Time to activate the last of the Big 3 strategies for building traffic… #1) Free Traffic #2) Paid Traffic #3) Traffic Through Relationship-Building
Even when you do have good first-time traffic, most people don’t come back over and over again to most sites. It’s nothing personal. It’s simply a big Web out there... and visitors figure that they might as well see something new! So, unless the very nature of your site naturally tends to generate frequent, repeat visits, realize that your customer is in “now or never” mode.
So the question is... how do you reach her again and again, after she leaves?
You need a Backup Response, an alternative reason to visit. A good Backup Response must... • deliver a benefit to your visitor at a “no-brainer” price (free is best), and... • provide you with an ongoing opportunity to remind your customer about you and your product/service or the merchant-partners that you represent.
Sooner or later, a healthy percentage of those who trigger your Backup Response will deliver your MWR -- a sale or a contract, depending on your situation. Why? Because you’re building a quality, long term, repeated exposure, one-to-one relationship with your visitor/customer.
Build Relationships With An E-Zine
The most common Backup Response on the Web is the e-zine (an e-mailed newsletter). Once you have some decent numbers, it takes only a day to get an e-zine up and running.
A good e-zine tells its readers to revisit you… • to click on something missed during the first visit • to respond to an announcement you make • to see new content you’ve added
The e-zine builds a relationship of trust between you and your visitors. Put yourself in the visitor’s mind. A new e-mail arrives from you. Full of excellent content that meets her needs, the e-mail prompts her either… • to click on the link back to your site to take you up on your great offer • to click on a link to one of your affiliate partners • to file in her memory that you are the person with the answers to her questions.
You will use the content in your e-zine to get your MWR. It’s fine to give lots of information. But use that information to PREsell. Give your visitor a reason to click on a link back to your site or directly to one of your affiliates.
Build a Sales Page For Your E-Zine
How good of you to provide a free e-zine! But will your visitors subscribe?...
It’s free but… you still need to sell the idea that another piece of e-mail is a good idea. After all, your visitor is going to give up her e-mail address and the time it takes to read what you send.
While she’s on your site, she needs to feel that continued contact with you will be worth her while. So you will… • stress the benefits of your particular newsletter • add a clear “call to action” • finish with a subscription form
Make sure the benefits are clear. Add a testimonial. Link to back issues. (Some Web masters write an issue or two no one else receives so they will have back issues. Visitors can see what they will get.)
Stress that your e-zine is free.
Then tell her exactly what to do… Subscribe!
Develop A Format Template… And Stay With It!
Readers like familiarity and predictability… so develop a template, and stick with it.
1) Name your E-zine. You want your subscriber to smile in recollection when she sees it. Make the name short, memorable, descriptive, and relevant.
2) Subject, including Issue Number and Date
3) Small logo
4) First text block -- start off your e-zine with a catchy benefit-oriented slogan. For example, under your Cactus Gardening logo, you might type into your first text block... “Prickly Issues, Creative Solutions”
5) After that, experiment with a combination of text blocks, line breaks and divider lines, so that you can deliver the following “starting information”... i) Valuable PREselling Proposition -- stress the key points of your e-zine. ii) A promo pass-along -- add something like this... If you like this e-zine, please do a friend and me a big favor and “pay it forward.” If a friend DID forward this to you and if you like what you read, please subscribe by visiting... (Then add a link to your page that promotes your opt-in newsletter.)
6) Issue number and Date (you did it in the subject, now repeat it in the body)
7) Table of Contents -- show your reader what you’re covering in this issue. Provide tantalizing “read me” headlines in your TOC.
8) From this point, experiment with… • headline blocks to start each section • dividers • line breaks
9) Then the content!
10) You might want to add one more text block before the closing information (unsubscribe, etc. -- details a bit later) for your readers. This text block could include anything, for example... Comments? Ideas? Feedback? I’d love to hear from you. Just reply to this e-zine and tell me what you think!
11) Closing information. You need to give readers a chance to unsubscribe, etc.
Make sure to save all this as a template for future e-zines (more on this below), so you don’t have to do it all over again.
Set Up Your Subscription
You’ve already created a form for subscribers on your sales page. You may opt to include this form on other pages, or at the least include a link from other TIER 2 or TIER 3 pages to your sales page.
Do include an e-zine button on your navigation bar so visitors can find the sales page easily. And be sure to include many references to your e-zine so your visitor has many opportunities to sign up.
To prevent spamming and/or to prevent people from giving other people’s names and addresses without consent, use the “double opt-in” approach… your visitor must confirm her subscription.
Advertise Your E-Zine
List your newsletter in major e-zine directories on the Web. You’ll find these work much the same way as the main directories. Drill down through the categories and sub-categories to find the best place and submit your newsletter to the most appropriate section of the directory.
Try some tinkering first. Do a search for your most important keywords at each directory, and note from which categories the returned results are coming. Check for keywords in the Title and the Description, as well. Remember, your subscriber is most likely to find you as a result of a keyword search. So do your best to ensure your site is listed for each particular keyword.
Here are a couple of suggestions to get you started…
There’s a pleasant bonus when you market your newsletter. Not only will you build your e-publication, you will build more traffic to your site (if you provide a link from your subscription page to your home page). On top of that, you will also generate some all-important link popularity which is always a good thing!
Build Relationships With Other Technologies
Build Relationships With Forms
Forms are an easy and safe way to communicate and interact with your visitors and customers. SPAM-bots can read e-mail addresses off your Web site so having a Contact Form in place of an e-mail link is essential.
Forms usage is limited only by your imagination… • conduct a survey or poll • create a series of sequential Autoresponder messages or an e-course • collect feedback from your visitors • get leads or referrals
Build Relationships With A Blog
An e-zine generally goes out from once per week to once per month. If you have enough content to write more frequently, consider a blog or Web diary. Give your visitors daily updates on your topic, offer your opinion on some aspect of your theme, and/or announce a new feature offered by one of your affiliates.
If you’re finding it difficult to publish a weekly or monthly e-zine, then blogging is probably not for you. Here’s why…
A blog is basically a frequently changing Web page. Yes, it offers the ability for folks to reply and track back. But when you boil it down, a blog is frequently changing content. The key word in that statement is “frequently.” A blog is a bigger commitment than an e-zine. If it’s not at least daily, it’s just not very active.
Build Relationships With RSS
Don’t confuse a blog with RSS. Your blog is the content. RSS is how you distribute your content.
“RSS” stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” And that is exactly what it is... a new way for you to distribute content. That content can be any electronic communication (Web pages, m3ps, video, etc.)
A comprehensive overview, including easy-to-understand “how-to” instructions, is available at… http://rss.sitesell.com/ This site provides everything you might want to know about RSS (but were afraid to ask)! Check out the information and see if this relationship-builder is right for your business.
You have just learn about building a quality, long term, repeated exposure, one-toone relationship with your visitor/customer. It’s about building trust, credibility and a sense of community. The next chapter you will learn to analyze your traffic base from different angles...
