How to flood your website with more traffic than the streets of Bangkok!
If you’re a website owner, one of the most important things on your mind every day is how you’re going to get more qualified traffic to your website.
So today I’m going to give a quick breakdown as what I see as the top 7 ways to drive qualified traffic to your website.
And I should note, ALL of these involve PAID traffic. While you can chase free traffic all day long, it’s often far less reliable, fruitful, and profitable than just going out to buy traffic.
Besides, when you pay for traffic, it allows you to turn on and turn up the profit faucet. Instant leads, sales, and cash for your business are all much easier when you’re willing to pony up to put eyeballs on your website.
Get good at paid traffic sources though, and any additional free traffic you can provide just provides bonus revenue and profits.
Alright, enough intro… Let’s dive in!
(Note, these are presented in semi-arbitrary order. See my note below about picking ONE to get really good at — and you don’t have to start at the top.)
#1: Google Search…
Roughly 30 cents out of every dollar spent on online advertising is spent with Google. Of that, roughly 70% is spent on search. Why? Because it works.
Google has the absolute best platform for advertising online. Entire books have been written about it. They have over 1 billion active users, searching all hours of the day for solutions to their problem.
By advertising through Google’s search network, you can get people who are actively looking for a solution to their problem, and give it to them.
It’s easy to get started — you can have an account up and running in minutes. And for more mainstream topics, the traffic available to you is almost unlimited.
#2: Google Display…
In addition to the ads Google lets you run next to the search results on their site, they offer something that can be even bigger. They have a huge network of other websites who’ve agreed to run Google ads on their own sites, in exchange for a chunk of the advertising fees.
Search allows you to respond to someone’s stated problem (what they are searching for on Google). The Display Network is interrupt advertising — you divert them from what they were doing.
This makes it a tad more challenging — but if you’re able to get advertising to work on the Display Network, you can enter into what Perry Marshall calls “the jet stream.” This is where Google will put your ads EVERYWHERE they think your target customer might be, because they know it works well. This is the grand slam home run of internet advertising.
Plus, with the Display Network, you can do remarketing. This is where Google tracks who has been to your website already, and shows them your ads to get them to come back. This may seem a little sneaky, but it’s definitely one of the most profitable advertising opportunities online.
#3: Facebook…
Facebook’s audience is almost as big as Google’s. And it can be a huge source of qualified traffic for your offers.
It requires a different tact than search advertising. Folks go to Google to find answers to their problems (think Yellow Pages), while they go to Facebook to kill time (think coffee shops).
But if you’re able to match Facebook advertising to your business, there’s a ton of traffic there.
The key to making Facebook work is to figure out what you need to put in front of your audience that still feels like killing time, but bridges them to your business. Then, get permission to follow up with them off Facebook, by email. And finally, use the relationship you build through email to convert them to a customer.
Again, there are books written about how to do it right.
#4: Ad Networks…
Like Google has display advertising that allows you to put your ads on thousands of different websites, there are other companies that have set up similar networks. Further, they allow you to do remarketing on their networks, as well — bringing customers back to your website, using advertising on other sites.
In fact, there are even companies that specialize in putting your ads on all these different networks, like AdRoll, that specializes in remarketing (sometimes called retargeting) on different networks. And then there are others like Outbrain and Taboola that specialize in putting your content in front of readers.
Each has their own restrictions. For example, many of the networks that let you put your links on news sites require the page you link to to look and feel like news (not a sales pitch).
But for folks I know who know how to use these networks, these are a source of huge volumes of leads and sales.
#5: Others’ Email Lists…
This is a secret weapon for traffic to your website, and can get you HUGE volumes of qualified traffic, fast.
Find a business or publisher that has an email list of good potential customers. And in one way or another, work your way into their emails.
Maybe you pay to rent the list. Maybe you pay to advertise in one of their emails. Maybe you offer a revenue split in lieu of payment. Maybe you can offer up content that links to your site. Maybe you can get an editorial mention.
A little creativity goes a long way. If you’re able to find someone who has a list of good potential customers, and make it in their best interest to feature you to their list… The traffic opportunities here are huge.
#6: Offline Media…
In our mass exodus out of print media and to digital, marketers have left a vacuum. There are sill a ton of newspaper, magazine, journal, and other print media readers. They are good customers. And the level and quality of advertising they’ve seen in recent years has decreased.
Even better, your competitors won’t have a clue. Because they’re too caught up online to pay attention to what’s going on offline.
Come up with a good free offer to get folks in offline media to go to your website. Maybe it’s a video, report, webinar, or some other valuable educational piece. Get them to register to access it. And you will have succeded in driving high-quality traffic to your website.
#7: Direct Mail…
“The least crowded inbox is the one we grew up with.” Like other offline media, the mailbox is increasingly void of advertising quality or quantity.
And while the total universe of buyers’ mailing addresses has gone down, direct mail still represents a huge opportunity for website owners to drive traffic.
Make a similar offer to other offline media. Send a postcard. Get them to log on to watch a video presentation. Either convert them on the spot, or get their email address for online follow-up.
Again, your competition won’t know what hit ‘em!
Your goal: get good at a minimum of one paid traffic source…
If you want to be a successful internet marketer, you need to get good at a minimum of one paid traffic source. Even better, in the long-run, to diversify. But you can go a long way getting good at one.
The 7 here represent some of biggest-return opportunities available today. Each can be used to generate relatively quick — often near-instant — qualified traffic to your site. And each has tremendous upside when you can make it work for your business and your offer.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets
