Traffic is the lifeblood of any business. Without it, you won’t have any visitors to your blog posts, videos, landing pages, sales pages etc.
In other words, no traffic equals no leads or sales, so it is an essential skill to muster.
You need to consider whether you want to use free or paid traffic, although nothing is really free, because organic traffic is time consuming, whereas paid traffic is instant, but you will need a budget to run enough paid ads to get any viable metrics that you can use.
Basically, before you jump in, you need to do some planning first. Read on to learn how to develop a solid website traffic strategy.
Before you start bringing traffic to your site, you’ll want to determine your overall goals. Specifically, what are your overall goals in terms of revenue and sales?
You need to figure this out first, and then in a moment, you’ll determine how much traffic you need to achieve your goals.
Note: these numbers need to be realistic. While you may want $10 million this year, that’s not realistic if you’re still new to online marketing. You may find a goal like $100,000 (and the traffic required to get to that number) more realistic.
Now that you have your overall goals, your next step is to work backwards to determine traffic and conversion specifics to achieve these goals.
Here are the questions you need to ask yourself:
The point is, don’t just pick a traffic goal out of thin air. Do some realistic calculations to determine how much traffic you need, minimally, to achieve your goals.
It’s a good idea to add at least 20% to your estimates as a cushion, as most people underestimate the traffic they need to obtain to achieve their goals.
Now that you know how much traffic you need, you can start setting specific traffic goals for the year as a whole, for each month, and even for each week.
Be sure your traffic goals include the following characteristics:
For example, “I want more traffic by the end of this month” is not specific nor measurable. Instead, you’d set a goal such as “I’d like to increase traffic by 25% this month.” (Naturally, you’d know what your baseline traffic number is, so that you know exactly how much traffic you need to reach the 25%.)
The next part of your planning is to determine where you’re going to send your traffic, and what you want this traffic to do when they arrive at the destination. Take note that you’ll likely send traffic to a variety of links, and you’ll want the traffic to do different things at each of these destinations.
Common destinations include:
And similar.
Be sure to create a specific plan for how much traffic you want to send to each destination. For example, you might send the majority of your traffic to a variety of relevant lead pages, and then send some traffic directly to sales pages.
As you’re creating ads and content to drive traffic, keep in mind that not all prospects are in the same place in their buyer’s journey. That means you need to create content that appeals to people in these three stages:
Next…
Another factor to take into consideration when developing your traffic strategy is what part of your sales funnel will you be promoting?
There are 3 main parts to a sales funnel, namely top, middle and bottom.
As the prospects move down the funnel, the numbers decrease, but their receptivity increases.
A basic funnel looks like this:
Not everyone is going to follow your sales funnel exactly. For example, some people may start by buying your core offer or even your backend offer.
As such, you need to consider your funnel and the path most people will take as you develop a traffic strategy (and how you’re going to allocate that traffic throughout your funnel).
You don’t necessarily want to send all your traffic to sales pages. In most cases, it’s wiser to send traffic to your lead pages.
That way, you can build your platform – and then use your email list to send your traffic wherever you want.
Before you start creating a traffic strategy, it’s a good idea to determine how much money you have to invest in this strategy. Primarily your investment will be put towards two things:
After you determine how much you can invest per month, then you’ll need to allocate these funds (e.g., X% to paid ads and Y% to outsourcing). The exact allocation depends on your needs and budget.
You don’t need to implement your traffic strategy yourself, as you can outsource all or part of it. For example, you can hire someone to:
And so on. The exact needs you have will depend on the traffic strategy you develop, but you’ll want to start thinking early on about what parts you might be interested in outsourcing.
If you have a limited outsourcing budget (as most of us do), then you’ll need to decide what to outsource. Consider these points:
Next…
There are multiple ways to find freelancers to help you with your traffic-generation activities. These methods include:
PeoplePerHour.com, Upwork.com, Freelancer.com,
Fiverr.com or similar.
Next…
Ultimately, you’re going to have plenty of traffic methods included in your overall traffic strategy. However, a big key to your success is to keep it simple.
Start with ONE traffic method. Study this traffic method so that you understand it. Implement the traffic method and refine your method as needed.
Once you’ve got one traffic method up, running and delivering results for you, then you can add another method. But don’t do this until your website traffic rankings are high enough to justify it.
You can use Google Analytics as a good free website traffic checker, although it can be a little complex due to the mountain of information you get!
So, to put it another way: focus on just one traffic method at a time.
Before advertising, you need to know everything you can about your ideal customer. That way, you can place ads in the right locations, you can select the right keywords and audiences for generating quality traffic, and you can create ads and content that really resonate with the targeted audience.
Here is the type of information to include in your customer avatar:
… And anything else you can dig up that will help you find and connect with your audience.
Here’s how to collect information on your audience:
Next…
Avoid these two common traffic mistakes:
#1, Using non-targeted advertising. Targeting narrower audiences often means you’ll get less traffic from a particular source, but that traffic will be more responsive than a broader audience. This usually results in a better ROI.
#2, Using little-known methods or platforms. For example, if you’re going to place a pay per click ad, then stick with well-known platforms (like Google Ads), as the big platforms combat costly click fraud.
So, you will now be hopefully be generating more traffic to your website, but now you will need to convert that traffic into either leads and/or buyers and we will cover that in another post here.
For your convenience, you can get all the tips mentioned in both posts in a single handy detailed report; just click on the featured resource below, download, read it and take action 🙂
We are living in the age of technology and information. The world is basically a global village thanks to different communication platforms such as social media sites and mobile telephony.
Affiliate marketing is a concept that has been built primarily on the platform of information communication and technology. What are some of its benefits?
To the entrepreneur, marketing costs are considered a necessary evil because they consume a lot of resources but still have to be incurred all the same. You can’t create brand awareness and increase the number of sales without properly investing in product marketing.
Affiliate marketing is even better at this because you only pay the affiliates or publishers depending on the number of sales made. Without creating conversions, the affiliates earn no pay and the business does not incur unnecessary expenses.
Using minimal resources, you can reach a high number of customers. The program is efficient because it makes use of the internet and social media sites that are frequented by several potential customers.
The traditional methods are expensive and may not even reach the target market. A consumer is more likely to notice an advertisement on the internet as opposed to other media such as billboards and radio.
It’s always nice to be your own boss. The challenge that most people and especially young people face is the lack of capital to start a new venture. Affiliate marketing does not need any premises or capital to start.
It is an ideal way to generate capital and also find your footing as you begin your journey to self-employment. It is also a perfect home-based business that can give you some good income.
Once you learn the basic concepts of affiliate marketing, you can succeed in it as long as you are willing to put in work and learn along the way.
You don’t have to possess experience to successfully participate in an affiliate program. There are a lot of resources available even on the internet to help you find your way through.
It is very difficult to determine the exact impact of most marketing campaigns but with the affiliate program, that is very much possible. A marketing team can keep track of the sales generated as a result of the marketing efforts and change strategies if the situation warrants it.
It is also possible to get instant feedback from customers and that helps so much in improving customer service by designing products and services that match their preferences.
These are some of the benefits of the affiliate marketing program that merchants, publishers and even customers can get to enjoy.
So, as you can see, affiliate marketing is an incredibly viable online business model and if you want to get started, then you need to start using your blog…
A blog is fairly easy to set up. The most important thing is usually the functionality. Will visitors find it easy to access the content that they need? Will they find the content useful? How easy is it to use the different icons available on the site?
These are some basic questions that one must ask before setting up a blog. It therefore calls for a user-friendly interface that can appeal to the different types of people that access your blog on a regular basis.
Over the last five years, blogs have become very popular. Not only have they given several aspiring content creators a platform to grow their talent, they are also a part of social media that makes communication and reaching of a target audience easier.
What are some of the principles to observe when using your blog to run affiliate marketing campaigns?
What sort of vibe will visitors receive when they first visit your blog? This is important because it sets the entire tone for subsequent engagements.
You therefore also have to focus on the design so that it’s attractive and user-friendly. Too many cluttered advertisements send the wrong signals to visitors. The first thing that will come to mind is that you are only after making money. Let the headlines and lists portray the blog as a place where visitors can actually find useful information.
It’s like building a relationship. It takes time and a little convincing. Create content that is useful to the customer before guiding them to an affiliate link. T
he information provided will be enough to build trust and convince them to take a look at what the blog is promoting. You should also make sure that the content created is tied to the product being promoted.
There is nothing more difficult to rebuild than trust once it’s lost. When customers click on the affiliate links and then end up buying the products, they are in actual sense buying your advice.
If their expectations are not met, you will be viewed as a liar who is only out to enrich himself or herself. Promote only genuine products on your blog, more so those that you have already used. You can try and describe them well and at the same time share your experience.
Do not fill your blog with adverts that will not bring you any meaningful income. Focus on brands and products that will give you reasonable commission.
After all, the reason why you are carrying out affiliate marketing on your blog is so that you can make some cash.
Such a page on your blog consists of useful links to products or websites that are related to your area of specialization. Visitors can find these links helpful and discover products that they were originally not looking for. It’s a win-win situation.
Follow these affiliate marketing tips, and you’ll be on the way to becoming a successful affiliate marketer in no time. And if you want to know more about affiliate marketing check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
If you’re going to build a list of subscribers and send emails to that list, then you need to select an email service provider.
The key here is that you must select a GOOD provider.
Otherwise, you’re going to have issues with poor deliverability, spam complaints, losing access to your list and more.
Let me make a quick note here. If you do a search for list managers or autoresponders, you’ll quickly discover that you have two options:
A lot of beginners look at option #2 and think it’s a good idea. One benefit is that it’s cheaper, as you generally just pay a fee for the script once, and it’s yours forever. Another benefit is that some folks like the idea of controlling all aspects of their list in any way they choose.
But despite these benefits, there’s one very big downside that trumps them all:
Deliverability.
In a nutshell, if you’re running your own list, then you’re going to spend an incredible amount of time working on deliverability issues.
The point is this lesson is about selecting a third-party email service provider because it’s the best, easiest and safest option for both beginners and seasoned marketers alike.
With that out of the way, let’s take a quick look at what benefits and features you should be seeking in an email service provider. Read on…
There are a lot of email service providers, but they don’t all offer the same level of service. That’s why you’ll want to make sure your provider offers the following:
Great Customer Service
No matter what features and benefits are available, you want to be sure to choose a reputable, well-established ESP (email service provider). The ESP should have multiple customer service options available (such as live chat, email and/or phone), and they should respond quickly.
You’ll also want to check when customer service is available. Is it 24/7? If not, are the available hours during your typical business hours?
Good Uptime
The next thing you want to check for is how often the ESP is up (or, conversely, how often it goes down). Ideally the ESP should communicate in a transparent way if an issue does arise.
For example, Aweber has a status page where you can always check the status and recent history: https://status.aweber.com/
A Focus on Deliverability
A good ESP will devote a significant portion of its staff and resources to deliverability issues. To that end, look for a company that monitors deliverability and works to improve it.
A good ESP will also include a built-in spam checker so that you can tweak your emails to avoid spam folders and filters.
If the company and its customer service look solid, then you can start reviewing the ESP’s features. Here’s what to look for:
See if Templates Are Available
Look for a company that provides both opt-in form templates and email templates. A good company will provide a variety of templates, plus these templates will be “point and click” customizable.
Check for Tracking Tools
Next, see if the ESP offers built-in testing and tracking tools. You should be able to check open rates and clickthrough rates which you can use to track things such as subject lines, calls to action, and more.
Ensure Segmenting is Available
Another good feature you’ll want to look for is the ability to segment your list. Often this is done with “tagging.”
For example, if you want to send out an email to people who’ve purchased a certain product from you, then you can include all recipients who have a “Purchased Product X” tag.
Note that you should also be able to segment based on recent email behavior.
For example, you can pull out a segment of your list who did NOT open your last email. You can then send these folks a follow-up email with a different subject line to see if you can catch their attention and get them clicking.
Look for Automations
You’ll find that automations, if available, are a time-saving feature. You can think of automations as “If – Then” features (if X happens, then Y should occur).
For example, if someone clicks on a link, then that person should get a particular email, or they should be added to a particular segment of your list.
Now that you’ve determined that a potential ESP includes the core features you need, you’ll want to think about any other features that are important.
For example, if you’re already using other tools and platforms, you’ll want to check if your selected email service provider will integrate with the tools or resources. E.G., If you have a shopping cart, see if it integrates with your ESP. (Some do it with just one click, while others will integrate if you do a little technical work.)
Now that you know what to look for in an email service provider, you’ll likely still find it an overwhelming task to select an ESP since there are so many options. As such, you can start your selection process by reviewing some of the top ESPs, including:
The list above is in my personal preference order. Best for marketing and growth in your business is Active Campaign. Best for novices and affiliate marketers is Aweber; either of those will be a great choice.
This is especially important if you are going to be relying on affiliate marketing as your business model because most ESP’s don’t like this particular model due to the fact that most marketers don’t do it correctly and end up spamming their list with offer after offer and provide no value whatsoever.
You don’t want to build your mailing list on a house of cards, which is why it’s important to choose the right email service provider. Use the tutorial above to help you do it!
If you want to know more about building and nurturing your email list, check out the featured resource below where you can get a free report about simple list building to expand your knowledge further. If you do download it, please read it and take action and good luck 😊
Email marketing is a great way to reach out to your customers and keep them updated about your latest products and services. It is also an effective channel for getting feedback from customers.
As, I have said, email marketing is a great tool for communicating with your prospects and customers. But it’s only as good as the copywriting and design. If you want to get better at email copywriting, here are some tips to keep in mind:
But the most important thing of all is to really care for your readers. Don’t just sell for the sake of selling and making a profit or a commission; you must want to help your readers and buyers to overcome the obstacles that they are facing in the niche you are writing in.
Believe me, if you are just out to make money from your list, they will find out and many may unsubscribe; this is the ‘churn and burn’ model that many Internet Marketers unfortunately adopt.
The basics of email copywriting and effective email marketing can be broken down into three core components: the subject line, the body and the call to action.
Email marketing is one of the most popular ways to reach out to your customers and prospects. But, with so many types of emails, it can be hard to know which one is right for your campaign.
Below are the different types of emails you need to know about:
A well written email is a combination of a well-written subject line and opening sentence. It should be short, concise, and to the point. These are important elements as you need to draw the reader in.
The subject line is the first thing your recipients will see when they open their inbox. It should tell them what the email is about without giving too much of the email away.
One of the most important parts of an email is the opening sentence. This will be the first thing your reader reads, and it should be short, concise and make them want to read on. You should also use keywords to grab their attention.
Designing your emails to give them that professional look and feel can be difficult. You want them to look good, but you also want them to be effective. You need to make sure that your design is not too cluttered, but you also need to make sure that it is not too simple either.
The first thing you should do when designing your emails is decide what the purpose of the email is going to be. That will help you decide what type of design will work best for it.
For example, if you are designing an email with a signup form in it, then a simple and clean design would work best so that people can easily fill out the form and get on with their day.
The second thing you will want to do after deciding on the purpose of your email is brainstorm different designs and copy that you can use for your emails. This can help give you ideas on what to include in your email, how to structure the email, and more. The design of your message is important because it can set the tone for the entire email.
The third thing you will want to do after deciding on the purpose of your email is create a template or framework that will help with making sure you’re sending emails correctly and effectively. This should include email subject lines, opening paragraphs and closing paragraphs. Have a good swipe file and make use of it regularly.
A call to action (CTA) is a button or link that encourages the recipient to take an action.
CTA buttons can be placed in a variety of locations, such as the top, bottom, or side of the email. Buttons at the top of an email are most commonly used because they are more visible and less likely to be missed.
The text on your CTA button is important because it needs to speak directly to your audience and encourage them to click it. It should also be short and simple so that it’s easy for them to understand what they will get if they click on it.
Another couple of important element in your emails are scarcity and exclusivity.
Scarcity is very powerful as it works on that fear of missing out (or FOMO) that resides inside every one of us!
Offering exclusive discounts and deals to your readers (and especially previous buyers) is a great way to increase loyalty.
All these things can help your emails to be more successful when you are going for the sale.
In conclusion, it is important to remember that the key to a good email is in the content. The way you format your email will not matter if you don’t have a quality message that connects with the reader. So, before you start formatting your email, make sure that it is properly constructed and has a compelling message.
If you want to know more about building and nurturing your email list, check out the featured resource below where you can get a free report about simple list building to expand your knowledge further. If you do download it, please read it and take action and good luck 😊
Blogging is a popular way to communicate with customers and share information about a business.
In this article, we will explore the benefits of blogging for businesses, how to get started, and how to improve your blog posts.
A blog is a website that contains articles and videos on a specific topic. Blogs are typically used by businesses to maintain their online presence, attract new customers, and promote their products or services.
Blogs are also used by bloggers to share knowledge and express their opinions.
You can also use it as a way of connecting with your target audience by answering their questions in the form of blog posts or videos.
Blogging is an excellent way for business owners to create content that will engage visitors on their site while also reaching out to new audiences through search engine optimization.
A blog may focus on any topic, such as politics, fashion, religion, or music; it may be maintained by an individual or more than one individual; and it may be either personal or business oriented.
A blog is a website that is usually about a single topic, with the posts being written by one or more people. Blogs are typically run by individual bloggers, or small groups of individuals, and often include commentary and responses to posts.
Blogs are generally updated more frequently than websites. This allows blogs to provide more up-to-date information on their topics than a typical website might be able to do.
Blogs also have less stringent requirements for page design and formatting than websites do. This allows bloggers to use simple HTML formatting in order to create visually appealing pages at low cost.
A blog is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in the field and to create content that is easy for readers to find. Blogs are usually written in a conversational tone, which makes them more accessible for readers.
The main difference between blogs and websites is that blogs are more personal and informal while websites tend to be more formal and business-like.
A website has a more professional feel and can be used for marketing purposes. Websites are typically static, meaning they don’t change often or have new content added on a regular basis.
Blogging provides a way for people to share their thoughts, opinions, and ideas with the world.
Blogs are a powerful tool that can be used to generate leads, build authority, and promote your business. It is also an effective way of generating traffic to your website as it provides a valuable resource that people can refer to at any time.
The content can be anything from personal anecdotes to expert advice. Blogs are most often written by one person, but there are some blogs that have multiple authors or contributors.
Blogging is used to share information and opinions in the form of articles, videos, images, and other media that are published on the internet. Blogs can be used to share personal life experiences as well as thoughts about a particular topic.
Some bloggers use their blogs to make money by displaying ads and affiliate links on their site.
There are a number of ways in which you can begin blogging successfully. You could talk about your passions, interests or even your profession. Blogging can be a great way to make money by writing about topics that interest you or topics that you are familiar with. The key is to write in an interesting way so that people will want to read your blog posts.
As already mentioned, blogging is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field, share your thoughts and knowledge with the world, and generate potential leads.
Here are some of the best ways to make sure you blog successfully:
As the blog post is the most common form of content, it’s a good idea to learn how to write a good blog post.
There are many ways that you can go about this from a technical perspective, but it’s always best to start with understanding the basics of what makes for a good blog post.
A good blog post should be:
The headline is very important and must be able to grab the attention of your potential readers and invoke curiosity.
The intro paragraph should give an overview of what the reader can expect from the article in order for it to be understood without having read it.
The body paragraphs should contain information about what you are writing about and include any examples that you might have used in your research. This is the meat and potatoes of the post and should be the sort of information that your readers will find invaluable; in fact, they should be willing to pay for this kind of information!
Lastly, the conclusion paragraph should summarize what was written in order for readers who may have skimmed over some parts of your post to understand it fully.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s unpaid results—often referred to as “natural”, “organic”, or “earned” results.
In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a website appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users; these visitors can then be converted into customers.
Some of the most important factors that contribute to SEO are on-page optimization, backlinks, etc. and all these need to be considered when using your blog posts for content marketing to drive traffic to your offers.
OK, I hope that you’ve found this post useful. You’ve discovered what a blog is and what it is used for. You’ve also learnt how to blog successfully, writing informative and engaging blog posts, and the considerations of SEO when it comes to you blog content.
Now get writing… 😊
If you really want to know more about the power of blogging, you must take a look at the Rapid Blogging Blueprint premium training course or if you just want a few pointers for now you can grab the featured resource below for a free blogging report; download, read it and take action 🙂
