Getting Traffic To Your Site — How Do You Determine What’s The Right Strategy For You?
Topics: Traffic, web site traffic, online traffic web site writing, marketing, small business marketing stra
So you’re looking for more traffic or visitors to your site. How do you determine the right strategy for you?
Below are some questions to ask yourself so you can put together what’s right for your specific business.
1. Do you need traffic now (or sooner yet, like yesterday)? If you need immediate traffic then the choice is easy. Start running pay-per-click ads. That’s the fastest way to get traffic to your site. (Those are the ads that show up on the right-hand side when you do searche.)
If, however, you can wait for traffic, then you might want to consider doing some warm traffic strategies, such as Web 2.0 tactics (blogs, articles, press releases, social networking sites, podcasts, etc.) The good things about those tactics is they’re either free or low-cost. They also bring warm leads and visitors to your site (unlike the pay-per-click, which brings you colder leads, more about that later). But they do take time, both time to see results and time for you to set them up. So that’s why if you need traffic now, then you need to go the paid route.
However, you can do a combination of paid and unpaid — paid traffic until the other, warmer, low-cost and free traffic strategies kick in.
2. Are you selling something relatively complicated, such as services or information products, or is it something easy to understand, like a toaster? If you’re selling services or products that need a certain amount of explaining, then you may want to do more of the free and low-cost methods. Why? Because many of the free and low-cost methods are based on either information or building relationships (or both). You want your visitors to be interested in what you have to sell and interested in working with YOU. That will make the buying process go much smoother. A little 3-line pay-per-click ad can’t do all of that.
However, if you’re selling something like toasters, pay-per-click works well. Why? Because people already know what a toaster is, know they want to buy one, and all they’re looking for is the right model at the right price. That’s easy to get across in a pay-per-click ad.
3. Are you a master at writing copy that gets people to buy and converting visitors to customers? Okay, clearly this is key no matter how you’re getting visitors to your site. But consider this — pay-per-click traffic is pretty cold. What I mean by cold is these are people who don’t know you at all. They’re responding to an ad they see in a search engine (not even on a Web site or a publication they read), and it’s a very short ad at that. They have no idea who you are, what you’re selling, if you’re any good at what you do, if you’re credible and if your product or service will do what you say it does.
Therefore, when these cold visitors end up on your site, you have a lot of work to do on that page. You have to not only get them to know, like and trust you (at least enough so at the very least you get an email address out of the encounter) plus you have to prove to them that the product or service you’re selling is going to solve their problems.
This isn’t easy. Even for people who are professionals at it. So if this isn’t something you’re an absolute master at, I would say either think twice about doing it or hire someone who is a master to help you out.
Now, consider this scenario. If you have people coming to your site who already have some idea who you are, like what they hear and are interested in finding out more, then your job to turn them into paying customers just got a whole lot easier. Warm visitors, or a warm list of prospects, will respond much more favorably to your sales messages. They’re also more forgiving. The sales letters may not have to be absolutely perfect for you to get a decent conversion rate. That’s because they already know, like and trust you (and people buy from those they know, like and trust) so all you have to do is match what you’re selling to their needs.
Now, here’s one more thing to consider. Even people who are masters at the pay-per-click and master converters still incorporate other traffic strategies into their marketing. Why? Because it’s a smart thing to do. First of all, they’ll end up making more money overall because all these tactics work well together. (And if they have a sales letter that has a high conversion with cold prospects, conversion rates should be that much higher when the prospects are warm.) Plus, it’s also never a wise idea to put all your eggs in one basket. You should diversify your traffic methods whenever possible. After all, you never know when one avenue is going to disappear, and if all your traffic is based on that one tactic, then you’re entire business is at stake.
That said, I don’t want any of you to panic because you don’t have a variety of traffic strategies in place yet. Instead, pick one traffic tactic to focus on (use the above questions to get some idea on what that should be). Once you get that one down, pick a second one. And so on. Before you know it, you’ll have lots of traffic swarming to your site.
Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) helps people become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her site at www.michelepw.com.
Previous Articles Highlighter:
Professional Website Design Company (1)
Stephen C Campbell (MBA, MSc, MCIM) is a business consultant who has conducted business throughout Europe, Far East & U.S. He specialises in helping businesses use the new technologies as a part of their business strategies.
Press Releases - Building Links And Traffic Effectively (2)
While it is possible to do a free press release dont expect a lot of attention for it. On the web you get what you pay for, for $250-$375 you can a lot more exposure.
Google Snatch Giving You The Edge (3)
Getting a listing in google can take months by leaving it to chance.Go out there and learn a little bit about making your site more appealing to search engines by providing them with the information they want.A lot of it is to do with the way your site has links from other sites allowing googles spidering software a pathway to your site.The more times google visits your site via links,the higher your site will rank in the search engines.Give it a try.The goal posts have been moved.
Website Design And Hosting Companies (4)
You can basically acquire a good deal on services by inviting a web site design and hosting company that will manage all of your website design and hosting needs. You can also have an economical package yet can have an excellent service through this companies.
Your Internet Success System ©2001 Chris Ellsworth (5)
4. Sift and Sort for Success Few things are more frustrating that going to the time and expense of finding a prospective customer, answering their questions, sending them follow up messages and more only to discover they are really some 13 year old kid on their Mom's computer who has nothing better to do than waste your time.
How Your Website Can Attract The Right Clients For Your Practice (6)
Download 2 Free Reports: 10 Tips to Sell Your Ebook on The Internet and 7 Secrets of Websites That Really Attract Clients at www.copy-cat-copywriting.com Cathy Goodwin, content strategist and copywriter.
Marketing Your Services - Is Cheap Always Good? (7)
Keywords: internet-marketing-strategies, online-marketing-strategies, online-marketing-tips Breaking into the Internet Marketing scene can be tough for the beginner. Many people have solid relationships with their service providers and are not going to switch, ever.
The Pros And Cons Of Publishing Your Ezine (8)
Topics: ezine-advertising, ezine-marketing There are several advantages publishing your own eZine can offer to you. Thus if the pros appeal to you, then publishing your own paperless newsletter can be ideal for you.
Exclusive: ProBlogging 101 (9)
Health blog - on specific health issues. Medical blog is a major category of health blog that features medical news from health care professionals and/or actual patient cases. 5.
How You Can Avoid A Quick Departure From An Online Business (10)
If you don't properly research the market and your industry, you are giving your competition a head start. One thing you will find with running an online business is that there is never enough time to do everything.
The #1 Reason Your Home Business Is Failing (11)
Network marketing has taken a completely different form. It's a new day and for the people who don't jump aboard, and figure it out, they will find themselves swimming in circles!
Revealed! Why You Should Set Huge Goals For Your Business (12)
Think "huge" and you will achieve "huge" results. When I started my first internet business, even though I had never done it before and had no idea how to do it, my goal was to eventually make a million dollars a month income.
Your Work At Home Business Can Benefit From The Social Bookmarking (13)
By tagging the system creates new niches, especially because also emails and multimedia can be tagged. If a work at home business owner really wants to expand his presence in the Net, the social bookmarking is the system.
One Way Text Links How To Choose The Right One (14)
If you're building a natural linking profile and you're consistent in your efforts, you'll move up in the search engines. It may take time, but once you get established, the backlinks you get to your site will carry more weight.
Improving Your Business With Craigslist (15)
Craigslist enjoys the extensive traffic of nearly ten million visitors, while generating four billion page views each month, this means it is already internet traffic driven website and an asset.
5 Work At Home Business Backlink Builders (16)
Join The Bloggers Groups. The big search engines have a lot of special groups, where you can join with your work at home business blog. By writing some quality post you can get traffic to the blog and some backlinks.
5 Work At Home Business Start Up Steps (17)
The feelings are very important in the selection process. It is also important to make sure that a candidate program has enough respected, proven marketers as affiliates. 3.
Work At Home Data Entry Jobs Online: 2 Ways To Make Money (18)
Write articles that are relevant to your market group and submit them to article directories. This ensures traffic to your website (supplied by the affiliate program) which increases your chances of sales.
8 Strategies To Promote Your Work At Home Typing Business On A Budget (19)
Do not ask big companies; you will be competing with existing staff and employment agencies. Also, avoid IT businesses. They are IT literate and mostly likely will not need your services.
Online Directories For Online Dollars (20)
The first step of submission, therefore, is determining just the right category and subcategory for the Website - the one that will best help its Website promotion. A business owner can either keyword search the directories, using keywords that best describe their own site, or simply browse through the directory.
Newer Articles Highlighter:
Making Money Blogging With An Affiliate Blog (1)
Connect easily with other bloggers. When other bloggers notice that you have something good in your blog, they will put you in their favorites list and automatically link your blog to theirs.
Why Starting An Online Home Business Can Be Both Fun And Profitable (2)
Just make sure whatever you decide to sell is fun and interesting to you. The minute it feels like work you will not want to stick with it. 2.
Build Your Business Advertizing For Free (3)
By this the response will be huge and most of them will purchase something or the other to avail the free offer. The basic ingredient for advertising for free is imagination and research.
Five Methods Of Cold Calling Success (4)
You will want to make sure that you do everything you can to make this work by showing kindness, understanding, and appreciation towards the customers. The customers are how you make your pay and you need to show them some respect, even when they are not showing you the respect that you deserve.
5 Killer Online Home Business Tips For A Newbie (5)
No, no and no! It is very practical tool by which you try to reach the targets. A newbie must prepare a strategy, he can do the corrections later, but it is important to start thinking strategically right in the start.
Your Online Home Business Needs An Effective About The Author Box To Make Money On The Internet (6)
They all seem to be small, but believe me, they are important: 1.The Online Home Business About The Author Box Uses HTML Or Plain Text. The choice between these two depends on the requirements of the article directories, where your submitter sends your article.
Marketing Through E-mail (7)
Software is also available in the market that does this job too. When the customer fills the form for the first time, there are check boxes to be ticked which reflects their interests.
The Secret To Creating Wealth Through Affiliate Marketing (8)
This is called a residual income and this, my friend, is what I call earning smart money. Residual income, also known as passive income, is income that continues to be generated after the sales effort has been expended, this compared to a linear income ( a wage or one time commission) is a more effective way to make money online and the true secret to creating wealth.
Join Affiliate Programs - 15 Reasons Why? (9)
Low risk Offline businesses are frightening due to the major risk you take when you invest in a product. No other business lets you dump unprofitable products faster and easier than affiliate marketing.
Pay Per Click To Boost Your Income (10)
Without a profitable niche and negative keywords, you risk losing your money. Effective keyword research is one of the most important processes for assuring your success with PPC. Design Your Landing Page for Success - Make sure the ad copy on your landing page is hard-hitting, so that you can convert those costly PPC prospects into paying customers.
Profiting From Blog And Website Traffic (11)
The new and fun hobby of blogging has become very entertaining only over the past year or so and has also just recently become a way for people to make a financial living.
5 Empty Claims About Internet Home Based Business (12)
Six Figure Income Is Waiting For You! During the early days of Internet, the media was full of talks about unlimited, global potential and around 20 year old internet millionaires, with their own jets etc.
Using A Public Relations Campaign To Build Your Business (13)
Business owners of companies that fail too often try to do everything themselves and soon become overwhelmed and stressed with all the necessary tasks that they must perform. You cannot take full responsibility for all the things that must be accomplished within the business, but instead you must have the ability and vision of allowing everyone to participate in the functions and affairs of the company.
How The Right Logo Can Help You Build Your Business (14)
People definitely notice colorful logos and pay more attention to them. Remember not to clutter too much information or lettering because this will decrease the visibility of logos. Often times designers make the logo too complicated to read or see and it becomes difficult for people to distinguish what it is.
Tips On Packaging Products (15)
Hiring someone who knows how to professionally design things and who has lots of experience in creating new and creative things is not a bad idea. The attractiveness of the packaging often comes from contrasting and bright colors, along with unique styles of fonts and writing.
Start Online Home Based Business Opportunity Using Affiliate Program (16)
the newbie can 100 % concentrate into learning the marketing tricks. 1.The Affiliate Program Is An Ideal Way To Start. That is true, because the proven and successful affiliate program has a system that works, so the ball is at the home business newbie, it is up to him whether his online home based business oportunity will succeed or not.To put it simple, the only thing a newbie needs are the mental tool.
Are You At Risk Of Getting Banned By Google? (17)
The following are a few suggestions that will help protect your web site from being deselected by Google. Do not publish web pages that have writing or links that are extremely small or invisible to visitors on the Internet because large, technologically advanced search engines like Google will be able to detect them.
Search Engine Traffic Will Help Your Internet Business Explode (18)
The titles and subtitles of the web pages should also be carefully written so that it will have a higher probability of being promoted by search engines. Court is an expert on strategic internet marketing.
Best Home Based Business Ideas To Keep Your Web Site Fresh? (19)
You can participate discussions there or just read the posts. You will also find out how similar other marketers` problems are and how small details really matter in this business.
Build An Interactive Online Home Based Business Opportunity Site (20)
The plan of the site must answer to the question: what makes this site to offer an added value to the visitor? Can this value be seen in the headline, is it in the first impression, which a visitor gets?
Permalink to Getting Traffic To Your Site — How Do You Determine What’s The Right Strategy For You?