your website and page.

The key takeaway: Drive traffic by commenting on posts on Facebook pages. Remember to act quickly – the most popular comments are the first to appear.

5. Quora

Quora is, in its simplest form, a question-and-answer site. Users post questions and other users respond with answers.

It works in a similar way to Reddit. You'll get the best out of it if your take the time to contribute and act in the same manner as a real user.

You have been warned.

You must sign up for the site to view posts. This is not like Reddit. Quora isn't as anti-marketer-friendly as Reddit.

You shouldn’t be ridiculed if you include a link for additional content (” should not” is the key word here, I won’t be held responsible for any other outcomes! ).

You'll get the best out of Quora, just like other “community-based” traffic sources, if you take the time and write useful, detailed posts.

This happens because people who like your post may “upvote it”. You might get comments. If you get enough engagement from your post, it will be “stuck” at the top or near the top in the thread.

This is pretty amazing, but it gets even better.

Contrary to other sources of traffic we have discussed here – Facebook comments especially – Quora threads and your answers tend to stay around.

Your answer could be found if someone searches for the question you answered, whether it is a month, six months or two years later. If someone gets new answers, old threads may resurface.

This post is an example. It was on the Quora front page, but the second answer is from 2012.

Start exploring Quora to get an idea of what a “great answer” on Quora is like. You can also find an excellent, but outdated, Q&A section that lists some of the most popular answers on Quora.

The key takeaway: Use Quora in a similar way to Reddit. You can copy other users' habits and drop a link to your site when they are discussing a topic that interests you.

6. Guest posts

Some people are looking for links when they write guest posts. It's so much more to me.

First and foremost, guest posts help me to build my brand. They are also a great way to drive relevant, free traffic to my websites.

It is so effective that guest posts are the main source for traffic to two of my tools, Quuu.co and Narrow.io.

Guest posting isn’t as easy as sending out pitches to as many sites as possible in the hope that one of them will take notice. You might get some ‘yeses' this way. Yeah, probably. You're not trying to write for every site.

You need to have standards if you want traffic. Write for websites that have a large audience. Huge, ideally. However, that audience must be relevant.

It doesn't matter how many unique visitors a site receives each day. If none of these visitors are from your target market, it won't matter what you do. Referral traffic is likely to be very low. Any traffic that you get won't matter.

This logic also applies to sites that are highly relevant but have small audiences. Although you might be a good fit, you can't expect the site to get any traffic if it doesn't have any visitors.

You should choose sites that are based on the size of their readership and how closely they relate to your niche. Next, win them over.

You may find guidelines on how to become a guest blogger at some sites. These guidelines will help you succeed.

However, many of the top sites don't make it clear that they are open to guest posting. They don't, as a rule. Few sites will make an exception for a post from the right person.

You have to ask.

Choose the right person to reach out to. If the blog is personal, it will be owned by that person. You'll need to locate the editor for the section you wish to contribute to if it's a large site.

This can help you build relationships before you tackle the topic of guest blogging. Consider commenting on the blog posts of your contacts or approaching them via social media.

My experience has shown that the most important factor in your success is how you approach the topic and whether you have the skills to write a great post.

Bloggers and site owners want interesting, original topics. Or, at the very least, a unique perspective on an otherwise familiar topic. Relevance to the topic they cover is also important.

They are also looking for people who can write.

You shouldn't send the exact same post idea to every site. It is important to show that the post is for them. You should take the time to research potential topics in order to show genuine interest and knowledge about their field of expertise.

Also, don't forget about providing links to examples of your writing.

Always proofread all emails. Carefully. A poorly-written outreach email will get you a “no” from a firm faster than any other.

The key takeaway: Guest postings can drive tons of traffic back to your website, but only if your site has a large audience that is relevant to your niche.

7. Concours

Giveaways can bring in a lot of traffic quickly to your website. You can also waste a lot of money by giving away giveaways.

It all depends on what type of competition you hold and the prize that you give away.

If traffic is all you care about, give away an iPhone or a vacation. You will get tons of visitors, I swear. You'll get so much traffic, your servers will likely crash and your website will go down.

That would be a shame, right?

It would.

However, it is not as bad as spending all that money on a prize which drove a lot of server-breaking traffic.

You must be selective about what prize you give away if you want to hold a successful competition. You should choose something that only you target audience would like.

This restricts the number of people who may be interested in what you do.

Also, be aware of the type competition you are running.

Running your competition with another publication or site is a great way to increase visibility. It promotes your competition to their audience which is fantastic.

However, this also means that contestants will not be able enter directly on the site.

Goodbye, potential traffic.

There's an easy way around it: ask visitors to answer questions that require them to visit your site.

Do not ask simple questions such as “When was our company established?”. You can bet that the answer will eventually find its way to you on the internet. This will result in few visitors to your site.

Say goodbye to potential traffic.

Ask a question, or better yet, set a task to make visiting your site and exploring it unavoidable.

A company selling Ecommerce might ask customers to make a wishlist of products they would purchase if they had $500.

This would allow me to ask participants to read a particular post and then describe their response.

I could ask them, for example, to read “Growth Isn’t Everything: 7 Lesons Learned From 5 Failed Businesses”, pick one case study and then describe what they would do differently.

It is important to avoid multiple-choice answers and competition questions. Your website should be a source of inspiration for entrants.

The key takeaway: Make competitions more memorable by selecting a prize that is closely related to your brand and the things you do. Also, avoid making entry difficult. You can ask entrants to answer a question or complete a task that requires them to visit your site.

8. Automated Voicemails

A voicemail system that is automated works in the same way as a cold email. You leave a message on the recipient’s phone instead of sending an email.

This practice is most often used by student loan service providers, medical debt collectors, and financial institutions. It can also be used for countless other purposes.

It could be used to:

• Recognize customers for purchasing
• Inform current customers about a product that might interest them
• Notify customers about an event, or an appointment
• Send out a series more outreach emails to follow up

Regardless of what you are using automated voicemails to accomplish, it is important that you leave the right message and tone of voice in order to get results. You should sound friendly and genuine, not robotic or corporate.

Try to imagine yourself as your customer: What would you say?

Keep in mind the purpose of voicemail: To get your recipient to visit your site. It's crucial to clearly provide your web address and to give the recipient a reason to visit it.

The key takeaway: Automated Marketing Strategies (including Voicemail) can be very successful – so long as they don't soundautomated.

9. Videos

Videos can do much more than just help you build your YouTube audience. If done correctly, videos can be used to lure people away from YouTube or any other video-sharing site and onto your website.

• Refer traffic can be generated by videos that answer questions common to your industry.

• You can convert visitors to your website by providing detailed product reviews and demonstrations.

• Interview with an authority in your industry. You'll not only get the chance to meet their audience but also have the opportunity to convince them to visit your website.

Video is a great way to explain complex processes to customers if you offer a service or SaaS (software-as-a-service). For maximum effectiveness, you might consider using animated videos or whiteboards.” -Bubba Page for Inc.

You must make it easy for visitors to visit your site in order to maximize referral traffic.

Your web address can be read aloud in the video. You should also include a link in the description.

You can even add annotations directly to the videos.

YouTube isn’t the only site that can convert videos to web traffic. Metacafe, DailyMotion and Vimeo are all options. Periscope, a live-streaming service, was a great option for me.

The key takeaway: Video marketing is a great way to get people to your website, but you must make it easy and appealing to them.

10. Real Life

Strangely, many of the best ways to drive online traffic are offline.

Flyering is one example. Flyering is a type of marketing that has been around long before the internet, but it can be easily adapted to modern marketing.

Make your web address an integral part of your flyers. Give people a reason for them to visit it online. You can track the traffic generated by your flyers by adding a unique code to that URL.

However, for me, speaking with people is the best way to drive web traffic in real-life.

In 2013, I began speaking at conferences regularly. In my talks, I mention my website and include the URL in slides. In exchange for an email address, I often end my talks with a freebie.

This usually results in between 100 and 150 new addresses from great connections (these are people on whom I have made an impact, hopefully).

Google Trends shows the impact of this. Every time I speak at conferences, my name is searched more often.

Business cards are also important. Although they have fallen out of style in recent years, business cards are still extremely valuable. A business card can be a great way to keep in touch with someone if you have a good conversation.

The key takeaway: Don’t be afraid to drive traffic online, even offline. Start talking to people. Just make sure you remember who you are and where you can be found online (and why).

Are there any other traffic sources that are underutilized? It would be great if you could leave a comment below about something that isn't mentioned.

Sujan Patel's first post, Gain Unfair Advantage with 10 Underutilized Traffic Sources For Startups appeared on Sujan Patel.