Getting Started In Your Online Business: Part 4

One of the essential skills of internet marketing is the ability to drive traffic to whatever you’re promoting, selling, re-selling, affilate-ing (is that a word?), social media marketing, whatever. You need traffic. Everyone either knows this or pretends to know this. But is all traffic good traffic?

Let’s look at Joe. Now, Joe here is new to online marketing. He’s got a few great ideas from the SMART Congress he recently attended and now he’s all set to promote/sell/affiliate/Facebook his passion. He went and got a website, a respectable start. Nothing wrong with his enthusiasm, of course. He invests some money in online advertising blasting out his ad to every Tom, Dick, Harry, Mary and Jill but then gets a reality check to the tune of a large charge to his credit card for advertising costs. And then he wonders why his pockets are not only empty, they’re deepening, and his sales are low or non-existent.

But Joe’s not one to give up. He’s determined to succeed at internet marketing. Go Joe!

So, he consults an internet coach (a very valuable resource) who advises him of a better way to advertise that stands a far better chance of resulting in conversions to sales for his product or service. So he tweaks his ads so they ONLY show up to a SPECIFIC group of people who are not only MOST INTERESTED in his products or services, but who are also ready and willing to RESPOND to what he’s offering.

Joe has learnt something a lot of people never ever find out and thus still to this day, continue to wonder why they keep failing. Yes, they have traffic, a lot of traffic; but not the sales. Joe has learnt two priceless words in his quest for traffic “targeted” and “qualified”.

What is targeted traffic? People who are specifically interested in the products or services he provides are the people he wants to target. The chances of converting those users are much higher than the chances of converting a user who landed on his site accidentally and has no interest in what he has to offer. So if Joe ONLY spends money advertising to people who already have a strong interest in what he has to offer, then his conversion rate will likely be high, and his income will also be high.

What is qualified traffic? Qualified users are those who are NOT ONLY interested in his products or services, but are able and READY to actually buy. It’s the difference between “window shoppers” and those who have a real need for the product, the money, and the willingness to purchase the product.

So, how did Joe go about fine-tuning his advertising campaign? He’s a SMART one.

Now Joe’s passion is extreme sports fishing and his business is centered around it. He doesn't want just the average enthusiast, he wants customers who love the open sea, and are looking to go out on a yacht to do it. He obviously turns to Facebook for his ad campaign.

In his first attempt at advertising, before he understood the importance of showing ads only to targeted, qualified individuals, he only just designed a campaign that sounded exciting or intriguing, but aimed it at everyone. What kind of traffic would he have shown that ad to? Well, we all know how that turned out.

Now that he knows, Joe first chooses to only show ads to people interested in sports.

After thinking about it, he realizes that’s still way too general, so he narrows that down to people who enjoy outdoor sports. More thought, and he adds fishing to the mix.

Finally, he knows his service is expensive, so he wants to qualify his targeted audience as much as possible. Facebook doesn't have an “Look at me! I’m rich” category, but Joe can make some guesses on finding those people who are more likely to be willing afford his prices. So he also targets various interests including yachts, for example.

Now that he’s narrowed his ad campaign down to a very targeted group of people who are more likely to be qualified as well. He can choose many other criteria like location, marital status, age group, tweaking his campaign until he finds the sweet spot of targeted, qualified users that are most likely to sign up for his specialized service.

Almost overnight, Joe has become a businessman who no longer empties his pockets while chasing after everyone, offering them his services. He now understands why “targeted” and “qualified” traffic matter, and is currently enjoying his own extreme adventure in internet marketing (and raking in the profits of course).

Success Resources: http://www.srpl.net/

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