It’s easy to find companies that offer marketing promos. By marketing promos, I mean written content marketing, videos, social media posts and podcasts that are developed with the primary intention of driving traffic.

Some ways that these companies drive traffic include:

• Creating dozens (if not hundreds) of blog sites
• Publishing hundreds of articles or blog posts a day
• Starting dozens of podcasts and embedding them on high traffic blog directories
• Posting comments on high traffic media outlets
• Designing dozens of social media pages across a wide range of social media platforms
• Sending out hundreds of social media posts daily, often dozens of times an hour using social media automated marketing tools
• Building dozens of websites around specific branded themes
• Establishing their own subject specific snail and email contact lists
• Interviewing on high traffic online and offline radio and television stations
• Running low cost targeted ads on media platforms that put them in front of the very people who are most likely to find value (feel that they need) marketing promos

Consistently engage in the above actions yourself, and you’ll see an increase in traffic at your website, blog, podcasts and social media pages. You’ll also spend a lot of time on marketing, leaving you less time to devote to product and sales development.

Make sure that marketing promos lead to sales

Which is where companies that provide marketing promos come in. If you’re still reading this article, you’re probably looking for new ways to generate website, social media or podcasts traffic. But, think about it.

That’s not what you really want. You don’t just want more traffic. The goal is to gain more sales.

You didn’t go into business and come online to give yourself an ego boost. Profits and growing revenues are key.

If you’re not careful, this same intention could make you look like a sucker. How?

Who’s zooming who?

While it’s often a fact that companies that provide marketing promos engage in several, if not all, of the aforementioned actions, it’s not necessarily the case that those actions lead to increased sales for you. Think about it.

If the same several hundred or thousand people have a footprint at a marketing promos company’s blogs, websites, podcasts, newsletters and social media accounts, and these same people are clicking on links that lead to the company’s customer sites, it’s highly unlikely that these people are really paying attention to what they are clicking on. It’s like asking a thousand people to click on 300 links a day.

Facing marketing facts

How much attention do you think those sites are really getting?

Worse is the fact that some marketing promos companies use bots to drive traffic. It’s reached the point where entrepreneurs with minimal marketing experience suspect bots are used as part of marketing efforts.

Thing is that bots may drive tons of traffic to your sites, but that traffic is not included in organic traffic stats. So, how do you know if marketing promos are working?

Signs that marketing promos are effective

Signs that marketing promos may be working start with sales. Don’t just rely on analytics that marketing companies provide. Are you getting more sales since you started a marking campaign?

If the sales related to the marketing campaign continued at their present rate (i.e. 50 sales a week), does it make sense to continue the campaign? Also:

• • Do you see an increase in video channel subscriptions or do you only see an increase in traffic to a particular video that you’re promoting through a marketing company? If people are really interested in the video, you should see an increase in channel subscriptions.
  • Are the numbers of your newsletter subscriptions going up?
  • Is the amount of engagement at your electronic newsletters and other forms of direct mail improving? Examples of improvement in this area include more clicks on links that you embed in your newsletters and an increased number of newsletter shares.
  • Are influencers in your industry reaching out to you with interview or commentary requests?
  • Is your company website experiencing more clicks and are visitors staying at your website longer, checking out more pages, products and services that you offer?
  • When you compare month-over-month and year-over-year visitor analytics for your business, have one or both sets of numbers improved since you started the marketing promos?

More signs that marketing promos are effective

• Has traffic to other areas where you have an online presence gone up? When people are truly interested in what you offer, they search for more information on you or your business. They want to know more about you.

Traffic alone isn’t enough to tell if marketing promos are working. Consider the type of traffic that a marketing campaign is generating. Is it bot or organic traffic? Are the people who are visiting your links through a marketing campaign employees of the marketing firm? Or are these people really interested in your products and services?


The top sign that marketing promos are working is an increase in sales that’s directly linked to the marketing campaign. Other signs include deeper consumer engagement. Again, examples of deeper consumer engagement are more people clicking on newsletter links, more shares and social media questions and comments.