The number one problem that most businesses have is traffic, so lets focus on traffic sources. In this article I would like to outline my main traffic sources and then do a short intro into each one.
First let's talk about email. Obviously it's important to build a list of interested prospects, if you're not doing this then you should start. What are the main ways you can do this? Having a Newsletter sign-up is one way. I use Mail Chimp, it has a free tier that is really powerful.
Also make sure that you're collecting emails on your website. On my website, I have a pop up survey that opens when people leave the page. I have it set up so that if anyone completes the survey I get instantly notified on an app on my cell phone, and I can instantly send them an email sequence.
I am using Appointment Engine for this.
Inside this software there is a tagging system where I can program automation's, so for example, in the diagram below, a survey submission fires a tag that automatically sends an email. This software can also automate text messages and be optimized for other traffic sources.
Clean up you data
A lot of businesses, especially when they're first starting out, have a messy database. You need to have your database organized in such a way that you can easily upload it into various systems- like for example Facebook. Here is a link to a course by Ben Collins, who is an expert in spread sheets. I have taken some of his courses and he is excellent. This particular course is about how to clean up your data. This is something that a lot of business owners need to do. Clean up your data and develop practices that are streamlined going forward. I am not affiliated in any way with this, just know it's a good product.
Offline Events
In Facebook they have something called offline events, by putting your spreadsheets into the proper format, you can upload phone numbers, names, addresses and of course emails and Facebook is smart enough to try and match them up too people's Facebook accounts. If you have a customer list that you have gathered from in store sales or some other real world traffic sources, it makes sense to create a custom audience in Facebook using that data. This is one of the ways to really maximize Facebook.
Google ads also has a similar functionality, and in both cases it greatly increases your reach and effectiveness.
Facebook and Google as Traffic Sources
An obvious way to get traffic is to use paid advertising. I have the great Chrome extension called Keywords Everywhere, its free and it allows me to see the search volume of anything I type into the Google search engine.
So for example, lets type into Google, Digital Marketing Agency Toronto, and lets see what the Chrome extension can tell us.
So I can see that there are 1300 searches for this term per month, and I would pay $15.75 per click. This is a very competitive key word, and it may seem expensive, but is it really? Compared to the old days where people advertised on the radio and in the newspaper, it's actually kind of cheap. For $1000 you would get around 63 clicks. Considering the life time value of a single client it is very likely worth it. 1300 per month is a lot of traffic, and the only reason people are typing this phrase into Google is because they are actively searching for an agency. This has high buyer intent and it is worth the money.
Download the extension and check to see how many people are searching for your product or service in your city.
Lead Ads are a great Traffic source
Lead Ads on Facebook are useful for building lists. The advertisement will open up into a lead form that is already populated with the prospects email, and it tends to be the email they use most often, because it is the one the signed up to Facebook with.
The image below shows the expected reach of a $10 per day budget for a lead ad targeting business owners in the city of Toronto. A budget of $300 per month would likely average 7 leads per day, so in 30 days you could expect 210 leads. That would mean you would be paying around $1.43 per lead. Not bad I would say.
You can automate Facebook Lead Ads with Zapier. The service has a free tier where you can have up to 5 two step zaps per month for free.
You can automatically zap the lead ad into your MailChimp newsletter list. I do want to point out however that Lead Ads are a premium zap and you can't use them for free, but there are loads of other zaps to explore.
Social Media
Another obvious source of traffic is social media, a lot of companies are still not taking full advantage of this. I do think this is changing as time goes by- it's just becoming such a big part of the fabric of our lives. It's a good idea to automate something in terms of social media and to make a continuous effort to keep it up to date.
I am using a really great piece of software for writing this article, it's called StoryChief. It helps me optimize my article for Search Engine Optimization and when I hit the publish button I will automatically publish it to my Wordpress, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn personal and business profile, Google My Business, my MailChimp newsletter list, Medium and also to those on my press release list. It does this and more with the click of one button, easily one of my favorite pieces of software.
Solo Ads
Another great place for traffic sources is something called solo ads, and a good platform for buying solo ads is Udimi. Most top marketers, top affiliates and heavy earners are on Udimi, and they have millions of customers. Unlike other marketplaces you can talk directly with the people you're buying the traffic from and you get personal attention. You can start with as little as $50. The sellers basically have their own big lists and you rent the lists from them. Check it out here.
SEO
And finally this list would not be complete without mentioning Search Engine Optimization. This is all the things you do to get to the first page of Google organic search results. Search engine optimization is another way to get traffic, it's misleading to say it's free because it's not, it takes time and if you're using a professional it takes money as well. However, it is also was well worth it. Blogging and article writing is a big part of SEO. As I have already mentioned the StoryChief software helps you optimize for SEO.
Conclusion
I think the main thing to understand is that this takes consistent effort and it also takes money, however the results will pay for themselves.
