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We want traffic!
We all want traffic and more of it. I know I do.
But is more traffic what we’re really after? Or is it something else?
My guess is that you don’t want traffic for the sake of traffic. Instead your end goal is to make sales from a product that you are selling or promoting on your website. Traffic generation is a means to an end and nothing else.
And to make sales you need to do a whole lot more than simply pushing thousands of strangers to your website. You need to build a relationship of trust with them.
A recent experience with Jade Craven
Jade Craven is well-known for her numerous guest posts on sites like ProBlogger and TwiTip. But the main way that she has built credibility and relationship of trust is with her interaction with other people on the net.
For example, last June she tweeted the following:
On train to Melbourne. If u want any free blogging or social media advice, just email me. I dislike trains
At the time I had some questions about my website and sales page and so I decided to take her up on her offer. I sent her a quick e-mail not really sure if or when I would get a response back. But it was worth a shot.
15 minutes later I received a 180 word response. She answered all my questions and offered to go into more detail when she was at a computer.
And she did it from an iPhone! (Seriously, how can you type on those things?)
I was very impressed that she would take the time to respond to me. She had nothing to gain from it right then. She was simply offering to help, and just as importantly, following through with her offer. At the same time she was building trust.
Because of this I know she is a real person and am 100 times more likely to read things that she recommends and buy products that she suggests. In fact, a few weeks back, I purchased an e-book on copywriting that she was promoting.
The gurus never tell you this
It seems to me that none of the self-proclaimed Internet marketing gurus tell you about the importance of building relationships with your readers. Instead they focus on finding motivated buyers, getting more traffic, scaling your business, psychological tools and tricks to make people buy, etc.
But they fail to touch on the most important subject of all: customer service. They’ve forgotten that its customers who are buying your stuff and making you money. Without customers you wouldn’t have a business at all.
What they didn’t realize is that for every sale you make there are 3 or 4 or 10 people who want to buy your stuff but they have a question about it. Or they want to trust that you are a real person selling a product and they are not going to be ripped off.
Potential customers want to be certain that there is someone they can contact if they have a question about the product after they buy.
If you take the time to interact with people, show them your real person, answer their questions, and give them confidence that you are there if they need to contact you after they buy, you will make 10 times as many sales.
The irony of it all
The irony of all of this is that people like Jade will spend way more time on customer service but probably make way more sales because of it. Because she actually cares about people she will end up with more twitter followers, more blog readers, and more posts that go viral.
When you actually care about people you end up with more traffic and higher conversion rate for the products you are selling.
But caring is hard and takes time
It is hard. And it’s time-consuming.
It’s especially hard for those people who work full-time and are trying to run a business on the side.
So if you decide not to care about your readers and potential customers then I understand your reasoning. But I must warn you that your business will probably fail.
Anyone can throw up a website with a bit of content in your niche and hope for sales. But only 0.01% of bloggers and website owners will take the time to actually care and as result make some sales.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
You're right – it's hard and it's time consuming – but it's necessary if you're going to make it. Unfortunately most people give up because they're told it's going to be easy – and when success doesn't come easily they give up. But I'm happy that it's hard work because it means that there is less competition out there willing to do a decent job!
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That's a really good point about there being less competition.
David – you are right. It's hard and time consuming. I'm now at the point where I'm going to have to set up filters because my email is becoming too overwhelming. However, it is awesome.
You are right that it leads to more sales. The first 50 or so sales were all from people I knew and had helped. Seriously, in five or so cases they were people who contacted me to connect to Dave. And it was hard because I truly believe in building relationships and I felt so icky with them buying it when my heart was saying 'they are awesome and can have it for free'
However I did have something to gain from it
The train was packed, I was standing up. I couldn't read anything and I was bored. Not many people take me up on these offers (due to timing) and I end up spending most of the hour long train ride goofing around on Twitter.
Oh and that book you bought? No aff link
Another little thing I do is let people email me when they are unsure whether or not to buy a product. Half the time I say 'wait until later as I know of a promotion/deal/upcoming launch that will be more valuable to you.'
And you know what I realized? One relationship, based on one guest post, has earned me about 10k in 18 months. Working part time around a mental illness.
Thank you so much for this post though
It makes all the bad days worth it.
Jade Craven recently posted..Behind The Scenes- 50 Netsetters Post
I had no idea that you didn't make any money from the products you recommend. You should totally be an affiliate for some of these products.
I am if they are on my site or if I mention them in a newsletter but otherwise, I don't like selling on twitter. That's my place to hang out.
I make my money in other ways that make me feel a lot nicer about it.
Jade Craven recently posted..Behind The Scenes- 50 Netsetters Post
I completely agree. I have a hard time bringing myself to sell anything on twitter. Though I have heard of some people having success with 10% of their tweets being advertisements.
It really does make a difference to build a relationship. I had a newsletter I did that with and had comments and emails to take care of that took a bit of time.
Life got hectic for me and I was in the hospital for a while so dropped back from doing that.
I still have readers on the newsletter from years ago, so must have done something right.
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