Excuse Me, Are You Wasting Traffic?

The largest cost and concern of an internet business is customer acquisition; traffic. Both quantity and quality of traffic directly determines the succes of an internet business. By the fundamental nature of traffic to an online business,one cannot afford to waste it.

So how does traffic wastage occur?

Customers are acquired by driving prospects to your virtual point of sale. At this point, usually a web page, the prospects are engaged to take the desired response. The desired response varies from change of attitude for a newsletter, to purchase of a product for a sales webpage.

This desired response occurs towards the end of the Pschology of Search. Prospect searches particular information, they see something that interests them, they view it and then they decide its relevance to them. They then take the most appropriate action, click the back button or take the desired action.

Generally speaking, Click through Rate (CTR) average 2% for internet marketing. This would be the average for Search engines, Pay per Clicks (PPC) all the way to Free classified Ads and banners. Of course for each specific media it varies significantly. However for illustration purposes lets use 2% CTR.

So, only 2% of prospects flagged down stop to give attention to be engaged. These prospects are interested. Of every 100 of this interested prospects, only 1% may be converted to take the desired response the first time.

Eric Mollink of Businessmaker.info had a real experience of this numbers. He says , they made a killer grab attention email which sent the prospects directly to their website. The mail was sent at midnight and by morning the had 400 hits, a 40% response rate. But no one signed for their program. And there was no way of knowing who the visitors were. had they been able to follow up with the 400,based on previous records, they would have closed at last 30% of the 400.

In essence, taking the previous assumed example, for every 10,000 people that see an Ad or Listing, only 200 will give attention enough to engage them. And the CR would stand at 1% i.e 2 sales or subscriptions.

After being able to get the attention of 200 prospects, 198 will be lost.

Reasons for not acting as desired vary widely. Though it would be correct to say a number were not sold. Meaning some prospects were convinced but not converted. They consequently did not respond as desired due to overcome-able objections. Those converted are those in a sellable state of mind at the time.

Remember sales is 90% emotion and 10% logic. If both strings are not methodically, systematically and sufficiently harped on, there is no sale.

Unfortunately internet presentation are unlike face to face sales presentation, where the pitch is actively adapted to the prospect's moods(emotions) and objections(logic).

Therefore huge looses of engaged prospects will always occur due to this inflexibility. And once a potential customer is lost, they are gone, probably forever. You will then have lost precious traffic. To get them again, if ever, you will need to pay for them again, if using PPC.

Repeated contact or follow up on prospects may actually increase the total CR and consequently sales. Follow up allows a 2nd, 3rd... chance to find a prospect in a sellable state of mind.

For first time buyers, it gives 2nd ,3rd... chance to sell them again on a different product. This increases the value of the customer from one product a year to two products a year.

The best means of follow up in the internet is email. A mailing list of your prospects makes it cheaper to market to them a 2nd, 3rd... time. It also increases the chances of selling more of them, a higher CR.

With this kind of opportunity, advantages further reflect on profitability. This is simply due to the fact that there is no further cost associated with customer acquisition every time there is need to to do a follow up. With customer acquisition costs down, there is significant reduction in the cost of doing business, resulting in higher profits.

Otherwise, with no mailing list, everytime you would want to do a follow up you would pay for the prospect. Everytime you introduce a new product to your first time buyers you would pay.

Email capture is therefore no trivial matter.

Email capture is the ability of your site to get name and email address of your prospect.

Indeed you will find successful internet businesses owning a mailing list and doing some sort of publishing.

Predictability of income of a site depends on number of customers, as well as the trust the customer have on that site. Numbers of customers are developed by CTR and CR. Trust on the other hand is not easily developed on the first sitting.

Repeat contact does offer a platform to subtly create this trust.

Publishing for mailing purposes may be a reservation for some. However email capture dosen't necessarily translate into publishing of an e-zine or a newsletter. There other ways of warming prospects to an offer. Use of sweepstakes, low price and promotion alerts etc. all of which are not periodicals. These can assist in building credibility and trust. At the same time, if well done, keeps your p[product "top of the mind" in the prospects mind. Next time the product is mentioned, it is no longer a stranger to them.

With an email list from email capture a chance is given to further develop perceived value of the product. This can incredibly increase sales. Majority of prospects take time to get convinced. They take more time to get converted. With their email addresses one can follow up on them until they are sold. Best of all there are cost of contacting the prospect, of course that is if the list is not rented.

In summary email capture allows for email marketing which can increase CR and profits, both by increasing sales as well as eliminating wastage of traffic and repeated purchase of same prospects.

Resources for opt-in mailing list for rentals such as PostMaster Direct are used by large organization. Other such resources include Me-mail, Advertising.com, Bullet mail, E-target and Ht mail.

Similarly there are innovative email capture systems. Below is an example of a free email capture system exclusivelly for internet business people, www.Opportunity.Com. Such a system can be used by netpreneurs to multiply their "paid for prospects". At the same time they could build a reasonable mailing list accesible for targeted email marketing.

Email capture is both an effective means of avoiding traffic wastage and if used correctly, an effective marketing tool.

Copyright (c) 2004 Mark Kimathi

Below is Mark Kimathi's recomendation for email capture,
http://www.opportunity.com/r/sitebuildit

---

Online Consumers ? What Are They Complaining About?

For many businesses, e-commerce represents a tremendous method for generating... Read More

Is It Easy to Build An E-commerce Web Site?

--Online Commerce--E-Commerce website is all about selling products and services... Read More

Merchant Accounts: What They Can Do For You

Congratulations! You created an impulse in a customer to buy... Read More

What Does It Take to Make Money Online?

What a loaded question! Let's narrow that down a bit... Read More

How Merchant Accounts Can Save You Money

We all know that accepting credit cards is the key... Read More

How to Boost Conversion Rates, While Lowering Merchant Account Fees!

Using an Address Verification System (AVS) when processing your online... Read More

When Do You Ask For A Refund?

Have you ever asked to have your money refunded after... Read More

Ecommerce Marketing Plan

Concept of ServiceThe current work deals with marketing offer of... Read More

Guide To Safe Online Shopping

Online shopping can be a little frightening to people who... Read More

How Measuring Key Performance Indicators Can Improve E-Commerce Strategy - Part Two

Why time spent on your site is importantAll websites regardless... Read More

How to Write a Landing Page

Is there a difference between writing a landing page and... Read More

How Measuring Key Performance Indicators Can Improve E-Commerce Strategy - Part Three

The first article of this series discussed page views per... Read More

Online Customer Service - The Cornerstone of a Successful Online Business

Online customer service is still one of the most frequently... Read More

The Five Steps of E-Commerce

You set up a retail business, you advertise in your... Read More

Getting Started in ECommerce ? Part Two

In Part One we talked a little bit about what... Read More

How to Receive Payments for Your Online Sales

Once you decide which products you are planning to sell... Read More

7 Suggestions for an i-Mom Friendly Web Site (e-commerce news and statistics)

The Internet began as a male dominated medium, but those... Read More

Tell Site Visitors What To Do

Your site visitors make all the choices when it comes... Read More

Shopping Cart Features to Consider

Often the simplest Web stores have the most success. But... Read More

Chinas IT Industry to Maintain Fast Growth

China's IT industry is expected to see a sales revenue... Read More

How To Prevent Your 3rd Party Merchant Account From Suspension

What would you do if you were sent an email... Read More

Managing Project Risks and Issues

Inherent (or Business) RiskInherent Risk is the risk that exists... Read More

Electronic Commerce Tax Jurisdiction and Principles of Permanent Establishment

The principle of "permanent establishment" is very important for avoidance... Read More

Dont Get Ripped Off Getting A Merchant Account

Far too many people get ripped off when setting up... Read More

Free Competition Analysis for E-Commerce Startup

For anyone who has completed research regarding e-commerce, there are... Read More

Top Ten Qualities to Look for in an Online Pharmacy

As you may have noted, there are thousands or even... Read More

Grow Your Business Using B2B Emarketplace - Part I

If you are a small to medium size company and... Read More

How To Implement E-Business Solutions Successfully

Pitfalls of E-business solutions installation processA large distribution company has... Read More

Chinas Online Shopping May Be Booming In The Next Few Years

Data from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shows that... Read More

Content Ever be Profitable?

THE CURRENT WORRIES1. Content SuppliersThe Ethos of Free ContentContent Suppliers... Read More

Selling From Your Website

Greetings!Friends and relitives ask us all the time " How... Read More

How to Gain Your Visitors Trust

If you are serious about selling on the world wide... Read More

Short Story: The Benefits of Shopping Online

Maria's new lifestyle: Short story about the benefits shopping on... Read More