Two smart ways to get more online traffic

By Rhonda Campbell

Like most businesses, operating an online enterprise is, in large part, a numbers or traffic game. Sale high end products or services, and you’d be doing well to have a visitor-traffic-to-sale conversion rate of two to three percent. For less pricey items, a conversion rate of three to four percent is considered to be average.

But, that doesn’t tell the whole story. Sell 20 products a month that are priced at $1,000 each and you might find yourself going over the top financially, especially if you’re a salesperson with low overhead (i.e. Internet costs, home office, postage for shipping). Sell products that cost below $50 and you’re going to need to land a lot more sales.

First you need more website traffic
To do that, you have to attract more visitors to your virtual storefront. Pretty simple, huh?

There are two ways that you could attract more online visitors: SEO or organic methods. Take the SEO approach and you can count on having to implement:

• Keyword research
• Strategies to study and stay apace with search engine rule changes, including updated Google algorithms
• Valuable inbound links
• Content mapping
• Targeted content

Other options open to you with the SEO approach follow:

• Paid traffic
• Social media ads
• Banner ads on relevant websites
• Press releases

Using the non-SEO organic method requires you to develop rich relationships with online visitors. Getting a sale isn’t your number one priority. To build these highly rewarding relationships, you must provide information or content that is not readily available on the Internet. Examples of this content include:

• Pictures that you take yourself
• Personal videos
• Instructional videos on your products, videos that add a touch that only you could give (some video gamers have become rich taking this approach)
• Reports based on research work that you administered from start to finish (attach a membership fee to the reports and you could develop an additional income source)
• Feature interviews (ask the right probing questions and you could set yourself apart)

Key to website marketing approach
Regardless of the approach that you take, be consistent. Make website visitors feel like they are incredibly important to you. Ask followers and supporters at social media sites to follow your blog. You also might want to consider using a combination of both approaches as you grow your online presence. Also:

• Monitor metrics (guessing is not the best way to run a profitable business)
• Offer discounts to customers who refer two or more customers your way
• Develop a multi-approach to stay in touch with customers and prospects (i.e. weekly newsletters, podcasts, YouTube channel updates)

If your sales don’t grow as the numbers of visitors to your business website increase, revise your sales page and marketing content. As a tip, you could generate a lot more content if you work with a marketing agency, as agencies work with dozens of freelance writers. But, that approach can increase your content costs. To lower the cost of content creation, consider working with experienced and reputable freelance writers one-on-one (think 1099). Also, don’t be shy about running surveys to find out why contacts aren’t making a purchase. Survey services include Survey Monkey, Zoomerang and Checkbox.