Lots Of Traffic, Little Revenue? 5 Ideas To Turn Visitors Into Buyers

October 17, 2011 Author Guest Author In Digital Marketing and PR

The following is a guest post from Future Buzz community member Amanda DiSilvestro. If you’d like to contribute thinking here, please read the guidelines.

When you first started your digital marketing program, perhaps your goal was to drive a lot of organic traffic to your site. Now you’ve finally done it, congratulations.

Perhaps you created a blog that reaches a wide audience, you have links from media and users all over the web and your site has quality content thousands subscribe to each month. Unfortunately, what many do not realize is that traffic by itself may not equal revenue if you didn’t think all the way through to conversion.

In other words, you may think your end goal is to drive a lot of traffic, but it is not until you reach that goal that you realize revenue, leads or other outcomes from that traffic are the objectives.

There are a few reasons your site may be popular but not profitable. Just a few include:

  • People visit only to read your blog but the content there is a non sequitur to what you actually do as a brand.
  • Those who are drawn to your content don’t actually need your product or service.
  • People respond to your digital marketing efforts, but when they reach your website it is difficult to navigate or lacks effective call to actions.
  • Visitors come to research but you have no plan in place to nurture these audiences and elevate them to qualified sales lead.

Do not get us wrong—driving a lot of traffic to your site is a great thing. Just because this traffic does not bring in much revenue today does not mean you can’t change this. Lots of traffic but few conversions is, in a way, a good problem to have. As a marketer it’s your job to work at improving both ends of the spectrum.

This led us to consider the next question for  marketing departments: How do you better convert your current, thriving web audience into revenue or qualified sales leads?

Consider some of the ways you can start to monetize more effectively:

1. Give special deals / CTAs prime real estate

When starting out, you may have attracted traffic through creative content such as cool infographics or your popular blog. We’re not saying these things don’t matter, but if your goal is revenue / conversions you need to effectively get people to take an action. Now that you have attention, help visitors notice the special deals and promotions your company is offering. This does not necessarily mean to totally disrupt a user’s experience with an offer, but do try to place them in what you would consider a prime location (above the fold).

2. Create a sense of urgency with limited offers

Frequently offer a special deal that only those who visit your site can benefit from. If you make this special deal one that is time or quantity sensitive, people may feel lucky that they came to your site that day. Continually offering unique promotions to those who visit your site will get visitors excited to see what’s next, and if you track the results you can use this data to inform future ideas. Although they may not want to take advantage of your promotions every week, they will begin keeping an eye out for ones that interest them.

3. Ask your visitors for referrals

In some cases, those visiting your site simply like your blog or appreciate the expertise offered. If this is the case, there is a good chance that those who are bringing in all of this traffic don’t even need your product or service. If this is the case, you could test asking your loyal followers for referrals. Furthermore, consider giving a free gift to those who refer your business. In the end, this will likely be worth the extra cost. Many companies provide a mechanism for this such as an affiliate program to both incentive and scale referrals.

4. Offer premium content for paying subscribers

If you’re running a content-based site like a blog, initially attracting subscribers can be difficult; however you are past that point. If you have a lot of subscribers, chances are they like something you’re doing. Offer premium content or a premium newsletter that only paying subscribers can get. Do not ask current subscribers to start paying for something you used to give away for free, but simply create something new that comes at a price. Chris Brogan is making nearly $5,000 / month (480 subscribers @ $9.97 /mo) with this tactic through his Blog Topics program. In the end, you may be surprised by how many people will find this appealing.

5. Test, tweak and refine your templates

This teeters on the brink of obvious, but many times when a company drives a lot of traffic to their website they do not take the time to analyze how the visitor journey through the site can be improved. Sure, you did a good job marketing your site across the web to get people interested. But  check to make sure that once they get there they know where to go to make a purchase or sign up for a service. Test and refine your templates until you find layouts which produce greater leads or revenue. At this point, making changes to your website should not be that big of a deal – if the website resides with IT, you’re doing it wrong. Instead, get it in the hands of savvy marketing professionals who can test and improve.

The above tips are just a starting point to get you thinking and help those who might have a lot of attention but not much revenue.

Again, having lots of traffic is a good problem to have, because at least you have attention to work with. Most brands and entrepreneurs never even get to this point. So if you are not bringing in the bacon just yet, don’t sweat it, you’re still well-positioned, but do work to refine your site’s revenue performance.

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to web design. She writes for Resource Nation, an online resource that gives advice on topics including SEO best practices and online marketing to small businesses and entrepreneurs.