By Wayne Davies - SEO Specialist.
This article is part 2 of a series. See part one.
Sending traffic to your website is pointless if the people who visit have no interest in the product or service you're selling. The key to successful traffic generation isn't quantity. It's quality. For example...
Jane pays £100 and buys 1,000 random visitors to her site. At first glance, the cost per visit seems to be £0.10 (100 ÷ 1,000). With random visitors it's possible that as few as 1 in 500 people are interested in her product. Her real cost per visit could be over £50!
When you generate traffic to your site using the methods I outline in this series, it's essential you opt for quality over quantity. Here's how...
Focus
People in the market for a product or service have something specific in mind. The closer your marketing copy matches what they have in mind, the more likely you are to get the sale. Put another way, the more focused your ad the greater the chance of the sale. For example, consider these two ad headlines...
The second ad seems to encompass all would-be Porsche owners, and many small business owners think this 'shotgun' approach is a better use of their marketing budget. The problem with such an approach is...
The first ad is very specific indeed. If you were in the market for a Porsche 911 Carrera, you're far more likely to notice this ad (i.e. your Reticular Activating System would bring it to your attention).
The subsequent details serve to further refine the set of potential buyers. The model on offer is 4 years old. This excludes people looking for a new Porsche, or a much older one. The colour may exclude even people.
This ad also benefits from scarcity, and produces a sense of urgency in potential buyers. There's only one car. If the prospect wants this car, s/he is forced to act now.
Adding “hurry – will go fast” to the second ad doesn't work because the ad itself boasts a wide range. There is no scarcity, and it won't be possible to use it to inject urgency. An advertiser may achieve a similar sense of urgency by placing a time limit on his/her offer (e.g. hurry – sale ends today).
My view is the best kind of inject urgency is induced through scarcity. And scarcity requires focus. This is why you must be ready, willing and able to write promotional copy that is highly focussed if you want your advertising to generate a response (e.g. lead generation).
Targeting is a 2 Step Process
When generating targeted visitors you need to think in terms of multiple steps. The first step is a teaser ad with 2 jobs to do...
The highly focussed ad above is very exclusive. It excludes buyers of other brands. It excludes buyers of other types of Porsche. It even excludes buyers of other models of 911 Carrera (it's a 2006).
Such an ad will send a very select group of people to a website. If those people were to arrive at the site's homepage, they're won't find the 911 described in the ad. A highly focussed teaser ad must send people to a landing page designed specifically to receive the people being targeted.
In other words, generating targeted traffic is a 2 step process...
The Teaser Ad
The purpose of the teaser ad is to send the 'right' person to a specific web page. The 'right' person is in the market for the product or service on offer.
The teaser ad is not there to sell the product. It's there to sell the landing page. It must be highly focussed, and will deliberately exclude people as a result. The people it excludes are those outside the target market.
The Landing Page
A landing page has a single purpose – to turn visitors into leads or buyers.
It must immediately pick up where the teaser ad left off. For example, the page might start by repeating the teaser ad's headline, include a photo, and further descriptive text that leads to a call to action (i.e. ask the visitor to respond).
It may be useful to use video on the landing page. For example, a video showing the 911 (in the above example) from all angles. This gives potential buyers the chance to see whether the advertiser's definition of 'mint' stacks up with their own.
To convert a visitor into a lead (or sale) it's necessary to remove doubt from the prospect's mind. The more doubt you remove, the greater the chance of securing a lead. One area of concern all prospects experience is whether or not the product on offer is the right one for them. If your product or service is designed for a specific type of person, say so.
If you have several products aimed at different types of customer, say that too. And give the prospect an opportunity to click through to the correct landing page.
The Click Through
Sometimes a landing page can help refine targeting. It does this by finding out what type of visitor it's dealing with, and sending him/her to a specific page designed for that person.
This additional click through is useful for 3 reasons...
Summary
Generating random traffic is pointless. The key to successful visitor generation lies in getting the right kind of visitors to a site. In business, that means people who are already interested in the product or service on offer.
There are 2 steps involved...
The purpose of the teaser ad is to send people to a landing page designed to receive them. The landing page must pick up where the teaser ad left off. Its purpose is to persuade a visitor to make contact or buy (whichever is appropriate).
Next Instalment: Blogging for Traffic.
Be notified as soon as each new instalment in this article series goes live via Wayne's Twitter page. Click here.
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