INTRODUCTION
Table of Contents
This is a very tough market we are experiencing in 2016…It is becoming a challenge to generate ideas to get more traffic to get leads to whom we can promote our offers, products, and websites.
Today I want to go through some ideas I have gathered for you to consider and then offer you guidance for each. Once you read through them, select one or two and focus on these for the remainder of 2016.
There is still time to turn around your year if you are not where you want to be with your online marketing program. Please do not do what many do, which is give up aftet not seeing expected results in a week or 10 days!
First, to give you some great ideas on organic and free traffic, I have some other training available on this website. You will find a link where you can get started…
As we all know, there is a limit as to what you can do to get such free organic traffic, and resulting leads, especially if you are starting out and may not have a lot of ranking content that can pull in traffic and leads…
Therefore, in this tutorial you will read about some other paid options you can consider in addition to organic traffic, namely paid traffic.
Paid traffic has a negative connotation to it for me (or it used to, more accurately), but it really can be quite attractive if you think it through…Read more below to see what I mean!
So, let’s get’s started…
IDEAS TO SECURE MORE AND DEVELOP THE LEADS YOU SECURE…
As stated in my introduction, I have covered the different methods of generating free traffic and through this more leads in other training, you can find on the website.
We’ll cover these first…
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Free Sources
Earlier this year I worked very hard to put together a one-stop shop for you through a 10-part series that you use to drill down into a number of methods such as video marketing, blogging, viral posts, guest blogging, podcasts, etc…
You can find that training here (Part One of Ten):
==> FREE TRAFFIC SERIES TRAINING <==
The subjects covered in this series will give you plenty of ideas on how you can start taking action to generate organic traffic and then get the viewers to subscribe to your list.
To break it up, and because of the length of each, I did separate tutorials on each source covered. Today, though, you will learn more about paid traffic methods, which offer a lot of advantages to organic (free) traffic…
With paid traffic, once you have a system that is working on a small scale, you can easily scale your advertising campaign and grow your leads and overall business almost at will…
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Paid Sources
Source One: Email Marketing
This is a marketing concept that some will say is not truly paid. There are costs involved, however, so technically it IS a paid-for-source.
Of course, the focus of this marketing method is on the leads you already have, so in reality, this low-cost marketing is set up to leverage efforts already made to get the leads…
The “cost” for email marketing campaigns are the time on the front end getting the leads and then paying for the autoresponder service that will send out the series of emails you prepare.
The reason I mention this method here is that certainly you can grow your lead lists by sending out emails that are compelling, informative, and help build trust with your leads…
Once your reputation and brand become more well known, and the trust level increases, these leads will be talking to others they are working with…
It generates more buzz and interest in your pages, offers, and promotions with other prospective clients. This, in turn, will help you get more leads…
To take advantage of email marketing, you will need an autoresponder. This is a tool that automates much of the work involved with emails and works 24/7 for you.
I cover some choices you can consider when selecting your autoresponder service here:
=> Choosing An Autoresponder Service Provider <=
Using an autoresponder will help you automate your campaigns, and as many will tell you, the money is in that lead list that you work to develop.
The bottom line is to look for the provider that will do what you need but not try to upsell you on bells and whistles you really do not need that will add a lot of cost to the service but do little for conversions…
Rather than going into this in any depth, you can look at other training I have on emails and campaigns to see how you can improve this element of your marketing program…
I have some additional training on effective email marketing here:
===> Emails – The Art Of The Offer <===
This link takes you to my 3-part series on effective email creation and what lies behind email marketing campaigns. There you will gain a good deal of useful information you can implement.
Source Two – Pay Per Click Options
Of course, the main purpose of paying for traffic is to get sales…A secondary purpose, however, is to get more leads…
As you set up your marketing campaigns, you will want to make sure that you have built in the capability to capture the contact information on people that take action for your offers.
Understanding this tool before making any rash judgments based on hearsay will help the individual better understand the many merits it can bring.
Just as is the case for any tool used for the purpose of online marketing, there is some risk, and through training such as this you can minimize the risk.
I mentioned that I too thought as many do that pay per click traffic is an expensive option, but I can say from my experience that if properly used, it can generate a huge income in a short period of time, and with less effort than content development (i.e. blogs!).
This is because pay per click provides you immediate results, there is no waiting for ranking or people to get to know you, etc. You pay to have interested people shown your ads so they can follow up and click through to your offer.
Using pay per click advertising on search engines such as YouTube, Bing, Google or Facebook will generate the clicks to your offers much quicker than with organic, and in a focused manner.
You control almost everything using per click marketing…How much money you will spend, who will see the ads, when they will see, etc. You will have to follow the rules for each platform, but that is simply a matter of reading and heeding…
You can also geotarget your ads using pay per click…The host of your ads normally allows you to place the advertisement with users from a particular location or demographic.
Source Three – Solo or Banner Ads
Solo advertising is yet another paid tool used to get your products or services in front of the viewing public. Although not as targeted as pay per click, it can be effective if you carefully select the sites you will display your ads on.
You will find there are some options on how to pay, i.e. pay per click or perhaps a flat rate payment. Such sites you may consider would be forum websites for your niche, public sites that curate news or videos, etc.
Some things to consider when designing an effective banner:
- Make the ad as attention -grabbing as possible. You have literally milliseconds to grab them…Or they will be off elsewhere.
- Use large and attention-getting large logos.
- Use “attractive” looking people in the ads – most people like to look and admire such individuals. It subconsciously works on an emotional level, a good thing to make the ad relatable.
Source Four – Direct Mail
Whatever choice or choices you make for paid ads, the idea is to get a product or service noticed. You want to grab and keep the attention of the viewer long enough to get them to click through to your offer.
Direct mail gives you such an opportunity. These are still used a LOT by offline marketers and too little these days by online marketers.
The following points will help you understand my thoughts:
- Direct mail ensure that your ad will at least be looked at briefly by recipients if nothing more than on the way to the recycle bin! Can we say the same for other ad platforms?
- With the use of Direct Mail, the viewer is immediately given the “whole picture” of what your offer is all about. Fact and figures are often included in the information to provide the evidence of what is being promoted.
- The same axioms that have applied for years with this type of marketing will apply to your ads. People will more likely stop and look at interesting and enticing designs, ones that give them the information needed, and convince them to take action – they may have to get on their computer and look (likely)…
- Just by taking the actions of (1) not throwing your DM ad and (2) them jumping on a computer to look at what you are offering, you know that you have an interested potential customer…
More Free Sources
There are yet more resources at your fingertips if you think outside the box…
Face To Face Marketing
This was a tactic that I personally used with great effectiveness over the years. It is true that for some people this style of marketing can be quite challenging or daunting…
If you are comfortable, consider hosting live presentations using videos or webinars, or attending local community events if it is offline type business you are going after.
There are a variety of ways to present your offers and sell the people you face using a variety of sales tools…
Miscellaneous Means
These include such means as offline advertising through TV, Radio, podcasts, cable television, local newspapers, etc. These are paid as well and the costs can vary wildly.
My recommendation is to keep your costs down as much as possible and use as targeted an audience as is practical if you decide to go with one of these paid traffic methods.
Summary
These days the focus is mostly with online paid traffic. As you have seen, there are still some viable offline advertising options that can help your program.
Some of these are free, and only require a little work on your part. Think about supermarkets, laundromats, dry-cleaning stores, convenience stores, etc.
All of these generally will have a board or area where you can drop your contact information on and you never know what you will get. Obviously, this is a hit or miss thing, but it can help, and is free!
ELEMENTS TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU CAPTURE THE TRAFFIC YOU ARE GETTING…
Now that we have covered in detail the many ways to get traffic to your offers, next we need to discuss how to capture the traffic to make them leads that you can then start developing a relationship with.
Even if this traffic does not purchase from you, you will want to gather their contact information. This is done using a variety of tools that entices the visitor to provide this information to you.
Whether it is paid traffic or organic free traffic, having a lead magnet in place should they NOT buy is smart. Yet again I have some good training on this that you can use.
You will find this training here:
===> LEAD MAGNETS <===
These can be presented in a manner that people will be attracted, i.e. pop-ups on exit, redirect if your offer is declined, or etc. The training will cover some key points for you to consider.
It is key that the content that you will give away has value for the viewer. Best is when it is something that they would be willing and ready to pay for…
Of course, you will need an opt-in page and an autoresponder set up to send out the confirmation mail (2 step opt-in is best to make sure that you are not accused of sending out spam), and a thank you page and download link where your giveaway is stored…
Having said all of this, it is key that you have traffic to get people to opt-in and grow your lead list. That is why I focused a LOT of traffic today and getting the lead magnet and pages in place is part of your planning…
Of all the methods I talked about for traffic, I like the PPC, Solo Ads, and Direct Marketing methods best…These all bring you targeted traffic that is interested in what you are offering. That is the kind of traffic you are looking for to add to your lead list!
CONCLUSION
Today we went over a lot of information and ideas that can help you to get traffic, have your system set up to accept opt-ins for your lead list, and then a few ways to develop those leads into buying customers…
The intention was to get you started thinking on ways to get solid leads that wbenefitnfit you for years to come…The ways you can pay for traffic efficiently, the ways to work on free traffic, and offer you some alternatives…
Now it is up to you to get busy and start using some of the many methods presented in this tutorial and the other linked training tutorials to start getting more solid leads for your online marketing program!
Have fun!
FINAL POINT
I ask to consider taking a moment to rate this article on getting solid above (even if you didn’t like it!). This provides feedback to me and to others who stop by! You will find the rating stars near the tutorial title…
In that light, if this post was helpful and you think could use the content for their own marketing programs, please share this post with them…I have some convenient social buttons you will find on the site (top right side).
Lastly, take just a FEW moments more to add your own ideas, feedback, and maybe experiences on getting more solid leads today in the comment section below.
When we share with one another and can have a decent discussion, we all will learn and grow. That is exactly what this site is all about…Thanks in advance for your cooperation and participation…
Cheers!
ABOUT DAVE:
Dave has been involved in sales for 20 years with offline products and has been fortunate to have traveled the world while realizing up to $4 million USD a month in gross sales of products he promoted.
He has brought that experience to the online world and this is one of his online ventures. This site is intended to present ideas, products, tools, tips and more that will help all those seeking to make money online have success.
Subjects covered are diverse, but in totem, you can learn a lot about the things that you will need to have success with online business right here. This includes things to do and things NOT to do!
Enjoy!