Now that you’ve made the decision to put your site online, you also should start thinking of just how you are going to get traffic to it. After all, having really great business cards and/or brochures won’t do you any good if you don’t get it into the hands of your prospect… your target audience. Likewise, having a great site will do little good if we 1) don’t know about it or 2) can’t get people to it. There are a number of strategies that may be employed to drive traffic to a site. Each, of course, has their own representative costs. Some of these strategies include:
- Affiliate Programs
- Pay-per-Click, Pay-for-Lead & Revenue-Sharing programs
- Requires a quality product and excellent customer service
- No immediate payback… will take 6mo to a year
- Must have a high visitor to sales conversion ratio
- E-mail Marketing
- Purchase ‘harvested’ email addresses
- Search Engine Optimization
- Search Engine Submission campaign
- Pay-per-Click / Pay for Performance / Pay for Position options
- Viral Marketing
- Any strategy that encourages people to pass on YOUR marketing message to
- Branding
- Branding has power. Real power. Measurable Power.
- It is all about having a CLEAR VISION… and communicating it to the customer
- CRM
- Focus of business IS the customer… not any customer, but each customer
- Opt-in Newsletters
- These work great, but ONLY once you get them to the site
Of course, driving traffic to the site is only part of the story. A key to success is driving REPEAT traffic to the site.
THE ONLY VISITOR THAT COUNTS IS A REPEAT VISITOR
Why? An old advertising proverb declared: “Six times and they’re sold!” Here’s the theory behind that statement: “To make a sale you need to get your marketing presentation in front of a prospect at least six times.” This is why the cost of sales can be so high. You need to send out that mailer several times before your message sinks in… you have to make repeated calls before they buy your product or service. In other words, it is rare to convert the prospect into a customer on the first time they get your literature package OR on the first visit to your site.
Here are a few more things to consider…. Over 95% of the web searching is accomplished via the 8-10 major search engines. This is why getting in them is sooooo important. However, recent studies indicate that nearly 65% of the internet users arrived at a site by direct navigation. By ‘direct navigation’, we mean either typing the URL in OR using a bookmark.
So here’s the question(s): How do we create a site memorable enough to be a ‘bookmark’? How do we create a site that will motivate people to keep coming back. How do we get the web searcher to become a REPEAT VISITOR (and ultimately a consumer)?
That can be more simple than it sounds! Even if you are a business that sells to other businesses, it still breaks down to a common denominator of people selling to people. And here’s the answer in a nutshell: Offer people a reason to come back and they will! Now… there’s a novel, ground-breaking idea! If you didn’t go into business in a vacuum, you’re probably offering a product or service that people have identified that they want, could use, etc. So, doesn’t it make sense to provide them the information they feel they need to make a decision AND the vehicle to get to that information?
So what do these people want? Here is a brief, partial list of things that PEOPLE WANT in life. If your site includes fresh and interactive content that addresses these WANTS, then they will keep coming back to your site.
- People want to know how to make money.
- People want to find ways to win money.
- People want to learn how to save money.
- People want to lose weight.
- People want to look better.
- People want to feel better.
- People want to have a better sex life.
- People want to have a happier home life.
- People want to have more knowledge.
- People want to help others.
- People want to experience personal success in life.
- People want to develop friendships.
You’re getting the point, right?
So — how do you begin to address these, or similar, WANTS on your site in order to attract REPEAT VISITORS? Here are just three such ideas:
- PROVIDE CONTENT that the customer finds useful
- ADD A DISCUSSION AREA to promote customer dialog amongst themselves and with you/your people
- CONDUCT CONTESTS to get the customer involved/incented to use your product/service
A recent survey from a major search engine asked how people used the Internet. The overwhelming response was that people used it for research–to get more information about a topic of interest.
Now ask yourselves two questions!
- What is the niche of your product/service and of your web site?
- How can you educate people about that subject?
And isn’t that more useful than hundreds of banners, buttons, and flashing links?
Remember that the key to your success is not to get them to just come to your site — but to come back. If they don’t come back, you won’t make the sale!
