Popularity? Sure it’s nice to be noticed and all, but is that really the point? To be able to brag and say, yah…I had 1,000,000 visitors to my website last year…
That may be impressive, but why is website traffic important to your business?
Website traffic (or the number of visitors to your website) is important because the number of visitors equals the number of opportunities you have to add new customers.
The more traffic to your website, the more opportunities you have to generate qualified leads, to nurture and help solve their problem and ultimately sell your product or service, gain a new customer or client, and continue to grow your business.
Why are websites a good marketing strategy?
Your website is a piece of online real estate that you own. It can stand the test of time versus a social media profile that can get shut down because you failed to follow a rule you didn’t even know about. Now, all your effort and leads are gone!
This isn’t just about making money or getting more engagement. More website traffic in the long run can expand your product lines, help you hire more employees, open new locations, invest in research to develop more amazing services and products, and ultimately grow your business.
But a website is only a good marketing strategy to grow your business if it allows the visitor to find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. Your homepage is the first touchpoint potential customers have with you. This could be your only opportunity to capture their interest in what you’re offering.
Here’s a secret that will set you apart from your competition: don’t talk about YOU on your website - talk about YOUR CUSTOMER.
Marcus Sheridan, in his book They Ask, You Answer says it best:
“What are your buyers thinking the moment they land on your website? It comes down to this: ‘Can (your company) solve my problem (need) or not?’
That’s it. That’s what is on their minds.
Therefore, the headline of your homepage - as well as just about any other page on your site - should lead with your visitor’s primary problems, needs, questions, or worries in their words. Only afterward can you begin to introduce your company, what value you can provide, how you can address their problems and/or answer their questions, and so on.”
Your website should answer people’s questions and be educational. The ultimate goal of your website is to get the visitor to page 2. In other words, tell them what to do next and capture their information so that you can continue to nurture them as part of your business growth strategy.
What is considered good website traffic?
The larger the number of visitors to your website the better!
But not all traffic is good traffic, so you also need to focus on increasing the quality of your website traffic through SEO and quality content.
When you can increase your traffic and the quality of the visitors, the better you’ll be able to increase your website conversions and get that traffic to become paying customers!
How much website traffic do you need to grow your business?
This comes down to a simple, yet sophisticated calculation. You need to have insight into the costs and expenses your business has, and how much an average customer is worth.
When you know how much revenue you need (set goals) then you can work backwards to calculate how much website traffic you’ll need to reach those goals. Basically you’re looking at your end goal and planning backwards from there.
Fictitious Business Example:
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- Your "Cupcake Business" is up and running.
- Your business needs $5,000 a month to maintain your current budget.
- Each customer is worth $30 (they generally buy 12 cupcakes a month at $2.50 a cupcake).
- You will need to sell 2,000 cupcakes a month. Each customer on average buys 12 cupcakes a month, then you need 166.66 customers each month.
- Working backwards, on a low average…100 website visitors converts to 1 lead. At a 1% conversion rate from a lead to a customer, you’ll need 100 leads to get 1 new customer. To meet your goal of 166.66 customers, it looks like you will need to attract 1,666,666 website visitors. Phew, that seems like a lot of work.
- Keep in mind that the low conversion percentage of 1% is a conservative baseline, but businesses using online marketing strategies are seeing an increase in their conversion rates.
- If you increased your visitor to lead conversion rate to 2% and your lead to customer rate to 4% with better qualified traffic and leads, you just decreased your total website traffic goal to 208,325. That’s a decrease of 87.5% - Wow!
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Website traffic is not the only thing your business needs, and depending on your industry and market, you need to keep this in mind. But your website can play a big part in your business’s success!
Is website traffic more important than sales?
Both website traffic and sales are essential to a business growth strategy. However, having a lot of website visitors won’t do you any good if they aren’t buying your products or services.
When you can increase the quality of the website traffic and visits to your site, you’re also increasing your conversion numbers and this in turn decreases the number of new website visitors you need to maintain your business goals. Keeping in mind, it is not always about the total number of visitors, but how interested and ready to buy they are. The further your website visitors are in your sales funnel, the more interested they are in your solution or product, the greater chance you have to increase conversion.
The other big piece of the website traffic equation is your ability to capture the targeted website traffic and convert them into customers, which opens more opportunities for your business to succeed. If you are ready to capture your current website traffic as well as increase your qualified opportunities, then online marketing could be just what your business needs!
Aside from a website, what else does every business need?
In order to survive and thrive, a business needs a holistic strategy to be both profitable and fulfilling. A holistic model incorporates six areas of business where leaders need minimum competency to be effective leaders and business operators.
1. Vision
Without a vision that is clear, complete, and compelling, your company will always struggle to reach its full potential. The business may languish in mediocrity, which is almost worse than failure. People perish for lack of vision and so do companies.
2. Leadership
Strong leadership requires robust health in two parts: your inner game and your outer game. A poor inner game will result in negative, reactive leadership; but a strong inner game will result in stable, strong, creative leadership, the kind of leadership that enables you to empower others.
3. Management & Operations
You need to understand how to put the right people in the right positions, and then empower them to live into their full potential; this requires that you hire well, train well, and fire well. You also need operating systems in place to efficiently run your business and effectively troubleshoot problems.
4. Marketing & Sales
Good marketing and sales will turn strangers into raving fans and customers. This includes learning how to use marketing strategies to show customers that your product or service will solve their problem, and make them the hero in their own story.
5. Money
Business leaders need to learn the basics of money and manage it well, or they risk losing both passion and provision in a single step. Leaders need to have the necessary reports to review and learn how to read them in order to understand the art, analysis, and big picture of how your finances impact your business.
6. Culture
Everything thrives or dies in relation to its culture. A poor company culture results in disengaged employees who punch a clock just to get their next paycheck. A positive culture results in employees that perform like rock stars for you. Leaders need to develop a healthy culture, both in the physical environment and relationally.
A website is an important asset to your business growth strategy. While it fits nicely in the marketing & sales area of business, website traffic will bring you more money that will allow you to boost your management and operations. Most importantly, your website is often the first touchpoint with a potential customer and your opportunity to answer their questions and make them the hero of their own story.
But it all starts with a company vision, because if you don’t have a clear idea of who you are as a company and what you offer, the people who visit your website won't either.
Since 2002, Half a Bubble Out Leadership & Business Development has been dedicated to providing marketing, advertising and small business consulting that meet the needs of our clients. We specialize in developing the whole leader for the whole business to grow your business using the Passion & Provision® Strategy. Based in Chico California, we serve clients throughout Northern California and across the country.
