What Impact Does Web Traffic Have on My Sales? (in other words, why should I care?)
For the old time marketer fifty or sixty years ago, driving traffic to their website wasn’t an issue. The Internet hadn’t even been invented yet, much last become a driving power in the marketing game. The times, they are a ‘changin.’ Even if you run an offline store you’re going to at some point need to establish an online presence for yourself and your company.
Of course, it’s not enough to just be on the Internet. Anyone with ten or fifteen minutes to spare can set up a webpage. Any substandard, out of your basement company (which is where a lot of the big names got started!) can establish a web presence. The difference between a company that makes a profit on the Internet and One that closes its doors in a week or two is the amount of traffic you are able to drive to your website. Location, Location, Location!
Think about it. If you were going to pick a location for an offline store, where would you build it? Would you build it out in the middle of nowhere, where no one but the locals would know it was there? Or would you build it near a major road, possibly in a commercial district with other businesses, where several hundred cars would drive by and see you every single day?
You’re probably looking at that question and thinking, “Do you think I’m stupid? Everyone knows you build a business where you’re going to get the most traffic.” That’s my point exactly. Any successful business needs to grow where it will receive the most traffic. Why? Because more traffic in a day means more people, and more people means more potential customers. If no one knows you’re there, no one can come to your location.
For some reason many of the most brilliant business minds of our time completely miss this one basic fact. They think that all they have to do is build a webpage and people will come. They don’t pay attention to things like marketing, or domain name, or building their webpage in a way that will bring it to the attention of the search engines. They build a website with no regard to any of these things, then sit back and wonder why their profits aren’t growing.
Their profits don’t grow because no one can find them, and because no one can find them they don’t get enough traffic. Online success, like offline success, depends on making your business as accessible as possible. How do you do that? Through successful marketing. A properly marketed website will receive hundreds or even thousands of visitors a week, which is more than the average small town Radio Shack.
What Do I Need to Know?
So what do you need to know to increase your web traffic (and your sales along with it)? You need to learn the secrets that marketers have been using for years to drive traffic to their site. Believe it or not, it’s not hard. In fact, the only thing that makes it a secret is that, like most secrets, you have to expend some time and effort to learn them!
That means that anyone, whether they have a Bachelor’s in Marketing or are still in high school, can increase their website traffic. So if you’re sitting here reading this book and thinking, “I’m never going to be able to do that”, think again! All you need to do is learn how, which is what I’m going to spend the next hour or two teaching you. By the time I’m done you might now know everything there is to know about Internet marketing and creating an impressive web presence, but you’ll have the tools you need to increase your web traffic and prepare yourself for a great future out on the web.
The Real Secret of Internet Marketing
So what is the real secret of Internet marketing? The secret is to make your site as easy to find as possible. How do you do that? By plastering your URL all over the web. The thing consumers notice the most is the one they stumble over every time they walk out their front door-or in your case, every time they log on to the web.
Ideally you’re going to be attempting to maximize your exposure to a certain group of people-the kind that are going to be interested in what you have to offer. That group is called your target audience, and we’ll get into them in a few minutes. For now it’s enough to know that when you’re trying to make your site accessible, it’s them you’re trying to make it accessible to.
That means that you’re going to have to make sure your site (or in this case, your site URL) is in a place where they’re going to be able to find it. Generalized marketing isn’t going to do you a whole lot of good when you’re working with a potential customer base of millions of people. You’re going to have to get your message out where it counts right from the very beginning.
Identifying Your Target Audience
How do you identify your target audience? Ideally you should just be able to think of who you want to use your product. Are you manufacturing a line of books and educational videos for children? Parents are your target audience. Selling formal evening wear? You’re catering to the upper crust of the professional world. (Since most of us never get a chance to wear formal evening wear after our senior prom…) Women’s clothing? Right. You’re catering to women.
As we did with the evening wear, it’s also good to consider whether your consumer base is going to be income restricted. This will help to dictate the places you want to advertise. There are some sites that the average, non-professional, low income individual simply isn’t going to visit. If this is your demographic group of customers you’re going to waste time by advertising on these sites. On the other hand, most young, urban professionals aren’t going to have a great deal of interest in visiting sites designed to assist and cater to the low-income class. Keep this in mind when you’re choosing where to spend your marketing dollars.
Picking Your Angle
Once you’ve identified your target audience your next step is to pick your angle, or “hook”. Like a worm on a hook, your angle is going to be the way you portray your product that will grab the attention of your target audience. For an example of effective marketing angles, check the list below:
-Entrepreneur Magazine – “10 Low Cost Businesses You Can Start”
-TheTotalTransformation – “Simple Parenting Techniques that Tame Difficult Kids”
-FireYourFat.com – “Lose 1 Jean Size Every 7 Days!”
-GetExtremeMakeover – “Win a Extreme Makeover. Change your life!”
-Work-From-Home – “Learn to Earn 5K+ a Month Part Time”
Do you even have to ask who their target audience is? Each of these companies has carefully created a hook that is going to draw in their target audience without any additional effort on their part. That’s exactly what you need to do.
So if you aren’t a professional marketer, and you don’t have an entire staff of them at your disposal, how can you come up with the kind of hook that is going to draw your target audience? Just ask yourself, “What does this product do for them?” What is it that they are going to accomplish by using your product or services? What do they want from you?
That’s the real secret to identifying what will attract your target audience is recognizing what they want from you. If they believe you can give them what they want, you’re going to instantly have their attention. Just make your hook the thing that they want the most from you and you’ll be on the fast track to increasing your web traffic in no time!
Cheers,
Author: Noel Wu
Source: ezinearticles.com
admin