Hey, it’s Miles here…
So, you have a business that wants to sell more online…
But getting traffic to come to your website is proving to be really difficult, complicated, competitive and lets be honest, overwhelming. Right?!
If you could just be told a simple concept to get started and working in the right direction, you would feel less overwhelmed. Sound good?
Well, as the owner of a digital marketing agency, it has been my mission to research and understand traffic on the internet, so I can better help people like you!
You’re right, understanding traffic, psychographics, demographics, target marketing and all of this complicated marketing terminology is overwhelming. But if we just take a step back and look at how we can get traffic to work for us, we can then start to dive deeper into effective marketing strategies.
First, understand this concept about traffic –
There are three forms of traffic:
- Traffic you control;
- Traffic you do not control; and
- Traffic you own.
Traffic you control
Lets use an example. You pay Facebook $1 in advertising to promote your message. In return for that $1, Facebook have one person click on your ad, taking them to your website with the hope that the person may purchase your product.
You are in control of this traffic. It’s a pay for traffic scenario – the more you pay, technically the more traffic you receive to your website as a result.
Now, just having someone go to your website doesn’t guarantee that person will buy a product. But that’s a story for another article. The main key is that you are getting traffic to your website, and Facebook advertising is certainly an efficient, cost effective way to drive traffic to your website. I would highly recommend doing some research or consulting a professional about your Facebook ad strategy if you have not already.
Traffic you do not control
Let’s say Billy runs a blog, and Billy really likes you product…
So Billy buys your product, decides to write about it on his blog, and one of Billy’s blog readers likes his blog so much that they decide to go over to your website also and buy your product.
This is great! BUT, you don’t control this traffic. It just happens as a result of your product and service being great – and you caring about your customers!
The more you care about your customers, the more they will be compelled to tell others. This is a marketing strategy that should never be overlooked, as all it takes sometimes is some basic business processes, a smile and a good attitude.
Traffic you own
Now, let’s be honest, organic traffic (non-paid for traffic) is becoming harder to drive, and advertising is becoming more expensive. Not like “off-line marketing” expensive. But it’s still going up – so we need to start developing strategies that accompany this price increase.
In my opinion, the best form of traffic is the traffic you own. Let me explain…
You know what email is, and you would have a contact list via previous email communication… Well, that’s traffic you own. Email lists.
I’m sure you have seen all of those social media posts of people offering free products or downloads in return for your email information. Well they own that traffic now – and they can choose to communicate to you and others “directly” from that mailing list as often as they want.
A general and well known marketing principal is that one person in your mailing list will equal one dollar of sales per month:
1 person = $1 p/month
So, that means if you have 1000 people in your list, you should be able to generate $1000 in sales per month. You have complete control over this – and you already know these people like what you do, what your product is and are warm to it! See where I am getting at?
A lot of digital marketers will tell their clients that if they want to be successful in the digital world, they need to be across all platforms (email, social media etc). I do not necessarily agree for the majority…
For the majority of businesses, I suggest focussing on TWO platforms to drive your online business – and email marketing is ONE of them…
Crux of the story is, why focus on things out of your control. Focus on building a funnel of customers you can directly market to on a regular basis, understand them, what they want and how they react to your sales messages, and then duplicate that process with the goal of obtaining more traffic you own via traffic you control.
Now, go to MailChimp and start building your own mailing list, and learn how to use it!
Feel less overwhelmed? I hope so.
If not, contact me and i’ll be happy to explain further.
Next time, i’ll let you know about what strategies I have used to help clients generate hundreds of thousands in sales with a few clicks on the internet.
Yours truly,
Miles Muecke
