Hello again

Today we want to talk about how you generate traffic, how you collect names to add to your list. In Article Three we talked about the importance of your list. If, God forbid, your entire operation were destroyed by fire or flood on Sunday and the only thing you saved was your disk with your list on it, you could be back up and running by Monday.

Traffic

Traffic, quite simply, is what you use to build your list. Traffic consists of the names of people who visit your website, see your classified ad or otherwise look at what you have on offer. This is such an important subject we will need a number of articles to cover it well. Today we can only talk about the basics.

There is something very important you must remember when thinking about traffic. In Article One we talked about conversion rates. These are the numbers of people who buy from you compared with the total number who view your offer. Conversion rates are expressed as percentages.

Direct marketing is built around targeted traffic: We place our classified ad in the "Business Opportunities" section of the Sunday paper, or we rent a mailing list of people who have already bought products similar to ours. We do this because conversion rates for targeted traffic are higher, often much higher, than for non-targeted traffic. This is what direct marketing is really all about.

Targeting is something you need to think about when looking at ways to generate traffic. If you get a 0.5% (1/2%) conversion on a non-targeted mailing list of 10,000 names, you end up with 50 names on your list. If you get a 2% conversion on a targeted list of 5,000 names, you end up with 100 names on your list.

If you paid $750 for the 10,000 names, your cost for conversion is $15 per name. If you paid $500 for the 5,000 names, your cost for conversion is $5.00 per name. $750 for 10,000 names might look like a better deal. In fact, it is not (sorry for all the numbers, but this is important).

When you are looking at traffic, think about your cost per name for every name you add to your list, not just about total numbers on a list you are planning to rent.

There are all sorts of ways to generate traffic, some of which depend on your business model (we are not going to discuss these in detail. We shall leave this for later articles):

• Classified advertising - Article Twenty-Eight
• Press releases - Article Thirty-Two
• Articles you write for publication - Article Thirty-Three
• Rented mailing lists, snail mail - Article Twenty-Nine
• Rented mailing lists, email - Article Twenty-Nine
• Viral marketing - Article Twenty-Five
• Free reports and newsletters - Article Thirty-Four
• Search engine placement - Article Thirty-Five
• Pay-per-click search engines - Article Thirty Five
• Speaking at other marketers seminars - Article Twenty-Six
• Advertising in newsletters - Article Thirty-Six
• Discussion boards and forums - Article Thirty-Seven
• And probably a few more we haven't thought of

Probably the most interesting thing about traffic generation is that if you ask 14 experts about it you'll get 14 different answers. Here is another example of a situation where you need to identify one model and go with it. What does your guru do?

Some on this list will cost you some money, but some are free. I want to say just a bit about two of these:

Press releases are a form of free advertising that can generate traffic for you. Browse through any magazine on your newsagent's shelves. Here you will find articles about new products and people who have done things of interest to readers. These are the result of press releases. Writing press releases is a special copywriting skill that some marketers have turned into an art form.

People who publish newsletters are always looking for good content. If you enjoy writing, you can produce articles for publication by others. At the bottom of each article you include your copyright and your ?signature?. Here your signature includes your name, your website, email address and a bit about what a great direct marketing guru you are.

It's important to remember you must write informative articles full of useful content. There articles are not blatant advertisements for you or your products. When your name is out there and you are recognized as somebody who produces good content, word will get around. Your signature is your invitation for people to visit your website or contact you.

Finally, stay away from SPAMMERS (we shall talk about SPAM in detail in Article Thirty-One)! When you are new in the business, it's tempting to go for an offer such as Buy this DVD with 7,500,000 email addresses on it for only $47! Don't. DVDs like these are produced by SPAMMERS for SPAMMERS. Reputable people in this business, especially the big players do not SPAM. You shouldn't either.

That's all for this time. See you soon.

Next time we shall talk about duplication and fulfilment: how your products actually move from you to your customer.

Thanks for listening :-)

Copyright  2006 Mary Rice-Johnston & Golden Goose Direct. All rights reserved.

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