The Truth About Traffic – How to Get More Targeted Visitors to Your Web Page

In this blog post we are going to reveal the truth about traffic, or how to get more targeted visitors to your website. The emotive topic of Traffic represents Step (3) of the three steps to creating a marketing funnel.In previous posts in our series on the three steps to creating a sales funnel, we have covered Step (1) Choosing a Market and Step (2) Setting up a Squeeze Page and Email Follow Up. In this post we are going to look at the emotive topic of Traffic, which represents Step (3) of the three steps to creating a marketing funnel. Traffic is the collective term for all the people that visit a website or squeeze page and our aim as Marketers is to capture leads by getting as many as possible of these visitors to enter their email address into the opt-in form on our squeeze page, and in so doing they become prospects that we may follow up later.

I use the adjective “emotive” to in conjunction with Traffic because Traffic is one of the most talked about topics in the world of Internet Marketing. “Traffic is the life blood of any business” is a common refrain you will come across in internet marketing literature and forums, and if you ask any marketer what is their biggest problem, then nine times out of ten they will cite getting more traffic to their website as the biggest issue they have to deal with

However, before discussing some of the available traffic generation methods, I would like to point out a few traffic fundamentals, the misunderstanding of which I believe to be largely responsible for why a lot of marketers struggle with their online businesses.

The Three M’s of the Marketing Triangle

We start with the Marketing Triangle, which shows the three interconnected factors that are fundamental to marketing success of any type, namely the Message, Media and Market. When you start marketing you need to have all three of these in place.

Starting with the Message, we need to be sure that we have the right message for our audience. For example, when placing an ad for a particular product or service, then the headline and copy have to grab the attention of our target prospect. It goes without saying that our ad has to appeal to our target audience, otherwise it will simply be ignored.

We also have to have the right Media by which to transmit or deliver our message. A simple example of this might be to be sure to advertise in a specific industry website or magazine as opposed to a general interest one.

Finally you have to know your Market. Get specific about your target customer. What are their interests, characteristics, age, gender, lifestyle, motivations and so on.

Targeted versus Non-Targeted Traffic

The marketing triangle leads us to another fundamental concept of traffic that needs to be understood, that is the difference between targeted and non-targeted traffic. The people that are more likely to be thinking about or have a problem that could be solved by whatever product or service you are promoting, they are the ones that fall into the category of targeted prospects. That is because they are more likely to be attracted by the promise to have their problem or pain solved by your offer and so your marketing should naturally be targeted to these people.

Converting these targeted prospects is easier because they already want what you have to offer. On the other hand, non-targeted prospects are not really thinking about your product, therefore converting this traffic by getting them to buy your product is much harder.

No Such Thing as Free Traffic

One of the biggest mistakes, made particularly by people that are new to internet market, is to divide traffic into Paid verses Free Traffic. The classic view held by internet marketing newbies is that they should start with free traffic methods until they start making sales then think about moving to paid traffic methods.

This misconception is probably the biggest reason why a lot of people fail with their online business. The brutal truth is that you will have to spend money, or time and effort, to generate leads and paid traffic is the best way to achieve this. Compared with many of the free traffic methods, paid traffic produces quick results and is measurable and scalable. You do not have to wait months to see the results of your efforts. Therefore, although there is no harm in using so called free traffic methods, one’s efforts should focus on paid traffic for maximum effect.

To learn more about how to get targeted visitors to your website check out this Traffic and Conversion Mini Course, which will reveal proven strategies for getting the high quality, traffic that you need to succeed.

Sources of Traffic

Having highlighted the traffic fundamentals we should use to guide our marketing efforts, I will now shed light on some of the available traffic methods, both paid and unpaid.

There are two ways to get traffic for your website or squeeze page. You either buy it or you earn it. Traffic you buy includes banner ads, solo ads, pay per click (PPC,) including Facebook advertising and pay per view (PPV.) and old fashioned direct mail. You can also buy endorsed mailings from people that have built up a large list of subscribers on their website.

Traffic you earn, or what you might call free traffic includes things like Blogging, YouTube marketing, Social Media marketing, Forums marketing and others.

Whether you decide to go the paid or free traffic rout, the important thing is to pick the one traffic source that resonates with you and master it before moving onto another one. Otherwise your energy will be spread too thinly and you will not achieve anything.

When all is said and done, traffic generation is about knowing how much you can afford to spend on a traffic source to get a customer. If the cost of getting a customer is less than the average value of that customer in terms of what they will spend with you over a certain period of time, then that traffic source is a good one. Thai is a very important concept that we cover in more detail in our post on tracking and monitoring the results of your marketing campaigns.