As I mentioned in my last post, the Merchant already has some means by which they generate revenues from its traffic. Obviously, Merchants would like to grow their business by increasing the amount of traffic they receive.
There are 5 distinct ways that a Merchant receives traffic on their site:
1. Direct / Repeat Traffic (see below)
2. Free Search Traffic
3. Sponsored Link Traffic
4. Advertising Traffic
5. Affiliate Traffic
Let’s discuss each one in detail:
1. Direct / Repeat Traffic
Direct traffic is traffic a site receives when users type in the URL of the site in the address line of the browser, or link to the site from either the bookmark they have saved previously or from an email message they have received from the site.
This is the best but at the same time the most difficult type of traffic a site can receive. While it costs nothing to the site when Monetizable events occur from this type of traffic, Merchants have to have spent significant amount of time in business before amount of Direct traffic becomes significant.
There are 4 ways by which Merchants generate Direct traffic:
a. Brand Recognition
A Merchant’s brand is considered recognized when potential customers immediately think of this Merchant when they are interested in purchasing a product or taking advantage of service that this particular Merchant offers. Conversely, when you think of a Merchant with a recognized brand, you instantly know what products / services this Merchant offers. For example, when you need to find something on the Internet, you think of Google, when you need to purchase a book, you think of Amazon.com.
Brand recognition takes a lot of effort, time, and expense for a company to build. Companies build brand with positive press coverage, purchased advertising (eg TV Commercials), and by word of mouth. Very few companies have a well-recognized brand and for those that do, it has come at a significant price. Even some well-known brands have a difficult time getting known for all of their products/services. For example, how many of you know that Amazon.com sells lipstick or windshield wipers? However, once Merchants have brand recognition, they receive lucrative traffic from users who simply type in their site in the browser. This is the holy grail of Internet marketing.
b. Free Links from Other Sites / Word of Mouth
If a Merchant offers a product or service that people find interesting, useful, or just cool, they will build links to the Merchant from their own sites. As an example of this, I will be linking from AffiliateBrand.com to sites offering interesting products / services in the affiliate marketing space. And I will happily do so without getting paid in return because I find that these products / services will be of particular interest to my readers. Effectively, this is the equivalent of “word of mouth” advertising in the offline world. Sites such as MySpace.com and YouTube.com have grown very quickly over the last year from this type of Direct traffic.
New sites must find way to offer compelling content, updated frequently, to maintain this level of excitement in the Internet community. Remember that other than this excitement for the Merchant’s products or services, nothing else is motivating Publishers to link to the Merchant, and thus driving traffic to the Merchant site.
This is the best type of Direct traffic that can flow into the new sites, especially before they become a recognized brand. These links will also significantly contribute, albeit in an indirect and not very measurable way, to the Free Search traffic described below.
c. Saved Links / RSS Feeds by Repeat Customers
Once merchant establishes a following, many users will save off a link to the Merchant or subscribe to the Merchant’s RSS feed. This will allow users easy means to get back to the Merchant’s site and thus drive additional Direct traffic. Anything a merchant can do to encourage customers to link to the site or subscribe to the RSS feed is extremely important in building free Direct traffic to the Merchant’s site.
d. Email to Repeat Customers
It is a well-known fact that it is easier and less expensive for a Merchant to have a customer come back rather than finding a customer who will visit the Merchant for the first time. To ensure that customers come back again and again, Merchants must have not only excellent customer service but a relationship with the customer that goes well beyond the first visit. Customers enjoy relevant follow-up communication from the Merchant where they have had positive experience. This is something many Merchants (that are sometimes the size of Amazon.com) overlook. Establishing email strategy to connect with the customer and maintaining this relationship will ensure that Merchant’s brand remains high enough to remind their old customers to come back for repeat purchases.
New sites rarely have brand recognition or enough following to ensure a significant amount of Direct traffic. Thus, they need to also focus on other traffic-generating means. Stay tuned!
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