Avinash Kaushik - world leader in web business optimisation
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C7 - Traffic building - Internet Marketing Communications
Traffic Building. Sadly it’s not always the best products that succeed but rather reasonably good ones that (a) everyone knows about and (b) everyone can easily find when they need them. The same is true of web sites. This chapter shows you how to build traffic – how to acquire the right visitors to your site in order to achieve the right marketing outcomes for you. We will also show you that to succeed with your online communications also means gaining different forms of visibility on partner sites which are themselves successful in traffic building. This is an outline of content for the Traffic Building chapter from my book eMarketing eXcellence authored with PR Smith. You can follow relevant links on Traffic Building at the bottom of the page.
Traffic Building - Introduction
Generating traffic is vital to achieving e-marketing objectives, no matter whether the aim is sell, speak, serve, save or sizzle (see Chapter 1). What are the key characteristics of effective traffic building? In this section we will introduce three key aspects of traffic building:
1 Targets – specific objectives for traffic building need to be developed before embarking on a traffic building campaign. Traffic building objectives are essentially tactics to achieve wider e-marketing objectives.
2 Techniques – traffic building involves combining new online digital media channels and traditional offline communication techniques to promote the web site proposition and so encourage visits. Achieving the correct mix of traffic-building techniques is vital, but difficult.
Use your web analytics systems as your ally to understand which elements of your communications mix are effective. As Figure 7.1 shows, web analytics tools like Google Analytics, which is an excellent free tool we recommend for small-medium businesses, show the range of traffic sources and you can even drill down to find individual sites or search terms by which visitors find your site.
3 Timing – when should traffic building occur? Smart E-marketers include both specific campaigns, perhaps to launch a site, new product or promotion, but also they make investment in a continuous process of attracting visitors by search or affiliates. After all, online customers are looking for products, services and experiences throughout the year, not only when your campaign is live...
Topics and learning outcomes for
- 7.1 Introduction. Assess different options for traffic building.
- 7.2 Search engine marketing. Use different approaches to improve a site’s listing in search engines including search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC).
- 7.3 Online PRManage your reputation online through supporting journalists and maximizing your representation on portals and social networks.
- 7.4 Online partnerships.Use link-building, affiliate marketing ,and online sponsorships to exploit the network effect of the Internet.
- 7.5 Interactive advertising. Identify the elements of a successful online display ad campaign
- 7.6 Opt-in e-mail. Build traffic and relationships through opt-in e-mail.
- 7.7 Viral marketing Assess the relevance of viral marketing.
- 7.8 Offline traffic building. Create a balance between offline and online promotion techniques
- 7.9 Control. Monitor and improve the effectiveness of traffic building
- 7.10 Resourcing. Construct a traffic building plan using the right internal and external resources.
Most recent articles related to Traffic building
This page lists my latest articles on recent developments in Traffic building
Links for Chapter - Traffic Building
- A4UForum. Used by affliates to discuss approaches and compare programmes.
- Atlas DMT Research Insights. Detailed research on effectiveness of search marketing and advertising such as impact of frequency and reach on ad effectiveness.
- ClickZ Experts. An excellent portal for the online marketer to learn more, with channels for different e-tools such as e-mail marketing, search and ad buying.
- Digital Marketing Strategy Guides. A summary of strategy and tools available for the full range of digital marketing channels.
- Keyword suggestion tools. The latest version of a range of free and paid tools for natural and paid search.
- Doubleclick Knowledge Central. US, European and Asian trends on responsiveness to advertising campaigns.
- E-consultancy. One of the best sources for details about traffic building tools such as search and affiliates. Includes specific channels on each with buyers’ guides and best practice guides.
- E-marketing Excellence Book homepage). An index of all E-marketing links for each chapter in this book.
- Google Webmaster tools. Provides a useful set tools for sites verified by their owners including index inclusion, linking and ranking for different phrases indifferent locations.
- E-metrics. Articles and insights about web analytics collated by Jim Sterne of Target Marketing.
- iMediaConnection. ‘State of the art’ articles and guidance on interactive advertising techniques.
- Ken McGaffins Linking Matters gives a basic summary of a commonsense approach to link-building which covers some of the approaches above. See also linkmeister Eric Wards link-building articles.
- SearchEngineWatch). This is the premier source for keeping up-to-date on the significance of different search engines and the techniques they use.
- Search Engine Land. Blog by Danny Sullivan, the leading commentator on the search engine industry containing updates on all major and many minor developments.
- Yahoo Site Explorer) can be used to check number of pages within the Yahoo! index and identify links from other sites.
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Thanks, Dave Chaffey.
