Traffic Hacking: 43 Ways to get Quality Prospects to your site

Lincoln Murphy presents...

Traffic Hacking
43 ways to get quality prospects to your site

Copyright© 2012 Lincoln Murphy. All Rights Reserved

This is from an 85-minute presentation
I did in 2012... if you’d like to watch the
video of that presentation, you can here:

http://sixteenventures.com/traffic-hacking

Copyright© 2012 Lincoln Murphy. All Rights Reserved. http://sixteenventures.com

Five Rules Before We Get Started
1. Know what your audience is looking for, what problems they
have or what opportunities they want to take advantage
2. Talk to your audience, not about your product... at least at
first... WIIFT!
3. Know how your audience ‘consumes marketing’ and where
they are on the awareness ladder
4. Know where your audience hangs out online, what
publications/blogs they read, who they listen to and trust,
etc.
5. Know the goal for the traffic you're getting! Traffic doesn't
matter - customers matter. So get 'em to take action when
they get to your site.


Awareness Ladder
Buy Now! 5. Convinced!

4. Beneﬁts of Your Solution
Free Trial
3.Your Solution

2. Solutions Exist
Indoctrination 1. Problem

0. No Problem

Traffic Hacking
43 ways to get quality prospects to your site


Realistic Traffic Boost from These Tactics

Do the
Thing


Potential Growth from these Tactics*
Do the
Thing
Do the
Thing
Do the
Thing
Do the
Do the Thing
Thing
*if you do things right and
the stars align in your favor


SNT = Super Ninja Tactic


#1 - SEO
If they don't search for info, all the SEO in the world won't
matter
SEO = Hope... Hope is a bad strategy!
Know your audience and what they're looking for/the
terms they use (use Google AdWords Keyword Tool... at
least) and build your marketing site around that
If you have an audience that is low on the awareness
ladder, they aren't going to search you out... you need to
go out to where they are and get them to come back to
your site
Oh, yeah... and putting all of your eggs in the Google
basket might be a bad idea... you never know how Google
will change it's algorithms next and cause your site to be
ranked lower... even if you aren't doing anything "black
hat"...

#2 - Content Marketing
Create compelling content that search engines like, but that
your market likes (and shares) even more
Contrary to popular belief, you don't create content just to
attract people to your site (see #1 above)... you create it to
engage with people, to get them to stick around, to know,
like, and trust you and eventually use it to convince them to
sign-up for your stuff.
The higher-up on the awareness ladder people are, the less
you have to do to convince them and the more actively
they'll seek you out.
Buy Content here: http://www.textbroker.com/
https://www.elance.com/ https://www.odesk.com/


SEO & Content Marketing is where most people stop...
and it's why most people wish they had more traffic!

Here are 41 other ways to generate traffic in no particular
order... and this list is far from exhaustive!


#3 - Email List
You should be building an email list before you launch and
maintain lists of future/past and current customers; and
market to them appropriately. If you aren't doing this, you're
missing out. Period.
This is a traffic source that you build organically and from
swaps, customers, etc.
Think about your mailing list like a bank account that you
can reach into and pull traffic - and money - from on demand


#4 - Alternative Products
iPhone / Android Apps
Kindle e-Books
Installed Apps
Stand-alone MVP Web Apps
If it resonates with your audience and gets your name/link
into their hands and doesn't cannibalize revenue streams...
do it!
Not necessarily FREE... apply a price, discount it 100%,
drive up ratings, take off discount for public, offer discounts
to select groups


#5 - Video Marketing
Google ❤ Youtube (also #3 search
engine itself)
Don’t have video ideas? Do a video
overview for every blog post you write
Put your URL as the first part of the
description
Use the keywords you want to rank for
You can use other video platforms for
hosting quality video - like VSLs -
Wistia is who I use - on marketing
pages, but also put those on Youtube
for SEM


#6 - Webinars
Has that "live event" feel that people will work their schedule
around to attend
People know that they have to register and are OK with that
You can even do automated ones -
http://www.stealthseminar.com/, http://webinaragogo.com/
Market these independent of your product and use to convert
to buyers/trials


#7 - Swaps
You do something for someone, they do something for you...
in this case you each send each other traffic
Get an industry pro to do a Webinar with you. They market the
webinar to their list (another validation of their expertise) and
you market to your list (you’re educating/indoctrinating/piggy-
backing on their trust) and you each get a list of participants
who you can send to your site.
Unbounce and KISSMetrics did a great swap in late 2012
Get someone to email out to their list about you; you do the
same for them... share sign-up/opt-in lists with each other
On your Post-Signup/Thank You page send traffic to them;
they do the same... Get an extra month FREE when you sign-
up for XYZ product!

#8 - Write Guest Blog Posts/Articles
Write articles in the publications or on the blogs that your
audience reads
Think about adjacent products that your customers already
use and write for them
Including offline industry rags
Get a byline (with a CTA) and/or include links in your post
and you’ll get traffic from their readers


#9 - Host Guest Blogs/Articles
Get people to guest blog for you
Everyone wants exposure
If they have an audience, you just tapped into it!
KISSMetrics has built a significant revenue stream using
their blog - with tons of guest posts - to drive traffic into the
top of the funnel
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/the-neil-patel-method/
SEOMoz touts “1,634 Community Written Blog Posts” in
their latest funding deck... they tap their community for
content (and those posts are super-deep and ultra-
informative)... and those people go on Twitter, Facebook,
their blogs, etc. and promote their work... and their
community friends do, too! HUGE!

#10 - Industry Expert Interviews
Do interviews with industry experts and post on your blog/
site
industry experts bring credibility and a built-in audience (an
“expert” will waste no time in promoting their interview to
their audience!)
make someone from your team (CEO/leader ideally)
available to be interviewed AS an industry expert
leverage the idea in the second point above to promote your
own expertise


#11 - Interviews Outside your Industry
Get Andrew Warner of Mixergy to interview you
He'll write copy about you and give you a link to go along
with the interview
Or maybe you look to “tech” industry outlets Software CEO,
Sandhill.com, Softletter, Think Strategies, etc.
Extra-industry publicity can sometimes add to credibility
But don't spend too much time outside your industry... do a
few of these


#12 - Infiltrate Online Communities
Forums, LinkedIn Groups, etc. that are specific to your
industry
Get to know the moderator/owner so they'll help promote
what you have to offer (but be prepared to play politics with
some of the biggest egos online!)
Find people in your industry on LinkedIn, see what groups
they belong to, and join those
http://www.postloop.com/ <== forum owners pay you to post
content (either use that service or use as a guide)
http://rankings.big-boards.com/ <== huge list of top forums


#13 - Create Online Communities
Create a forum
Start a discussion list (put your URL in the sig)
Create a LinkedIn Group
SNT: Find people in your industry on LinkedIn, see what
groups they belong to, join those, then create yours, and
promote it to the other members of the group you’re in!
Facebook Group


#14 - Get Quality Backlinks
Not just to boost SE rank - which may or may not work at
any given time - this is to get TRAFFIC
Go where your customers are and give them something to
link to... don’t just ask random bloggers to link to your main
page
Give them a blog post or whitepaper (reverse squeeze!) to
link to
For SEM purposes, get some high-quality, contextual links
by joining organizations - even locally - like the Chamber of
Commerce
Google’s always changing, but context will always rule(?)


#15 - Conferences
Speaking gives you credibility, a link (usually), and a built-in
audience that you should leverage to send traffic to your site
SNT: As you wrap up your speech, mention you had 3 other points
you wanted to cover, but didn’t have time... go to
mysite.com/confname to download those slides! (reverse squeeze)
Sponsoring conferences/events - you will often get emails of
participants; use cold-outreach tactics to drive traffic.
SNT: Don’t expect too much traffic from a logo... so use a CTA
instead if allowed!
Attend conferences/events - treat it like the marketing opportunity
it is... no reason you couldn't boost traffic from being around 400
like-minded, industry folks (SNT: little informal meetups)


#16 - Pinterest
If you have a visual component to your product, integrating with
Pinterest could drive massive traffic to your site
Know your audience and know where they hang out
This is the #3 social network - behind Facebook and Twitter - in
the world right now and the demographics are very specific...
but if it works, it works
This might make total sense for slidemotion.com either to use
solely for marketing or - even better - to integrate with Pinterest
and “pin” every photo (frame) in a video sequence... pull pics in
from Facebook, pin them, then create a video from that and
send all traffic from those pins to that video... MASSIVE
TRAFFIC


#17 - Be The Bonus
Give your main or alternative product to adjacent product
companies to use as a bonus
Sort of like a swap, but you get a customer and not a trial or
just an email address


#18 - PPC Ads
Google AdWords, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn
Contextual and Congruent
Not just text... some are graphical
SNT: buy an action-oriented domain name to use in the ads...
getyourapp.com
Use Trada (http://www.trada.com/) or http://boostctr.com/ and
tap into their massive network of micro-copywriters to create
ads for you...
Google just updated Adwords rotation, taking away great testing
and replacing it with more revenue for them (one basket + all
eggs = fail)


#19 - Display Ads
Pay Per Impression (generally; not always...)
Google AdSense / Ad Networks / http://buysellads.com/
http://www.yabuka.com
Disruptive and Incongruent (and Contextual... hopefully)
SNT: take a picture of a text ad that is killing it for you and
use that as your display ad


#20 - Retargeting
Serve ads to those that have already interacted with you
http://retargeter.com <== tell ’em I sent you and they’ll give
you 50% off of banner ad creation


#21 - Newsletter Ads
Classified Ad: Get a mention in someone else's newsletter
Sponsor: The content is brought to them by you
Solo: The entire email is all about you <== best one
Use this to build your list, not to sell/try to get ’em to try
your product
Find them on your own, DirectoryOfEzines.com, Smart Brief,
FierceMarkets, if you use Mailchimp you can try Wavelength
to find adjacent newsletters, NewsletterDirectory.Co, etc.
LaunchBit offers ads in 3rd party newsletters


#22 - Twitter
Use it to cultivate connections and spread your message w/
links back to your site
Very often tweets/RTs are cultivated outside of Twitter...
send an email to people asking for a Tweet/RT
SNT: @'ing those in your industry = Cold Outreach via
Twitter... and it works (if you follow the Cold Outreach rules)
You can also buy Promoted Tweets directly from Twitter or
use a company like BuySell Ads, IZEA,
sponsoredtweets.com or adly.com
You can even get Paris Hilton to Tweet for you... $4600 per
tweet to her 7M+ followers through BuySellAds

#23 - Web / App Directories
Old School
SaaS/App Listings
Industry Specific
There is simply no excuse for NOT being in every single
directory out there
Part 1: 100 Places to Promote your SaaS or Web App


#24 - Offline Direct Mail
Use Offline to drive them online
Snail mail volume is stupid low right now
Take advantage of cheap postage and a lack of noise
...but be creative!
Use pURLs in the copy, if possible/applicable
SNT: send in a DHL envelope
Use FedEx if you *really* want to make an impression - costs
a lot, though!


#25 - Intermediaries
Intermediaries = Channels
Distributors /Trusted Advisors /VARs / SIs
Xero uses Accounting Firms to promote their product
Make your product something the Intermediary can use, too!
Something that makes their life/core business easier/better/
faster and they’ll push it for you
There are people out there that already have your audience's
trust... make one sale - to the Intermediary - and they'll make
hundreds or thousands of sales for you!


#26 - Facebook Page
Don't just have one to have one
Use this to drive traffic to your site and get people to opt-in
to your mailing list, sign-up for webinars, download reports,
etc.
Use it to “engage” with people on-page, of course, but know
the goal is to get them to take an off-page action and add
them to your list/database/etc.


#27 - Whitelabeling
There might be people out there that could take your
product into a whole new market better than you ever
could... so let 'em!
I know a number of people on both sides of the whitelabel
equation that do QUITE well


#28 - Affiliates
Don't over-think this.... find someone that has the audience
you want to reach and make a deal
Groobix teamed with IM’er for Latin American market
Profitably (now ActiveCell) hired a company to find affiliates
Loop11 created a program themselves and had people
selling for them in other languages/markets and finding new/
creative ways to sell their product.
Let Affiliates sell your AltProd for 100% commission
Do one-off Affiliate relationships... you might not have
1000's of affiliates, especially at first... have a couple that
you trust and then scale it out

#29 - Marketplaces / App Stores
These are just another Distribution / Sales Channel
From Traditional App Stores all the way to things like
AppSumo
Let’s you reach audiences you might otherwise not reach
If you can reach those folks on your own, it might not be
worth the cut app stores take... but if you couldn’t reach
them, any cut is better than 100% of NOTHING!


#30 - Integrations
Many companies do quite well piggybacking off of other
companies that have an established audience
WORKetc works with Evernote & Google Apps
Freshdesk is in Google Apps Marketplace
iMeet is integrated with Evernote
FreeAgent is part of AppDirect and integrated with
Basecamp
ClientSpot is a FreshBooks integration partner
Bidsketch is integrated with Highrise and Freshbooks


#31 - Referrals
Many people say referrals are the backbone of their
business
Few of those people actually have a system in place for
getting referrals
Don't make that mistake
Leverage the audience/customer base you already have!
Viral Expansion Loop (Oddly, free products do this really
well while paid products usually suck at this)


#32 - Testimonials / Case Studies
Do full featured testimonials and case studies with
companies known in your industry (SNT: Get them to write
the case study for you!)
Piggy back off their credibility
They’ll often promote it to their audience (especially if it is
done in a way that makes sense for them to do that) Oh...
and it doesn’t hurt to ask them to promote it, too!
You can do PR against it
It will likely speak the language of your market so people will
find it
People searching for those companies will find your site
instead/as well! Piggyback on their fame!

#33 - Cold Email Outreach
Scraped/bought lists you treat as one-off emails that you
use to drive traffic / opt-in
SNT: send people to a Wistia video w/ ?wemail or even
better the ?wkey (http://files.wistia.com/tools/identity-
tagging/index.html) url param so you automagically have
know who clicked and who didn't without "tracking" the link
and killing trust (awesome for swaps/solo ads/etc.)
you can also do this by having a script that tracks URL
params... even GA can do this
AES used Hubspot and got zero leads... then they started
doing CEO and are getting 150 leads/month...


#34 - Cold LinkedIn Outreach
LinkedIn = B2B Gold
Use the scraped/bought lists to import into LinkedIn and
when they connect with you, they’ve “opted-in” and you can
message them to drive traffic
Add them in bulk (this will send everyone the “I’d like to add
you...” generic message. This can be good if you want to
conceal your intentions
If you want or use Rapportive to do it one at a time and send
a relevant message
SNT; use unsubscribes from your mailing list... I’ve had
~30% accept and now I haven't lost touch... they’ll see my
updates and I can reach out directly

#35 - Press Releases
Gets you out there, gets your link out there, lets Google
know that you're doing something... good or bad, it works...
do a press release for everything, even your blog posts!
Make sure you include a link... oh, but you might also get
picked up by the media
People that say press releases are dead just wish they were
http://www.prweb.com/
http://www.businesswire.com/
http://www.prlog.org/ (FREE)


#36 - Win Awards
Sign-up for, nominate yourself for, and otherwise try to win
awards
Many cost money to “be nominated” but it gives you a
"credible" reason to do a Press Release and gets your name
out there (think Think Strategies’ BoSS awards) in front of
the awarders(?) audience
Some are legit competitions which you should still enter
because they give you links and exposure generally, even if
you don’t win!


#37 - Target GMail Users w/ AdWords
Use AdWords to target GMail users
If your potential customers use GMail, they likely spend A
LOT of time in GMail every day
if your customers are large enterprises that use Exchange or
Lotus Notes... this might be a stupid idea.
Use “thought stringing” - put yourself in the middle of their
conversation, hit on Book Titles, Names & Competitors,
competitor Unsubscribe Info or specific subject lines.
If you get too granular or specific you could hit the "low
search volume" response from Google and they won't run
your ad. Expand out until they do.


#38 - HARO
Help a Reporter Out (http://www.helpareporter.com/)
When you see a story that's relevant to your industry/niche/
expertise... reach out and get your company mentioned
(don't forget to explicitly ASK for a link to your site!)...
Oh, and you can place ads in HARO.... your industry experts
waiting for a way to get mentioned by the media and then
they see your ad? Use that power wisely!
75% open rate (is what they claim; and I’m sure that is legit)
and ads start cheap; like $300.


#39 - Cold Calling
Pick up the phone
Make 25 calls per day, 22 days per month (550/month total)
Get 25% to go to your site (maybe get a domain that’s easy
to say and easy to understand over the phone)
You've got 138 new, targeted leads... send 'em to a webinar
reg or other reverse squeeze.
You might have to do less-than-scalable things at first to
figure out what you need to do to scale later


#40 - Q&A Sites
Find questions on Q&A sites like Quora, Focus, or LinkedIn
and use that to write blog posts around, create videos
about, or otherwise create content...
Have a VA or staff member scour the Q&A sites for
questions then put them in a spreadsheet and then work off
of that or set up something automated like http://ifttt.com/
SNT: Be sure to note how many followers a question has on
Quora and answer them in the order of most followers to
least... use your time wisely and go for leverage
Then "answer" the question with a link to your content


#41 - Sponsored Content
Basically you just pay for an article on a site
If the place you do this has reach and you do it right, it can
be REALLY worth it; think product reviews, etc.
You can buy promoted blog posts through http://izea.com/
or http://www.postsgenius.com/
Many industry magazines will publish an article from you
only if you also buy an ad... sleazy on their part, yes...
effective? very.


#42 - Speak to Paid Groups
Are there membership sites, private paid communities, etc.
where your target audience hangs out?
Make yourself available to be a presenter
These are powerful because the audience PAID to be there...
they are customers of the group and have shown that they
are willing to pay money to take action
There is also the rule of Commitment and Consistency at
play here... they paid to be a part of the group and as a way
of defending that decision are more likely to buy something
the group is promoting


#43 - Offer Deals to Groups
In the SaaS/Web App world, if I was selling a product to
those folks I’d offer a deal to startup incubators, VC
portfolios, Universities, Sponsored programs like Microsoft
Bizspark, etc. ...
Bonus of offering something to Universities... do it right and
get high-trust .edu domains linking to you!
You might offer free deals to these groups in exchange for
links, buzz and a reason to do PR... plus, they’re young or
young companies and they’ll grow up knowing, liking, and
trusting you... not a bad way to guarantee some future
business!


That was 43 ways to get quality prospects to your site...
some will work for you, some won’t... and few are “easy,”
though most are simple...

If anything, take away the idea that SEO & Inbound
Marketing are only 2 ways and that this list of 41 other
ways is FAR from comprehensive!

Think outside the box and use your imagination!

Oh yeah, you could also get traffic from... t-shirts, stickers, QR
codes, Social Sharing widgets, email signatures, out of office notifications, transactional email,
invoices/receipts, commenting on blog posts, business cards...


Things You’ll Never Say again:

Lincoln, I need more traffic! What do I do?

But if you do say that, contact me ASAP:
lincoln.murphy@sixteenventures.com
(972) 200-9317


Traffic Hacking: 43 Ways to get Quality Prospects to your site

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