What Kind of Traffic Converts Best?

592 days ago

Direct: My take is simple, it’s the best! Either the URL has been passed by word of mouth referral which is likely to result in conversion, this is a repeat customer,...

Direct:

My take is simple, it’s the best! Either the URL has been passed by word of mouth referral which is likely to result in conversion, this is a repeat customer, or it is an evangelist showing another potential customer your product/service. Nothing comes close to the conversion value of direct traffic; the following according to Avinash Kaushik:

1. People who are your existing customers / past purchasers, they’ll type URL and come to the site or via bookmarks.

2. People familiar with your brand. They need a solution and your name pops up into their head and they type.

3. People driven by word of mouth. Someone recommends your business / solution to someone else and boom they show up at the site. Uninvited, but we love them!

4. People driven by your offline campaigns. Saw an ad on TV, heard one on radio, saw a billboard and were motivated enough to type the URL and show up.

[If you were really smart you would use campaign tagged vanity URL so you can segment them!]

5. [Remember the part below, but.] Free, non-campaign, traffic.

Read more: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/#ixzz10PwWeTQ4

Search Engine Results:

Normally highly target, depending on the search engine and how cute/tricky your content architect has decided to be. These are very good because they are free in one sense, however you really pay for them in another sense. Free because there is no charge from the search engine, expensive because this is really a long-term process with painstaking attention to detail and constant upkeep. At the end of the day, an online business [or website] with a good SEO presence (especially in Google Search) will be exponentially better off than those without one. This [search] traffic is extremely valuable in my opinion, probably second most just behind direct traffic.

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What Type of Leads Close Best?

638 days ago

A blog on how to look at the general conversion 4 traditional styles of Marketing / Sales methods. Through experience and reference here is a rough chart for mapping (or better...

A blog on how to look at the general conversion 4 traditional styles of Marketing / Sales methods.

Through experience and reference here is a rough chart for mapping (or better yet thinking about) how your marketing efforts (online or off) translate to conversions or closes.

I recently finished an Internet Marketing course that discussed the following type of leads and their rate of conversion: Direct or Referral leads, Networked or “Elbow-Greesed” leads, Advertised leads, & Cold-Call leads.

The proverbial “Word of Mouth Rule” does just that, it rules! Consider any product or service that you yourself have been interested in, chances are you consulted someone (a real human) that you trusted for advice on it. Whether your mind was made up in one direction or another, you probably sought out advice to affirm or deny that decision. Word of Mouth in the world of web marketing translates to “direct traffic” or referral traffic”. According to industry standards these close at a very high rate, in this case let’s say at 80%.

Next we have Networked leads aka “Elbow Greesed”… call it whatever you want, but anyone that’s been in business of any kind long enough, knows the value of rubbing elbows with the right people. Maybe it’s through Social Media – Blogging or being featured in a blog, through Facebook or Twitter, or even via non-virtual networks like industry conferences/seminars or podcasts. Regardless of the type of network vehicle, networking is essential for getting traffic over. Now this can also be argued to be referral traffic, and analytically (web tracking and measurement) speaking it is referral, but for the sake of this conversation we are calling it networked leads as opposed to the above discussed Word of Mouth Referrals. These are understood to close at a rate of 50%.

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