5 Easy Tips for improving your web traffic in 2018

0. Intro
1. Know your demographic. Refine your approach.
2. Master Social Media.
3. Build complimentary/reciprocal funnels
4. Get in front of “Influencers”
5. Create Content, but with a plan!

Intro

How about 20,000 visitors for $20? If that’s something you are interested in, then you may be in the wrong place. As the old adage goes:

Garbage in – Garbage Out

Most people initially ask, “How do I get more web traffic?” To that I respond simply: “Why do you want more web traffic?” Eventually we get to the root of the desire for more web traffic: “I WANT TO MAKE MORE MONEY!”

And “right,” I say. You see, people don’t really care about seo, traffic, or analytics. They just want to make money. But increasing web traffic does not inherently mean “Make More Money!” Therefore, if I re-submited the proposition of 20,0000 visitors for $20 you should become skeptical and ask questions like the following:

Will they convert?
Are they targeted?
Are they real?
How long will they stay?
What is their bounce rate?
What is their demographic?
What is their average disposable salary?
Etc… Etc…. Etc….

My point here is simple: Businesses have tendency to focus on the wrong number. (I.E. the number of visitors instead of the quality of visitors.) Going forward, I will refer to web traffic that converts, or tends to convert, as “real traffic.” Traffic that is inline with accomplishing your goals. Not bot traffic, random suffers, click-baiters etc…

Accordingly, your goal should be to grow your traffic, following, and community with people interested in your product or service. “Baiting” people to your website with shady SEO, click-bait, or other various forms of nefarious marketing should be reserved only for those websites that sell advertisement space, while you feel sorry for the ad buyers.

So Why you should be interested in growing “real traffic:”

Real traffic, or traffic aligned with your goals, is more likely to convert.
Bad traffic hurts your data, which hurts your testing, optimization, and A/B testing
Bad traffic uses your valuable resources. I.E. Your server’s CPU, Memory, disk read & writes, etc… which may negatively impact your desired traffic’s user experience
You’re wasting time, money, or both. Every ounce of effort that generates “bad traffic” has opportunity cost associated with it.

Real actionable customers take time to nurture, grow, and retain. While it may be impossible to have 100% of your traffic convert, it is possible to always improve. In no specific order, here are 5 easy ways to increase your real web traffic in 2018:

Know your demographic. Refine your approach.

It may sound funny that I would be increasing money by reducing traffic. Silly right? But we aren’t doing so at our own impediment, actually we are focusing our time and money on just the users that we need (users that make us money!) This one harkens back to the days of freshmen marketing classes, but it could never be truer! I like to call this one “Addition by subtraction”

To put this into perspective simply ask yourself “How often do I receive marketing that clearly denotes a lack of precision in planning? The following are real life examples of marketing mishaps that actually happen to me DAILY (someone should be fired!):

I get tampon ads on my youtube even though I am a guy, my gmail account is in my male name, and I have marked the ad irrelevant numerous times. Seriously.
I get lawncare offers in the mail even though my HOA takes care of that. Couldn’t they check for that easily? I wonder how many thousands of mailers got tossed right into the trash.
I get retirement offers (clearly branded for older people) even though I am 28.
I get remarketing ads for products that I have already purchased months ago that are clearly durable and don’t necessitate continued purchases. Sorry, I only need one $2000 laptop per year ☹
I get emails daily from senders that I have never opted in, never opened, and reported as spam. (I’m sure that’s working out great for your deliverability!)

Take the time to think through your customer demographics. If you sell knee braces then you probably won’t have a large market in highschoolers. Instead, think of the working class man with knee pain, think about the recovering athletes that depend on their body as a source of income. Think about the following:

How can I get more out of the money I am spending?
Are you buying bulk traffic with little regard for the conversion process? Are you buying mass mailers without reviewing the data on the recipients?
Do my current marketing effort feel highly refined?

Before you even consider opening another can of marketing worms please make sure to review, audit, and review some more!

You can download this simple guide below to help identify your target audience/ demographic before you start making your money actually work!

Download Free Demographic Guide Here
By successfully identifying and refining your marketing you will easily increase the REAL, ACTIONABLE, and converting traffic to your website or business!

So Why you should be care about demographics?

Knowing your demographic can help in a multitude of ways when it comes to making both broad and specific marketing decisions. For example, the optimal time of day for running your adds or the best color palette to use with your advertisement. Accordingly, take a look at the below graphic created by HotDesign.com:

As you can see, different ages and genders may prefer different colors! Therefore, if you were marketing to a specific age group or gender, you may be inclined to use a specific combination to match their taste!

Master Social Media.

Right now your are saying DUH! Everyone and their grandmother is suggesting social media to grow web traffic! Well your grandma’ is right! However, its not as simple as “build it and they will come.” Here are some quick tips to taking your social media to the next level:

Build a community not a billboard! Appeal to the interest, lifestyle, and behavior of your audience. No one wants to receive your marketing spam on social media, so make sure to be strategic!
Keep the promo post to a minimum. I recommend a 5:1 ratio as a good starting point when determining how many of your post should be promotional.
Interact! IF your social media is currently setup as a one-way stream then you have some serious changes to make. Comment, like, love, follow, and engage!
Videos are better than images which are better than text.
Pick the right platform! Check out the following infographic from “Leverage New Age Media,” to get a general idea of the best platform:

Build complimentary/reciprocal funnels

There are hundreds of companies just like yours, or very similar, that sell similar products, accessories, and provide advice to your target demographic. Making sure that you are connecting with these entities and leveraging every possible opportunity will add auxillary sales you never even thought of! Sounds great right? So how does it work? First, we need to identify any opportunity where there may be a reciprocal (I.E. a win-win) situation. For instance, if I sell shoes then surely the customer might be interested in socks. Therefore, I may reach out to a sock seller to entertain the idea of having my product suggested at the end of the check out process and vice versa (their socks at the end of my checkout process) Some other examples include:

Hunting supply stores promoting shooting ranges and vice versa
Used Car dealers promoting a local car wash and vice versa
A gym promoting a clothing website and vice versa
Dry Cleaners & Maid Services

The trick here is to identify opportunities where you can receive traffic in exchange for traffic. Since these other companies are not competitors, the arrangement helps both parties involved! It may be a simple brochure on the front desk, a pop-up on your website, a shout-out on social media, or a special place in your monthly newsletter.

Get in front of “Influencers”

Influencers, as they are commonly know in 2018, are personalities that have built a community following. These individuals have such devout fans that their recommendation for or against a product will seal the deal. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself how many people bought body shapers before Kim Kardashian wore one. Most people look for reviews or opinions on products or services before they buy them, and they do so on the internet.

Follow the below steps to get your products/service in front of a targeted audience:

Identify websites that provide advice in your market or industry. For example, a blogger who writes about tech-gear.
Stick their website URL in over at SpyFu to get an idea for their traffic or SEO
Give your product to the bloggers with traffic/rankings for free in exchange for an honest review (mucho browny points for a video review!).
Rinse and repeat.

Don’t believe me? Checkout this video where I put the clients product in the hand of an influencer and the video has got nearly 150,000 views! Talk about a great investment!

6 Websites That can connect you with influencers

To get a jump start on the process you can head over to these websites that focus on this process. I used ContentBLVD previously, but I guess they went out of business ☹

Create Content, but with a plan!

(Hint: Those 500 word blogs written by the front desk person are no good)

Everybody has gone content creation crazy, heck “content creator” is now an actual job title in 2018. But there is one thing that I HIGHLY disagree with, and that is random content creation for the sake of content creation. Please make sure that you at least follow the below recommendations when it come to content creation:

Add value to the reader’s life. No one cares about your ideas on politics, the top trends of blah blah blah, or more marketing droll about how awesome your product is.
Create a guide, how-to, or advice on a SPECIFIC question. For example, a realtor may create a guide titled “Top 10 mistakes to avoid when buying your first home.”
Be exhaustive. The goal of your content should be “being the last place the visitor needs to look.” Long gone are the days of 500 word blogs being useful, or ranking well for SEO. Your content should be so exhaustive as to dissuade your competition from even trying to compete on the subject matter.

Next, when you have an idea of solid content strategy and its place in the conversion funnel the real work begins. Getting your information in front of people. You will need to the do the leg work putting your content in the inbox (or voicemail) of popular websites. Getting backlinks here is the only reason we care about creating content in the first place, so neglecting the distribution plan is highly discouraged.

Struggling to find sites that will pick up your content? Visit google and type in “Top XXXX sites 2018” and see the results. For example, when I was working with fitness products I would search for influencers to share my work by searching for “Top Fitness Blogs 2018.” Once I found a list of websites I stuck them into Spyfu to prioritize my time (looking for traffic, SEO, etc…) Then I gathered all the relevant phone numbers, email address, or social media profiles and dug in. My emails looked something like this:

“Hi my name is Andrew Curtin and I am head writer here at XYZ. We have recently created this exhaustive guide <LINK HERE> that we believe your audience would love to read. Moreover, we are always looking for new ideas and partnership opportunities since we have a huge content creation team. Do you have any content needs coming up?” During my outreach I would constantly tweak and test new emails, voicemails, and pitches to get my content on their website until I found the one that worked at the time.

And there you have it! 5 ways to improve your real, actionable, and converting traffic for 2018!

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5 Easy Tips for improving your web traffic in 2018