Bloggers and internet marketers talk a lot about “traffic and conversion”. That’s because any online business or marketing campaign can be reduced to those two elements.
If you can drive traffic to a website, blog or squeeze page then you have an audience. If the message you deliver to your audience convinces them to buy a product or service from you, then you have converted that member of your audience into a buyer.
Now, the genius in viewing your business as a “traffic and conversion” machine, is that it can be broken down into it’s component parts. That gives you a working model from which to build your business.
Let’s see what that looks like.
Traffic
The more traffic you generate, the more opportunity you have to build profits.
So if you can build a “traffic machine,” you can use it to crank out profits.
Well, that’s a pretty simple view of the process, anyway.
The good news is… it really is that simple.
The reality is… while the model is simple, the work involved to build that traffic machine can be overwhelming.
That’s why I like to look at it like a machine. It’s not because I think every online business should be a huge enterprise that requires millions of parts and churns out millions of dollars.
A machine can be big and complex, but it can also be very small and easily operated. I think that kind of machine pertains to most bloggers and internet marketers.
If you think of your online business like a machine, though, you can easily divide it into parts that you simply need to maintain on an ongoing basis.
Traffic, for instance, can be broken down into two main categories.
Some traffic you pay for, and some is free.
You can pay for Facebook ads that can result in paying customers. You can also connect with somebody in a
Facebook group that is interested in your services, and eventually pays you for them. In both cases, you end up with a paying customer. In one instance you paid to get that customer, in the other instance you did not.
I typically suggest to my clients that they choose both a paid traffic method, and a free traffic method.
We then devise a “campaign” for approaching that traffic, whether it is with ads or post updates.
The methods are different. You pay for ads with currency and it’s quick and simple. But you risk losing money, of course. Using social media, you pay with your time. You risk losing a lot it if you can’t convert folks into customers.
That brings us to the next piece of the machine.
Conversion
However you invite people to do business with you… paid ads or free social media campaigns… if you cannot convert them into buyers then the machine (your online business) won’t run.
You basically have 3 conversion strategies available to you. I call them the 1-step, 2-step and 3-step strategies.
The 1-step strategy is used primarily by people with high-ticket items to sell, or business opportunities.
Network marketers are most likely to use this. It involves connecting with people that have responded to an ad, or have engaged with you on Facebook and asking them for permission to contact them directly. It can be a phone call, a skype chat or even a personal visit. I call it the 1-step strategy because you make your sales pitch during your very first “meeting”.
The 2-step strategy involves getting somebody to sign up to follow you. This typically means that they opt in to your free email list, click a link that redirects to your e-commerce site or attend your free webinar. Step 1 is when they click through or sign up. Step 2 is when you actually give them your sales pitch.
We’ve all been on free webinars that give us a sales pitch at the end, and we’ve all signed up for email newsletters that offer us paid products and services on an ongoing basis. Your opt-in is step 1, and your purchase is step 2.
The 3-step strategy is most common among bloggers. Step 1, somebody hears about you on a social media site or in a Google search and clicks on to your blog link. Step 2, you entice them to join you email list before they leave your blog. Step 3, you finally pitch them your products and services in your ongoing series of emails to them.
There are pros and cons to each of these strategies, but I won’t go into that here. I simply wanted to illustrate typical conversion strategies that online marketers use to convert traffic into profit.
Traffic and Conversion
When you view your business as a traffic and conversion machine, you can break it down into simple parts.
Here’s how it works.
Let’s say you are a blogger in the “herbal remedies” niche. You sell a $7 ebook you wrote on the topic, plus you market affiliate courses and trainings in the field.
Every day, you need to drive traffic to your blog.
Let’s say your free strategy is to engage with people interested in herbs and alternative remedies in Facebook groups. Every day, you allocate a specific amount of time to doing that.
Let’s say your paid strategy is Facebook promotional posts. You place several different types of posts and contests on Facebook. You monitor them 3 or 4 times daily, and tweak them as needed.
This is all fine, but traffic without conversion gets you nowhere.
So,everyday, you must spend just as much time on the conversion side of your business.
Maybe you write a blog post 3 times a week, engage in
Facebook groups, Google+ communities and forums… always communicating with people in your niche and inviting them to your blog posts when it fits the conversation.
You have to send out email newsletters to your list, and update your programmed follow up sequences in your auto-responder.
You might come up with a new lead magnet in the form of an ebook, video or webinar that could pull leads. Perhaps you can write an ezine article or Squidoo lens.
I’m not telling you what to do, here. I’m just showing you the types of activities that might comprise the daily method of operation of a marketer engaging in conversion strategies.
Making The Machine Run
The biggest problem I find with bloggers and other online marketers, is that they tend to stick within a comfort zone.
If they love doing videos, they spend all their time doing that. If they like Facebook groups, that’s the only place you’ll find them.
That’s why I like to teach people to build a traffic and conversion machine.
Notice…
It’s not a traffic machine, nor is it a conversion machine. It’s a “traffic and conversion” machine.
That means, each day, you must decide how much time you have to allocate to your business. Let’s say it’s 4 hours.
Now, break the machine into its parts.
You will spend 2 hours on traffic and 2 on conversion… not 3 on traffic because you love that part, and only 1 on conversion. Spend 2 hours on each. Set your clock and stick to it.
Break the machine down further.
Of your 2 traffic hours, 1 will be spent in free traffic generation like Twitter and blog commenting. The other 1 will be spent on paid traffic activities like setting up your paid posts and monitoring them.
You can break it down even further if you want. Maybe the first hour will be 15 minutes each on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+.
You have to tweak this until it fits, but stick with the overall structure on a daily basis.
Of your 2 conversion hours, maybe 1 hour each day will be writing emails to your subscribers, and 1 will be gathering and monitoring affiliate links to see how they are performing, and how you might split test or otherwise optimize them.
The above activities are just an example of a daily method of operation using traffic and conversion strategies to build your online business.
Play with the exact scheduling of activities to fit your knowledge, skill sets and overall goals.
But don’t cheat on splitting your time evenly between gather traffic and converting it into customers.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.
Do you work on both traffic and conversion strategies in your business?