Sales are down…
Expenses are up…
My List isn’t growing fast enough!
I have to increase the “hits’ to my site!
We’re going to talk about this one more time.
You don’t have a traffic problem…
Let’s talk…
Common Opinion: The size of your List, the speed at which your List grows, and the number of sales you make is based upon the number of ‘hits’ that you receive to your site(s).
Problem: Continually increasing your hits so your conversion rates increase
First of all let me pass along some words of wisdom.
Several years ago a wise man told me, in an effort to make a point of my (then) naïve understanding of online marketing, defined the acronym H.I.T.S. as: How Idiots Track Success
I didn’t take it personally (and you shouldn’t either) but he got his point across, and it became one of those ‘golden nuggets’ that has since helped me with many business decisions.
But it’s not our fault! (all of us in the online industry)
We can blame it on the early years of the industry. ‘Way back then’, the number of hits you received was a pretty good measure of success or failure. If you had lots of hits to your site your chances of success were very high.
It was just a numbers game. The more hits you got the more chances you had of selling something and capturing an email address for your List. Simple enough…get lots of hits!
That was then…..but that’s not now.
I know you’ll agree with me that the internet and particularly internet marketing is changing and evolving what seems to be almost daily. With all these changes, has come the evolution of a ‘new customer’. Yea, really.
Think about it. In the early years you could sell used chewing gum on the web! It really didn’t matter if your product was the best, or even the cheapest. A LOT of purchases were made by customers online just because of the novelty of being able to make a purchase with a computer (can you say Amazon!).
Many of those expensive cottages on sunny beaches are owned by those early internet marketers!
Today the internet is an integral part of every successful company’s sales plan. It’s a valuable business tool of every major retailer.
Buying online is no longer a form of entertainment; it’s as common as walking into a brick and mortar store…everyone does it.
But, let’s get back to WHY measuring hits is not a tool for success.
EXAMPLE:
- Last week you emailed your List an ad promoting a product. You got 100 hits from that ad.
- You had a conversion (buyers) of 25.
“OK, so what’s wrong with that?”
“Emails cost me nothing, I got 100 shoppers, and sold 25 of them?” Success?
Let me offer an opinion:
In today’s internet market place we have thousands, no millions of shoppers and an endless assortment of products and services. We also enjoy a much larger percentage of ‘buyers’ than shoppers coming to our sites. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 67% of these online shoppers are prepared to make a buying decision. That’s STRONG!
Let’s break it down…
You didn’t sell 75 of the hits to your email ad.
To be fair lets agree with the U.S. C of C’s 67% ‘buyers’ statistic, and do some simple math.
67% of 75 non-buyers equal about 50 legitimate non buyers.
The bad news…
Those 50 non-buyers of your product/service were preparedto buy, and DID buy somewhere else and are emailing, tweeting, texting, and even telephoning their friends about what they bought, why they didn’t buy your product, and how much they’re enjoying someone else’s.
The power of the internet works both ways…unfortunately? That could be a LOT of negativity.
My point to you is that your conversion rate offers a far better evaluation of the health of your business.
To play the numbers game as in the ‘old days’, the only way to increase or even stabilize sales on your site is to continually increase the numbers of hits.
This is a beast with a huge appetite (Adwords, PPC, etc.) that requires a steady stream of $$$$$$.
The formula is rarely successful, and never for very long.
To make more money you need to increase your hits, to increase your hits you have to increase your advertising, increasing your advertising costs more money, so you need more hits to pay for the increased costs of more advertising, etc., etc., etc..
TIP: Fewer HITS (X) higher conversion rates (X) return sales = $$$
Higher conversion rates are driven by happy customers. Internet buyers are seldom impulse buyers. They know what they want and they’ve done their homework. Surprisingly, they create loyal relationships with online venders with whom they trust!
First really identify who IS your customer and WHAT do they want. Then use the power of the internet to identify, focus, and direct your ads with laser accuracy to them. Then build a business relationship with these buyers.
Understand that in today’s internet marketing industry a conversion rate is the measure of your ability to put your customer’s (your LIST’s) needs and wants first. The online customer still wants to enjoy the ‘feel’ of the buying experience even though it’s done quickly and efficiently from their digital device. Your job is to create that experience for them…every time.
H.I.T.S. ?
or
C.T.R (Customers That Return)?
You decide…
Talk soon,
-Jonathan
(Hey, thanks for all the comments last week. Always good to hear from you.)