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Why Paid Traffic?

Now that you understand what paid traffic marketing is, you may be wondering why you should use it for your business.

As with everything there are pros and cons of using paid traffic. Let's break down some of the negative aspects of paid traffic first, and then look at the benefits of paid traffic.
Cons of Paid Traffic

One of the most common misconceptions about paid traffic is that it will magically provide a return on your investment.

No matter what type of product, content, or service that you are trying to market or sell, you simply cannot pay someone to like what you are offering. Even if you have the best paid traffic service available and are driving tens of thousands of people to your site on a regular basis, it is not going to make a difference if people do not like what you are offering.

It is important to research the type of paid traffic that you are going to use. For example, there are some forms of paid traffic that violate Google's terms of service agreement. You could sink a lot of money in a campaign, only to find it closed down before you get the results.

If you are planning to use paid traffic - and you should if you truly want to compete in your market - it is important to make sure that you choose a reputable platform. Some of the reputable platforms that are available will be discussed in a later chapter. Some platforms will simply send you junk traffic that will never convert. Thousands of page views sound great, but if they aren't real - what are they really worth?

Now that we have discussed the negative aspects of paid traffic, let's look at some of the reasons that you should consider using paid traffic for your business.

First, if you own a business that focuses on a specific product or service, paid traffic can really pay off. Paid traffic offers a great way to get the word out about the products and services that you offer. Here are a few of the top reasons to consider paid traffic for your website:

• First Page Exposure: Most people do not look past the first page of Google when they are searching for something. One of the best ways to make sure that your business is on the first page is to use sponsored advertisement. Google AdWords is one of the best ways to get your company to the top of the Google search engine. Spending the money to advertise your company with Google can pay off, especially if you have been struggling to reach the first page for your targeted keywords.

• Quick Traffic: Another benefit of paid traffic is that it allows you to get traffic to your website quickly. If you have a new website with little exposure, paid traffic is a great way to gain traffic in a short amount of time. It is important to remember that you should have a website that offers great content before you target traffic to it. If you have a relatively new site with little information, driving traffic to it is going to be of little benefit as people are not going to stay on your site and engage with your company. Take the time to build up your content and then begin your targeted paid search advertising campaign.

• Targeted Market: Paid traffic offers a way to directly target your consumers. Placing advertisements strategically will ensure that the traffic that you gain for your website is from consumers who are specifically looking for your product or services. Paid advertising is great for small businesses that are targeting specific demographic areas. It is possible to create ad campaigns

that are directed towards your audience in the specific area that you want to reach. You can create several ad campaigns that work together to drive targeted traffic to your website. When you are driving specific audiences to your website you are more likely to increase your conversion rate because these people have been looking for what your business offers.

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Why Revenue Matters

So if profit is what's going in the bank and revenue is only what's passing through, why does revenue 'matter'?

There are several reasons.

For starters, high revenue is good for the economy. The higher your revenue, the more you will be encouraging money to move around. This helps to keep people in work and it helps to keep driving interest rates up. Companies that turnover a lot of money are valuable to the economy and so this is generally a behaviour that should be encouraged.

Another consideration with revenue is that it can be seen as potential and can indicate your product or service has worth. Ultimately, your revenue tells you what people are

willing to pay for what you're selling and it tells you how many people are willing to pay that amount. A company with high revenue is a company that is selling a great product or service.

This also means that if you can find ways to lower your overheads/expenses/COGS, you can earn more money. That money is being given to you and the only reason you aren't keeping it is because of what you have to do with it. Your job is to keep as much of that money as as possible.

The final reason that revenue is so important is that it provides you with one of the single most effective ways to increase your profits. Saying 'I'm going to increase profits' is a very vague statement and one that's difficult to execute due to the sheer number of factors involved. Conversely though, aiming to increase revenue is a lot simpler and nicely narrows your efforts.

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Why Interview Content is So Valuable

If in the past you have been sharing articles with titles like 'How to Get Six Pack Abs' or 'Top 10 SEO Tips for Beginners' then you might find that you don't quite reach the kind of momentum you're looking for.

The problem with this sort of content is that it is inherently dull and derivative.

Even if these posts are well written, they're the kind of content that you can find anywhere else online. Most people have read it a hundred times and chances are the tips will be things everyone has heard before too.

This is the definition of 'phoning it in' when it comes to content marketing and unsurprisingly, it doesn't lead to much growth for your website.

In order to be readable and shareable your content really needs to have something unique about it. The title of the content for starters needs to promise something that the prospective reader absolutely can't miss and then once they've clicked to read it, it's just as important that the content deliver on its promise.

It's only this way that you can capture the readers attention and then keep them coming back to your site to learn more.

If you want to ensure your content spreads and gets shares and likes, then you also need to cater it to a very specific audience - in other words, you need to write for a 'target demographic'. This way you have some clear places to share it and you can find like-minded people who will want to share with their friends on social media.

Remember, social media is first and foremost a communication tool and you need to create content that facilitates that communication if you want it to succeed in this environment.

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Using Social Media to Influence Your Audience

Social media has become an enormous part of every businesses marketing plan -and if your business doesn't utilize social media, it needs to start doing so immediately!

Brand recognition, customer satisfaction and engagement, and an increase in perceived authority are but a few ways your business can benefit from leveraging social media within a structured marketing plan. And more and more uses for social media are popping up every single day.

Why would a business want to influence their audience? Ultimately, the answer to that would be sales, of course, but social media influence can accomplish many of the necessary psychological needs that come before the sale. These needs must be examined, and met, if the end sale is to occur.

Familiarity

When a potential customer becomes familiar with your appearance and your personality, they come to realize there is a face behind the business. Knowing who you are gives them a sense of how you run your business. The more familiar you become to them, the more apt they are to purchase whatever goods or services you are selling.

Trust

The more trust you can build with your target audience, the more customers you will have. This is a basic sales law that has never been more relevant than it is today. More than likely, your target audience is tired of being sold to. They want and need that connection with you to help them feel as if they are making an intelligent buying decision.

The power of trust can never be minimized.

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The Lifestyle

Another tact to take is a little less ‘on the nose’. Instead of directly discussing your niche, industry or service, you can instead talk about the lifestyle of people involved with your topic.

In other words, you try and sell the idea that you are part of a community and you post on subjects that might inspire, or that your audience can relate to.

This would work well for our EPOS company. Likely they’re a small team and they probably work with a lot of other businesses that are also just starting out. This then puts them in the perfect position to Tweet about their business: maybe to upload pictures of the team to Instagram at Christmas wearing Christmas hats, or maybe to show a behind the scenes photo of a new store that’s setting up somewhere. This is inspiring and motivating for other young companies and it subtly shows off what that EPOS service can offer without ramming it down anyone’s throat.

It can work even better though for some commercial businesses selling useful things. Going back to the ‘outdoors fitness’ company selling those running shoes, they can easily promote the running lifestyle with Instagram pictures of people running on the beach, or of trainers hanging up covered in snow. They could also Tweet motivational sayings like “Success is being the last person to stop running”. Likewise, covering something everyone can relate to might mean something along the lines of “One downside of running: far too many clothes to wash!”.

This is a powerful strategy because people will now feel like they’re a part of something by following you on Twitter. Instead of a company, you’re now a movement and an ideal – and this is where social media can become truly powerful.