One of our biggest challenges as digital marketers is traffic. How can we easily and affordably get people’s attention, push them to our websites, and convert them to subscribers and customers?

The secret is digital advertising, and if you understand how to make it work, it can give you full control over your traffic flow and help you sell more too. To know which platform is right for you, you need to know where your customers hang out and which ad platforms are suited for the type of marketing you do. In most cases, you’ll probably start with Facebook and Google. According to Business Insider, these two sites drive 80% of referral traffic, more than all the other platforms combined.

Two Concepts for Evaluating Your Target Audience

How do you know the type of ads you should be running and how to precisely target those ads? It comes down to 2 foundational concepts: the customer journey and traffic “temperature.”

Concept 1: The Customer Journey

The Customer Value Journey, remember, is the path people follow as they build relationships with your business, from first touch to final sale.

The three core stages of this Journey are:

• Awareness. This is the top of the funnel, when new prospects first discover your brand exists and that you can help them solve their problems.
• Evaluation. This is the middle of the funnel, when prospects are seriously considering making a purchase. Their biggest question is whether you’re the best source.
• Conversion. The is the bottom of the funnel, where people take action and buy something from you.

Concept 2: Traffic Temperature

At each stage of the Customer Journey, your audience has a different relationship with you. At the top of the funnel, they barely know you and may not even know what you do. But as they move through the funnel, they learn more about you and become more committed and loyal.

• Cold Traffic. Generally, this is new traffic from people who are in the Awareness stage. These people are good prospects for your business but have never heard of you or your brand. Your goal with cold traffic is indoctrination. You want to introduce your business to new audiences and get them coming back for more.
• Warm Traffic. Warm traffic comes from people who know who you are but haven’t bought anything yet. It aligns with the Evaluation stage. Your goal with warm traffic is acquisition, to convert a site visitor into a lead.
• Hot Traffic. Hot traffic comes from people who are at the Conversion stage. These are your buyers, people who are ready to buy or have already bought something from you.

Your goal with hot traffic is monetization, to sell a high-dollar product to your best customers. Ultimately, your goal is to move people from cold to hot, transforming new leads into loyal customers, willing to buy from you over and over again. You do that by matching your message to a prospect’s temperature. With cold traffic, you don’t necessarily offer a sale. You’ll spend more time building relationship. Whereas with hot traffic, the relationship is secure. You speak more as a friend, and you make offers based on the topics you know they’re interested in.

References:

Digital Marketer. (n.d.). The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing. Course Hero. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from https://www.coursehero.com/file/94978188/Ultimate-Guide-to-Digital-Marketingpdf/