I see it time and time again:
The #1 challenge faced by brand-new Internet business owners
is a lack of traffic.
Obviously, if your web site
isn’t getting any traffic, you’re not generating
any sales. But worse -- without traffic, you can’t test
the key components of your sales process…
And if you roll out a large traffic campaign BEFORE you’ve
tested your web site to make sure it converts maximum visitors
into buyers, you risk losing sales and looking unprofessional
to potential business partners and affiliates.
So you’re caught in a
vicious cycle -- before ramping up a big traffic campaign,
you need to test your sales process, but without any traffic,
testing is difficult, if not impossible!
In the following article, I’m
going to give you an eight-step action plan that will show
you...
1. How to get CHEAP, instant
traffic to your web site -- so you can test key components
of your sales process (sales copy, order form, navigation,
and opt-in offer) BEFORE rolling out a large-scale traffic
campaign.
2. How to ensure that every element of your sales process
is optimized to convert maximum traffic into maximum sales.
3. The most effective strategies
for attracting 1,000s of highly qualified potential buyers
to your web site right away (cheap and FREE!).
4. The secret to putting your
entire traffic campaign on autopilot.
So even if your web site is
getting ZERO traffic right now, you can be testing the key
elements of your sales process tomorrow -- and as soon as
two weeks from now, you can be rolling out your traffic campaign
in full.
Sound good? Let’s get
you started off on the right foot!
Step One: Get the traffic
you need to test your web site -- fast!
When I talk about testing with
new Internet business owners, I hear the same two questions
all the time:
- How do I test my site?
- What do I test on my site?
As you may already know, there
are an infinite number of things you can test on your web
site to increase sales. From layout to copy to design, there
are limitless combinations of changes that may improve your
visitor-to-sale conversion rate.
But what's "enough"
when you're just starting out?
What elements should you focus
on testing before rolling out your traffic campaign?
My advice is to stick to the
basics. Focus on testing your...
• Salescopy (Especially
your headline, benefits, guarantee, and call to action.)
• Order process (Is
it simple enough for a novice web user to place an order?)
• Opt-in offer (Are
you successfully capturing visitors’ contact information?)
• Site navigation (How
many clicks does it take to buy? Ideally it should take
less than three.)
These are the four critical
aspects of your sales process that need to be tested before
you start driving traffic. Later on, once you've generated
sales and have some steady traffic, you can move on to testing
other parts of your web site.
Of course, all this talk of
testing your new web site raises one BIG question: How can
you test without traffic? If you're just getting started,
chances are good that your web site doesn't get much traffic
yet.
The solution is simple: Buy
traffic through PPC search engines.
Pay-per-click search engines
are a lot like auctions -- they allow you to bid for top-ranking
positions under keywords of your choice. For each visitor
who searches the keyword(s) you bid on and then clicks through
to your web site, you pay whatever you bid. Prices typically
range from five cents to a few dollars per click-through for
popular keywords.
There are a ton of PPC search
engines out there, but the two best ones to get started with
are...
- Yahoo Search Marketing
(http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com)
- Findwhat (www.findwhat.com)
With PPC search engines, you
get cheap, instant, qualified traffic --provided
you bid on targeted keywords. Not only that, but bidding on
traffic in the PPC search engines can help your site get ranked
in the free search engines, too!
Here are a couple of tips to
help you start bidding for traffic without breaking the bank:
-
In Yahoo Search Marketing,
bid to appear in the top three listings whenever possible,
since these results are also "pushed" to appear
in the search results for MSN, Yahoo, AltaVista, InfoSpace,
AlltheWeb and NetZero --reaching 80% of Internet users!
- Bid on targeted, descriptive
keywords -- d on’t just bid on "sock", bid
on "red wool sock". Not only are targeted keywords
and phrases usually cheaper to bid on -- they'll
also attract more qualified potential buyers. Use a keyword
selection tool like Wordtracker (www.WordTracker.com) to
research targeted keywords that attract maximum traffic
for minimal cost-per-click!
After you’ve tested and
tweaked your web site with a limited amount of purchased traffic,
it’s time to start generating qualified traffic for
your site on a bigger scale.
But how do you go from some
traffic to a ton of traffic?
Step Two: Get cheap
traffic quickly with PPC advertising!
Once you’ve tested your
site with limited PPC traffic, the fastest way to ramp up
traffic to your web site is to roll out a PPC campaign on
a bigger scale.
Obviously, you should start
with Yahoo Search Marketing and Findwhat, as mentioned above.
But here are some more PPC engines to consider bidding with
as you increase your investment:
This is also a great time to
get started with Google AdWords -- Google’s own PPC
contender: http://adwords.google.com.
You get instant traffic -- with
no waiting! As soon as you put the money down on your keywords,
your ad goes up and starts working for you!
Step Three: Get FREE
traffic from search engines like Google!
Now that you’ve bid on
keywords for a strong showing in the PPC search engines, it’s
time to tackle the organic search engines and directories!
Search engines (like Google)
and directories (like Yahoo) can still be a great source of
free traffic for your web site. The trick is getting a competitive
ranking for your best keywords.
The first step in getting a
top ranking in the search engines is submitting or suggesting
your site to them. In other words, you have to provide them
with details about your site!
You want to make sure that the
“spiders” -- automated programs that crawl the
Web indexing sites for the search engines -- find your site
and include it in the search results.
While the spiders DO index sites
and pages that have not been submitted, you certainly don't
want to leave this to chance. A spider might find your web
site and index it next week... or it might be two years before
it finally happens. Take the time to submit your site, and
you can be sure that you’re included! Once your site
has been submitted, expect it to take two to six weeks for
your listing to appear.
Every engine has a slightly
different process for site submission, and it pays to follow
their guidelines. For example, there is a fee to list your
site in the directory at Yahoo, but Google does not charge
for their submission process. If you submit your site exactly
as they ask, you stand a better chance of getting a good listing
on the first page of search results.
To submit or suggest your site
to the major engines, follow the simple instructions they
provide:
And don’t bother with
companies that offer to submit your web site to the search
engines. Since each search engine uses a different set of
criteria to rank your site, free submission services can actually
end up doing more harm than good, since they submit the same
information to all the engines.
Step Four: Give away
irresistible free content for priceless publicity!
Believe it or not, a really
easy, frequently undervalued strategy for getting traffic
is giving away free content to other web sites. Even just
two or three well-written articles can generate truckloads
of traffic, as long as they don't contain a sales pitch.
You want to include rare, hard-to-get
information that will lend your articles automatic value:
the kind of information that establishes you as an expert
in your field!
Once you’ve finished,
write a short bio paragraph about you and your business and
place it at the end of your article along with (and this is
the most important part!) a link to your site.
E-mail other web site owners
in your industry -- be sure to choose sites that receive attention
and visits from your target market -- and invite them to use
your article on their web site or in their newsletter at absolutely
no cost.
Many site owners need fresh
content, so they'll be more than happy to post your articles
-- and it won't be long before those articles start driving
traffic back to your web site.
Another option is to give away
your articles through free content web sites like:
Your articles will be made automatically
available to thousands of web site owners seeking free, quality
content -- and all you have to do is submit your articles
once!
This was the key strategy that
Maria Gracia put to work with her home organization web site
(www.GetOrganizedNow.com).
She exchanged great free articles for links on high-traffic
sites and got tons of free exposure and traffic. Now she gets
over 1 million visitors per year and earns a 60% profit margin!
Don't underestimate the power
of giving away free content. And as your articles gain more
exposure, don't be surprised if you're contacted by high-profile
magazine and portal sites related to your industry looking
for free articles to include on their sites, too!
Step Five: Get FREE "word-of-mouth" publicity
using viral marketing
Imagine a marketing strategy
so simple that you could put it to work immediately -- without
spending a dime -- walk away from it, and trust that it would
keep working without any extra effort from you.
That’s what viral marketing
is all about. Simply defined, viral marketing enables you
to spread your marketing message like a virus. You encourage
people to pass on information about your web site to one another
and use that word-of-mouth publicity to advertise your business!
Once you start the "virus,"
it spreads without you lifting a finger!
Hotmail.com, the free web-based
e-mail service provider, is a classic example of viral marketing.
At the bottom of every single Hotmail e-mail sent by Hotmail
members, there is a simple one-line message:
“Get your free, private
e-mail from MSN at http://www.hotmail.com”
How much time do you think it
took Hotmail to include that signature line as part of their
e-mail service? Not much at all -- but look at the impact
that this simple strategy had on the growth of their business.
In my personal experience, more
than 35% of e-mail users have Hotmail accounts!
You can easily duplicate
this strategy by doing something as simple as including a
"pass it on link" at the end of a free newsletter.
Something as simple as...
"If you've enjoyed this
article, please be sure to forward it to a friend!"
By simply asking readers to
take action and forward your newsletter, you'll prompt free
"word of mouth" exposure for your business -- without
any extra cost or hassle!
And there's no limit to how
far your message can travel!
So how do you put viral marketing
to work for you? Here are a few simple ideas:
-
Give away free articles
(like the ones in Step Four!) with a “pass it on”
link.
-
Give away free demos of
your product.
-
Offer a free trial of your
service with a “share this great resource”
button on the page.
-
Hold a contest on your web
site and give participants an extra entry for every friend
they refer.
-
Start an affiliate program
(see Step Seven!).
As you can see, you don't need
to be the next Hotmail to get started with viral marketing
-- by simply encouraging people to "share this resource
with friends," you can attract some great "word-of-mouth"
traffic.
Step Six: Get FREE links
on other high-traffic web sites!
Link requests require minimal
effort from you, but they can absolutely explode your traffic
numbers overnight. How? If your site is a featured link on
a major site in your industry -- one that receives a ton of
attention -- your site immediately benefits from
all the exposure their site receives!
Getting started with this strategy
is simple, but you should follow a standard process every
time you request a link. Let’s break it down into a
few easy steps:
-
Do a Google search for your
standard keywords -- the ones that people generally use
to find your site.
-
Make detailed notes about
the sites that appear regularly in the top ten listings
for your major keywords.
-
Use the Alexa Toolbar (www.alexa.com),
LinkPopularity (www.linkpopularity.com),
or Technorati (www.technorati.com)
to find out who these sites are linking to, who is linking
to them, and how much traffic they are receiving, then
look up their contact information.
-
Make sure you know the correct
URL for the site, the URL of the sub-page on which you
want your link to appear, the name of the site owner or
webmaster, the date you last visited their site, and a
brief description of the contents of the site.
When you’re ready to contact
these web site owners and request a link, write a personal
e-mail -- don't use form letters. Be sure to include some
positive comments about their site, information about you
and your site (along with your URL), an explanation of why
a link to you would benefit them, and instructions for contacting
you to get started!
You want your request to be
thorough and professional. If you can present
a persuasive argument for why the link request benefits both
of you, you stand a better chance of forging a connection.
If you are really eager to get
your link on their site, be prepared to up the ante by offering
them a commission or a link on your site in return. The investment
could be well worth the extra exposure your marketing message
receives.
But be stingy when
other businesses request links on your site -- just as links
on others’ sites serve as a personal recommendation
of your site, links on your site are recommendations for their
businesses. Only recommend the best!
Okay, now let's talk about the
ultimate linking strategy...
Step Seven: Get 1,000s
of web sites to promote your business -- FREE!
Imagine hundreds, even thousands,
of web sites promoting your product or service... and all
this great exposure doesn't cost you a DIME unless someone
refers a paying customer. You can do this with what's called
an affiliate program.
Affiliate programs (also referred
to as "reseller" or "associate" programs)
are a great way to get other people called "affiliates"
to promote your product or service for you.
For every paying customer your affiliates refer to your web
site, you pay them a commission. And since you only pay when
you make money -- it's extremely low risk!
Your affiliates send visitors
to your web site using banner ads, text links, letters of
referral, and so on, while you track these referrals using
special software. It’s an extremely powerful way to
grow your business because it automates your traffic
generation.
To get started with your own
affiliate program, you need to...
-
Set your commissions.
(To keep your affiliates motivated, you should pay them
40% to 50% of your profits per sale.)
-
Get software to track
the traffic and sales of your affiliates so you know
what to pay them (check out www.MarketingTips.com/assoctrac).
-
Provide your affiliates
with tools they can use to promote your products (like
e-mails, banners, etc.).
-
Recruit your affiliates!
(Look for sites that target your market, and invite
them to become affiliates.)
Affiliate programs are an ideal
way to automate your traffic generation because other people
market your web site for you -- and you don't lift a finger.
Your sales increase on a daily
basis -- but they do all the selling for you, and
it doesn't cost you a dime until they send you paying customers.
Now, for the final step, let's
talk about what you need to do to keep your traffic coming
back to your site again and again.
Step Eight: Use e-mail
marketing to attract repeat visitors
Getting lots of traffic to your
site is great, but if you aren't collecting the contact information
(i.e. names and e-mail addresses) of visitors, you're wasting
every single click!
If visitors leave your site
without buying your product, there's a good chance they won't
ever be back -- and you'll have absolutely no way of following
up with them!
Remember: It can take up to
seven points of contact to make a single sale, so you'll want
to begin collecting visitors' contact information from day
one using an opt-in form on your home page!
Here are some ideas for e-mails
you could send in case you need an excuse to follow up with
your opt-in subscribers:
-
Monthly or bi-weekly newsletters
with tons of tips and info
-
Free reports on a variety
of topics that your market would appreciate
-
Answers to common questions
people ask about your product
-
Offers for products similar
or complementary to ones you may have already offered
them
-
Free product trials that
give potential customers a taste of what you have to offer
- A "downgrade" offer
for a product that is less expensive or robust than your
featured offer
Following up with the addresses
you gather is quick, easy, and simple with e-mail management
and automation software. You can create e-mails called "autoresponders"
that potential customers receive automatically, as soon as
they opt- in on your site -- within seconds -- no
matter what time of day it is, or whether you're even at your
desk!
That’s right -- as soon
as your visitors opt in, they start hearing from you on a
regular basis without the stress of writing a ton of e-mails
to individual addresses. This is a process you can put on
autopilot from the very beginning!
For a solid e-mail management
solution with everything you need to get your e-mail marketing
campaign started, check out www.MarketingTips.com/mailloop
Final thoughts
In this article, I've shown
you how to get past the biggest hurdle faced by new web site
owners -- finding traffic to test your sales process and maximize
your visitor-to-sale conversion rate before launching your
web site.
I've also provided you with
a 10,000-foot overview of the steps involved in rolling out
a traffic campaign that will quickly ramp up visitors to your
new or growing web site.
First, I recommended that you
start with a PPC campaign, because it generates instant traffic
and sales for your web site at a low cost, provided you follow
the bidding tips I shared here.
Next, I recommended that you
move on to submitting your web site to the "organic"
search engines and directories like Google and Yahoo, which
can be a great source of unlimited FREE traffic, provided
your listing appears on the first page of search results for
your top keywords.
From there, the three traffic
strategies you'll probably want to tackle are (1) giving away
free content to get free links (and traffic) from other web
sites that target your market; (2) using "recommend this
to a friend" links in your newsletters and on your web
site to get free "word-of-mouth" publicity (viral
marketing); and (3) requesting links from high-traffic web
sites, so you can piggyback their top search engine rankings!
Finally, we briefly discussed
how you can start an affiliate program to exponentially grow
your business by recruiting an army of affiliates who will
promote your business on every corner of the Web, with absolutely
no risk to you -- because you don't pay them a DIME unless
they send you a paying customer!
Obviously, we've covered a LOT
of ground in this article... So I think it's only fair I point
out that, before you dive into ANY of these strategies, you'll
need to do a bit more reading and research on each of these
topics.
For example, there's NO WAY
I could cover everything you need to know about PPC campaigns
and search engine submission in this short article given that
we've spent over 70 pages on these subjects alone in our Insider
Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet course.
And another 60 pages is devoted
entirely to "How to Start Your Own Affiliate Program"...
Like I mentioned earlier, I
wanted to give you the 10,000-foot view, so you have a clear
roadmap of exactly what you need to do first, second, and
third to test your web site to maximize conversion rates and
then rollout an effective traffic campaign that attracts swarms
of potential buyers -- automatically -- for years to come.
If you want to know more about
any of the topics covered here in this article, I highly recommend
that you check out our "Insider Secrets" course
at www.MarketingTips.com/tipsltr.html
And before I wrap up this article,
I'd like to make one last point...
Over the years, I've noticed
a common thread that links all of our most successful clients
who have Internet businesses that make $250,000... $500,000...
or over $1,000,000 per year:
They have all focused on doing
one or two marketing strategies really well.
So don't feel like you need
to become an expert in ALL of the strategies we've covered
here. Focus on becoming really proficient at one or two --
because this may be all you need to dramatically increase
your traffic... and sales!
