Chapter 16
The Scoop on Traffic Generation and Conversion
In This Chapter
• Attracting potential customers to your website and motivating them to buy
• Creating a compelling offer
• Getting customers to buy again and tell others about your website
To promote your web-based business effectively, you must understand how to attract lots of visitors to your website, and then motivate them to place orders for your products or services, or click on your affiliate advertisements. In Internet marketing lingo, these activities are commonly referred to as traffic generation and conversion. In order for your web-based business to be successful and profitable, you need to be savvy at both.
The Two Things Your Marketing Must Do
In the movie Field of Dreams, the main character is haunted by a voice that repeatedly says, “If you build it, they will come.” Trusting that this is part of fate’s plan for his life, he plows under a thriving cornfield and builds a baseball diamond. (The night lights alone must have cost him a fortune!)
Here in the real world of online marketing, that kind of wishful thinking simply doesn’t work. Just because you build a great website doesn’t necessarily mean people will find out about it, visit, and buy something. In fact, the chances are astronomical that your website will just sit there in cyberspace and not make you a dime.
Building a website is just the first step. You have to promote your web-based business in order to attract lots of potential customers to your virtual doorstep.
And even when you do, you’ve only done half the job. Getting hundreds or even thousands of visitors each month is wonderful. But you still have to convince them—through your well-organized website, compelling content, and persuasive sales copy—to click on an advertisement or place an order. If they don’t do that, you won’t make any money.
When you think of marketing your web-based business, there are two things you have to learn how to do very well:
• Generate traffic
• Get conversions
Traffic refers to the number of visitors who come to your site during a specific period of time. Some of these people might be new visitors, while others will be making their second, third, or perhaps twentieth visit. Think of traffic as people coming into a traditional retail store. The more people that do, the more potential sales you can make.
Traffic is often measured by the number of visitors during a specific day, week, or month. For example, there were 3,700 visitors to ForCopywritersOnly.com in July.
Conversion is the number of visitors that sign up for something on your website (such as a newsletter), or click on an affiliate link or advertisement, or buy something from you. It’s like people in a retail store selecting an item and then walking up to the checkout to pay for it.
Conversion is often measured by percentage; that number is called the conversion rate.
def•i•ni•tion
Conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who do the action you want them to do while on your website. There may be several such actions that you track. For example, if 28 out of 100 first-time visitors sign up for your newsletter, then the conversion rate of that action, “new visitor/newsletter sign up,” is 28 percent. If 7 percent of people who visit a particular product page on your website place an order, then that percentage is the “product page/order” conversion rate.
Which is more important? Driving lots of targeted traffic to your website? Or getting high conversion rates?
The answer, of course, is both. You need to reach out to lots of potential customers and motivate them to drop by and visit your website. Once those people are on your site, however, you have to motivate them to take the actions you want them to take, which is usually clicking on affiliate ads so you can earn a commission, or placing an order for your product or service so you can make a profit.
Don’t make the mistake that so many web-based business owners make and focus primarily on getting traffic. Traffic generation and conversion are the two pillars that hold your website up. If one crumbles, the whole thing comes tumbling to the ground.
Want Lots of Traffic? Think Small
A budding online entrepreneur once called me to ask how to promote her new web-based business. “I’m think of placing a few ads in the local business paper,” she said. “What do you think?”
Frankly, I thought it would be a waste of money. Her website provides training and resources to human resource professionals. How many of those can she realistically expect to reach in a local general business publication? “Why not advertise instead in the newsletter of the HR Professionals Association?” I suggested. “That way you can count on almost 100 percent of the readers to be in your target market.”
Even though placing an ad in that newsletter was a bit more expensive, she ended up generating a lot more visitors to her website—all HR professionals who had a high likelihood of being interested in her products and services.
By thinking small, and focusing her efforts on a smaller more targeted group of potential customers, she was able to get much better results with her marketing and more (and better) traffic to her site.
That’s the key to traffic generation.
Don’t attempt to promote your site to everyone. As a small business owner, you can’t afford mass advertising and major publicity campaigns. Even if you could, it is probably not the best approach to marketing your business. Think small. Focus your efforts on targeted sources of potential customers, like my friend did with the HR newsletter ad.
Think about it—which marketing tactic do you think would work better for your knitting patterns website? An advertisement in a publication targeting 50,000 stay-at-home moms? Or that same ad in a targeted e-mail newsletter that is sent to 6,000 knitting enthusiasts? If you picked number two, you’re right.
That’s the first rule of successful traffic generation. Think small. Don’t mass market. Instead, focus on those targeted pools of potential customers that you can easily reach and persuade to visit your website. You’ll get much more bang for your marketing buck if you do.
Finding Your Pools of Potential Customers
In the previous section, I used the phrase “pools of potential customers.” What do I mean by that? I’m referring to those places where you can easily reach out to the right kind of people and tell them about your website.
Say, for example, you want to attract coffee lovers to your website … a site that sells coffee beans and equipment. There are probably dozens of blogs that target that audience. There may be an online forum or other club online where those caffeine addicts hang out. There may even be a trade show exclusively for coffee lovers, similar to the popular wine and cheese shows. Those would all be examples of pools of potential customers.
When creating a plan for generating traffic to your site, you need to identify as many pools of potential customers as possible. These may include publications, forums, associations, blogs, radio shows, events, and more. Once you have this list, you’re one step closer to persuading these people to visit your website.
Let’s take a closer look at how to find these pools.
What Are Your Prospects Reading, Watching, and Listening To?
If your potential customers are knitting enthusiasts, then chances are there are many publications they read to get information on this topic. There may also be popular websites and blogs they frequent. There might even be a radio show for knitters!
To find your pools of potential customers, find out what they’re reading, watching, and listening to.
How do you use this information in your marketing? You can use articles, press releases, and other publicity strategies (see Chapter 18) to get your site featured in a targeted publication or broadcast. You can also advertise in it.
Where Are Your Prospects Gathering?
Is there an annual trade show for knitters? Is there an online forum where the knitters hang out and chat? Is there a local knitting club? Find out!
The places, online and offline, where your potential customers hang out provide you with many opportunities to promote your website. For example, if there is a knitting forum, then you can participate in the discussions, answer questions, and provide helpful advice. The group will come to know you and your website very quickly.
My participation in one forum, a discussion group for corporate writers, is responsible for tens of thousands of dollars in sales for my web-based business over the past two years. And I only participate in that group 15 to 20 minutes per week.
Finding gathering places can also lead to speaking opportunities, which can also drive a lot of potential customers to your website. (See Chapter 20 for more on this.)
What Are Your Potential Customers Searching for Online?
Perhaps the ultimate pool of potential customers is the search engines.
You can use keyword tools (see Chapter 17) to find out how many people are searching for terms related to your website offerings, and then use search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, and perhaps also search engine advertising, to help those people find your website.
In addition, keywords help you understand your customers better so you can create more appealing offers that drive more traffic and increase sales.
For example, say you discover that there are more than 100,000 searches for the keywords “free knitting patterns” each month. Obviously a lot of people are actively searching for sites that have free patterns available. So here’s what you do. You create a “Free Knitting Pattern of the Week” program and promote it. Potentially thousands of people will sign up—many of whom will probably purchase your more expensive patterns later on.
Top Strategies for Generating Traffic
There are dozens of marketing tactics you can use to generate traffic to your website. You should explore as many options as possible to determine which strategies are the right fit for you, given your goals, personality, and budget.
Success Tip
Fit is very important. You don’t want to sink time and money into a marketing tactic that may not work well for you. For example, networking at live events can be an effective way to promote your website. But if you’re uncomfortable in social business situations—if you’re not an effective schmoozer—then this marketing strategy probably won’t get you too far.
Here’s an example. Advertising can work quite well in driving traffic to your site, if you do it right. But this is an expensive marketing strategy and doesn’t always work. What if you only have a shoestring budget, sink all of it into a few ads, and end up generating a disappointingly low amount of traffic? Your business will have stopped before it got started.
Review the following top tactics for generating traffic, which are all explained in subsequent chapters in this section of the book. Then determine which ones are the best fit for you.
• Search engine marketing
• Articles
• Publicity
• Advertising
• Social media
• Direct mail
• Speaking
• Working with affiliates
• Networking
• Trade shows and other events
Most web-based business owners pick two or three marketing tactics that work well for them. It’s difficult, if not impossible, for the small business owner to do them all.
Developing Your Compelling Offer
Can you imagine trying to fish with a hook but no lure? Even if you’ve never gone anywhere near a fishing pole before, you can probably guess that you wouldn’t catch very many fish that way. As they say, you must bait your hook or you won’t hook your catch.
The same is true of marketing your web-based business. You need a good lure; something that you can use as a compelling offer to entice a lot of potential customers to visit your website.
A big mistake that many web-based business owners make is simply promoting the existence of their website without making any specific offer. “Shop for European shoes online at _______.com.” Sure, that approach can generate some interest. But people probably won’t visit the site unless they are actually shopping for shoes, or at least thinking about it, at that particular moment. And how many people are doing that right now?
You’ll generate a lot more traffic if you give people a reason to visit your website right away, whether they’re shopping for shoes or not. And that reason is your compelling offer.
def•i•ni•tion
In marketing lingo, an offer refers to the deal you are communicating to potential customers in your advertisement or other promotion. It’s basically a “do this and get that” proposition. For example, your offer could be “5 FREE Christmas knitting patterns when you visit _______.com.” In that case, you’re offering potential customers something free in exchange for dropping by your website.
For example, your marketing efforts could say, “Shop for European shoes online at ________.com and sign up for your 25 percent discount certificate.” Now you’ve given potential customers a great reason to drop by your site. They want that discount certificate!
I’ve worked with many web-based business owners who experienced huge surges in traffic simply because they added a compelling offer to their advertising and other promotions. You should do the same.
There are many types of compelling offers you can come up with to promote your website. Use your imagination. Think about what potential customers may want right now, and then create an offer that gives it to them. Here are a few ideas:
• Gift basket service. Compelling offer: Free express delivery certificate. Good for three months.
• Coaching service. Compelling offer: Sign up for a free one-hour coaching session.
• Information site for freelance copywriters. Compelling offer: Free 142-page copywriter’s success kit.
• Contact management software for real estate professionals. Compelling offer: Free 5-week trial.
• Website that sells premium coffee beans, supplies, and equipment. Compelling offer: Free coffee bean taster’s guide.
• Knitting patterns website. Compelling offer: Join our free knitting pattern of the week club.
• Website that sells industrial pumps. Compelling offer: Free pump purchasing checklist.
When it comes to generating traffic, never go fishing for potential customers without first baiting your hook—with a compelling offer. And, if possible, make it a free offer.
Turning Visitors Into Customers
Say a potential customer finds out about your website somehow. Perhaps they read about you on a blog, or noticed the compelling offer you made in an advertisement, or discovered you while doing a search on Google. Now they are on your website clicking and looking around. Will they place an order for one of your products or services? Or, if your site is supported by affiliate programs, will they click on an ad?
That depends on how persuasive your website is.
Your website must motivate visitors to take the actions you want them to take. That could be to sign up for your newsletter, click on an ad or other link, or buy something. As I described earlier in this chapter, this activity is called conversion. And if your website doesn’t convert, then all the time and dollars you’ve spent to generate traffic will have been wasted.
How do you make your website convert well? To answer that question, put yourself in the shoes of a customer. When you visit a website, what is it that makes you want to stay, explore, and buy? Is it:
• The navigation bar and other features that make it easy for you to find what you need?
• The simple, uncluttered pages that are easy to read or skim?
• A compelling offer to sign up for, such as a free newsletter or how-to guide?
• The friendly, helpful tone of the web copy?
• All the great articles, tools, blogs, forums, and other free resources?
• The product pages that fully explain everything you need to know to make a buying decision?
• The testimonials from other customers that make you feel more comfortable in placing an order?
• The ease with which you can find the address, phone number, e-mail, and other contact information in case you have questions or need support?
• The payment options that make it convenient for you to place an order?
Probably all of the above!
So, in a way, there is no big secret to getting high conversion rates. Just use your common sense! However, there are a lot of tips and tricks that can help you boost conversion rates on your website pages, which are described in detail in Chapter 21.
Don’t Forget the 95 Percent Club!
There is a club that will visit your website every month. I call it the 95 percent club. They are a very interesting group of potential customers. You see, they check out your website; become interested in your products, services, or information; then leave without buying anything!
Of course, I’m using 95 percent as just an example. Your percentage of visitors in this club may be higher or lower. The point is, the overwhelming majority of first-time visitors who come to your site won’t place an order right away. That doesn’t mean they’re not interested in what you have to offer. They just need to get to know you first.
Warning!
According to many studies, the majority of customers will visit a website an average of five times before deciding to make a purchase on that site or click on one of its affiliate advertisements. So providing good reasons for your website visitors to keep coming back is vital to the success of your business.
How do you make that happen?
You need to get these visitors to sign up for something, so that you can continue to communicate with them.
Most websites offer an e-mail newsletter of some kind. You can also offer free information (packaged as a tip sheet, how-to guide, or special report), a free course taught as a series of e-mails, or some other creative approach to using e-mail to communicate with the 95 percent club—like the “Free knitting pattern of the week club” example I used earlier.
Getting people who don’t buy right away to sign up for something can dramatically increase your sales. It gives you an opportunity to build a relationship with them and gives them a chance to get to know you and your website better. I get the majority of my website sales from the 95 percent club.
Check out Chapter 22 for strategies on using e-mail in this way.
Cultivating Repeat Business and Word-of-Mouth
There is an old saying in the retail business. A customer will make you some money. A repeat customer will make you lots of money. A loyal customer, someone who buys from you again and again and tells friends and colleagues about you, will make you a fortune!
That’s the attitude you must have for your web-based business. If you’re looking for long-term success, and I’m guessing that you are, then you must think about marketing not just as getting traffic and conversions, but also in building a loyal base of customers for your website.
Think of your customers as a funnel, with the widest opening at the top and a narrow opening at the bottom. From top to bottom it will look like the following:
• Wide end of the funnel: Lots of website visitors come to your site for the first time. They are potential customers.
• Middle of the funnel: A percentage of those potential customers make a purchase or return to your website sometime in the future to do so. They become first-time customers.
• Middle of the funnel: A percentage of those first-time customers will return to your site to buy from you again and again. They become repeat customers.
• Bottom of the funnel: A percentage of those repeat customers continue to buy from you and also spread the word about your site to their friends and colleagues. They become loyal customers.
When marketing their websites, most business owners focus their efforts on the top of the funnel—basically on attracting visitors and motivating them to place an order. But even during the start-up phase, you need to be thinking about how you’re going to move customers down the funnel to become, hopefully, loyal advocates of your website.
Imagine how successful your business would be if you had a large number of customers you could count on to buy your products and services again and again, and recommend your site to others. I know many website owners who have just such a loyal customer base, and I can tell you, they are doing very, very well!
So how do you get customers to travel down the funnel?
The secret is simple—follow up.
When first-time visitors sign up for your e-mail newsletter, follow up with them a few weeks later to ask if they are enjoying the publication. Let them know about new articles, promotions, or other information that has been added to your website.
When a customer places an order, send a follow-up e-mail a few weeks later asking how they are enjoying the product. Let them know about similar products or add ons that they might be interested in. And don’t forget to thank them, again, for their original order.
Warning!
It’s a lot easier to get a customer to buy from your website again than it is to persuade someone new to make a first-time purchase. So if you’re not keeping in touch with your customers, you’re walking away from a lot of potential sales and profits. In fact, existing customers are your “hottest” market.
When you notice a customer buying from you repeatedly, ask if they would consider providing you with a testimonial. And if they do so, send them a handwritten thank-you card in the mail (not one of those free e-mail cards). I often enclose a $25 gift certificate from Starbucks or Barnes & Noble.
Ask “Where did you hear about us?” on your online order form. A lot of customers will answer that question. When you discover that someone was referred to your site from another customer, contact that person to thank them.
What you’re doing with all this diligent follow-up is gently prodding first-time customers to become repeat customers, and repeat customers to become loyal customers. And you’re doing so by not being a pest but simply by being appreciative and building the relationship.
Ultimately, all marketing—whether it’s to generate traffic, get conversions, or cultivate customer loyalty—is about building relationships. The better your marketing does that, the more effective it will be.
The Least You Need to Know
• Your marketing needs to accomplish two important things: generate traffic and get conversions.
• Create a compelling offer that entices potential customers to visit your website.
• Build great customer relationships. Satisfied customers buy again and tell others.
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