What Traffic Generators Do For Online Marketers.
Traffic Generation Is A Major Part Of Any Marketing Funnel
By Ronald Kennedy
March 4, 2023
Traffic is so important in regard to building traffic for any online business. This is why traffic generating tools are the way to go, in regard to reaching first place rankings in google!
As affiliate marketers, this is where we want to be! We want to always strive for the ‘top position’ on the 1st page of google. What traffic generators do for online marketers will help you achieve top ranking goal position.
Here are some other possible traffic sources:
- Google AdWords – when people search for your optimized keyword, they see the ad above or below the search results. Advertisers pay per click – thus the term “pay per click” (PPC) advertising.
- Facebook Advertising – this is mostly for business-to-consumer (B2C) advertising; but Facebook ads can work for some B2B advertising, particularly the business opportunity field. This is also a form of PPC advertising.
- Linkedin – Linkedin is more appropriate than Facebook for B2B advertising though the effectiveness of Linkedin advertising is still an open debate.
- Twitter – another example of PPC advertising, but the targeting of Twitter ads isn’t as specific as that of Facebook and LinkedIn ads.
- Search engine optimization (SEO) – publishing a lot of content optimized by keyword is one of the best ways of generating traffic since, these days, most of your prospects are using Google to find products and services.
- People also use Google and other search engines to discover information about something that could solve their problem or answer a question.
This is why traffic generating tools are the way to go, in regard to reaching first place rankings in google!
(As affiliate marketers, this is where we want to be!)
Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing
Lets take a look at a company called HubSpot.
HubSpot is a B2B company that specializes in inbound marketing, offering Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and other software for marketers and salespeople.
HubSpot describes inbound marketing as follows:
“Inbound marketing is an approach focused on attracting customers through content and interactions that are relevant and helpful – not interruptive.
With inbound marketing, potential customers find you through channels like blogs, search engines and social media.
HubSpot generates much or even most of its traffic through social media and SEO.
Let’s say I am looking for the best way to use social media to attract customers and I search for “social media marketing” in Google.
A blog post from HubSpot will likely appear high in the search engine rankings since the company has spent a lot of time and money producing an almost endless array of content on its blog and optimizing these blogs for keywords.
Thus, the prospect tends to enter HubSpot’s marketing funnel by reading one of its blog post – or perhaps by reading one of it’s Facebook post shared by a friend or advertised by the company.
Inbound marketing is the opposite of outbound marketing. In outbound marketing, the intention is to interrupt your prospect and try to grab their attention away from something else.
Perhaps the easiest way to see the difference between the two is to look at the different media they use.
Example of inbound marketing:
- SEO
- Organic shares
- Viral marketing
- YouTube video
- Blog post
- Podcast
- White papers
- Infographics
- Social media
Example of outbound marketing:
- TV Commercials
- Direct mail
- Billboards
- Banner ads
- Magazine and newspaper ads
- Radio ads
- Cold-calling
Social Media Advertising
What about social media advertising? Is it inbound or outbound marketing? This depends on the nature of the advertisement. The placement by itself doesn’t determine whether it’s inbound or outbound.
The question really is: is the advertisement valuable content, such as an advertisement for a white paper or free ebook?
If so, it is an example of inbound marketing, since the advertiser is not seeking to push product but is rather trying to engage and inform. Sometime you may ask yourself, “What can success in online marketing do for me.”
In truth, the distinction between inbound and outbound approaches in a funnel is not always clear cut.
For example, what about direct mail that promotes a free book on investing? This seems to be mainly outbound marketing. The offer is for valuable content that the prospect is attracted to. A social media ad with a free offer exhibits the same phenomenon.
So don’t get too caught up on the terminology here. Instead of restricting yourself to one, focus instead on producing a balance of inbound and outbound marketing methods.
The advantages of inbound marketing approaches in your funnel are numerous. However, the disadvantage of this approach is that it takes a lot of time to build enough content to dominate SEO as companies like HubSpot do.
Inbound marketing also takes a lot of money since inbound marketers such as HubSpot pay writers to write quality blog posts and other content.
Inbound marketing strategies are important considerations for the long term, but they will not produce much revenue in the short term.
GKIC
GKIC is a B2B company founded by author and speaker Dan Kennedy (Love this guy last name.) It specializes in marketing for small business, offering various information products and coaching that help small-business owners sell more of their products and services.
Let’s take a look at GKIC’s marketing funnel:
GKIC uses lead generation to attract customers. Where do customers enter the funnel?
From various sources, but here are a couple examples: GKIC attracts many customers through Facebook advertising.
For some time, GKIC ran an ad offering Dan Kennedy’s book on direct marketing for just one dollar.
People who bought the book were introduced to GKIC’s many products and services through web addresses and offers featured in the book.
Their marketing funnel looks something like this:
- I see the ad on Facebook for Dan Kennedy’s direct marketing book for just a dollar.
- I click on the ad and I’m brought to GKIC’s landing page, where I leave my contact information in exchange for ordering the book at a discount.
- I received the book and I’m exposed to the many offers and website references in the text.
- I may purchase more books from the company or some of it’s higher level products and seminars.
- I’m told about even higher-level services such as Kennedy’s consulting, copy writing services, and conferences.
This kind of funnel moves upward, doesn’t it? The prospect begins at the bottom and ascends to progressively more expensive products and services as the prospect perceives more of the value and trusts the merchant more.
Some of the other market funnels we’ve been looking at have been looking at have been more linear, oriented toward one primary product or service.
GKIC’s marketing funnel is based on entry-level products that introduce the customer to its various higher-level products.
GKIC’s funnel teaches the lesson that a business should always have something else to sell – and preferably, something even more expensive. Because of this upward focus, GKIC’s marketing funnel employs email marketing much more than other companies highlighted thus far.
Since GKIC requires “lead nurturing” a process in which leads are cultivated through systematic bonding and trust-building, it’s more important for GKIC to stay in front of customers. We chose GKIC just as an example.
There are several B2B (Business to Business) companies out there using this same concept and successfully working the funnel process. Same concept, just different company name!
In Conclusion
So remember, your marketing funnel should not be left to chance. Be absolutely clear on how you want to generate customers. What are the specific steps and commitments they will have to go through to convert from prospect to customer? Plan them out!
You won’t be able to map out all the details of your marketing funnel, but you do want to have a profitable plan.
Remember, that for any network marketer to succeed, you must first start with a beautiful website for your business.