The Obvious Part of Online Marketing that Most People Are Missing

Blog Bar Here’s a short but powerful post I’ve been wanting to write for a long long time. It starts with an analogy:

A blog is like a bar.

Let’s say we own a bar together. Without people actually coming into the bar, there’s really no point in having it. Right? It’s the customers who come inside that will make us successful. This is why that online, everything is traffic this, and traffic that. More traffic is what everyone wants and people are paying BIG MONEY for it. There’s so much talk about traffic, search engine optimization, keyword research and advertising, that many people often forget about the second part of the equation, which is what happens when people finally arrive to the “bar”? Sadly, many of those people (often paid for through advertising or pay-per click), just leave and never come back. What a waste…

It’s not the customers who come inside that will make us successful, it’s the customers who come inside and have a drink or two.

It’s as if we did the proper research to find the best location to open our bar, posted up fliers everywhere, and even ran a few ads in some local magazines and newspapers, and when people finally did step through the doors to check us out, they just turned around and left because our bar was uninviting, dirty, confusing, boring, loud, it had bad drinks, it was hard to see, etc.

It’s hard to get people to come into the door, but it’s SO easy for them to leave.

Online it’s even tougher. It just takes a nanosecond to close a web browser, and people these days are going from website to website like there’s no tomorrow. If you don’t have a good first impression, or fail to give them information they’re looking for – you’re going to lose potential subscribers, leads, and money.

Back to the bar analogy. What’s better than people coming into the bar and having a drink or two?

Answer: people coming into the bar to have a drink or two every single day, aka. the regulars.

The regulars are so important to any business. Often, they are what keep a business alive. Yes, it’s nice because they’ll give you business day in and day out no matter what, but it’s so much more than that. The regulars will support, help, believe and stand up for a business when it is in need. Online, the regulars are our subscribers, followers and people who have opt-ed into an email newsletter. These are people that have taken the time to click an RSS feed or enter their email in an opt-in box, which immediately establishes a rapport between the website and the reader, which as I just mentioned, is vital for the success of most blogs.

So, there are two important lessons to be learned here:

1) Traffic is cool, but traffic means nothing unless people stick around. First impressions are SUPER important. Is there anything on your website or other websites you’ve seen that might make people want to leave? And secondly,

2) Make sure you give your traffic that does decide to stay around a chance to become a regular. I’ll go deeper into this thought in the next post.

Thanks, and please subscribe to stay updated on my latest posts if you like what you’ve read so far. Cheers!

16 Comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below)

Reply Charles - Creative Lab on September 24th, 2009 at 2:02 am
Definitely keep an eye on bounce rate and return visitors!

In the end it is about quality content, always!

Reply Adam on September 24th, 2009 at 2:22 am

hey Pat.this is a good post.Thanks for your thoughts.I wanted to ask you why not use your own picture in the header of the blog.I see that you do not mind using your picture in this blog since you have used one of them in the sidebar.But i just wanted to ask you why not since it would be adding a little more to the branding – the header of the blog is already cool by the way.As for an example,you can see here:http://www.davidrisley.com

Risley is a cool blogger just like you.But i regard you the best since you seem to be a marketer too and not just a blogger.You are multitalented

convey my regards to Gizmo

Reply Adrian on September 24th, 2009 at 7:01 am

I’m subscribing to the blog and posting this article on one IM forum for others to see. Great analogy mate. I definitely missed it.. Thankfully, I have about 20+ percent returning visitors on my blog so seems like I’m doing ok!

Now, how much pageviews are good for a blog? I know blogs generally have less pageviews than traditional sites (because lots of people come to read just the last post) and the Bounce Rate is higher. Mine is about 60 percent. What about these stats?

Looking forward to hearing from ya

Adrian

Reply Steve Bellante on September 24th, 2009 at 8:11 am

Again, you nailed it. It’s very easy to get consumed by the idea of driving traffic to your site as being the most important item when it should actually be the quality of the content that is getting the bulk of your attention. I’ve found google analytics to be a great FREE tool for tracking site stats such as bounce rates and unique visitors.

Reply Cris Santeiro on September 24th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Great post, and great analogy. Your blog does look good, clean and inviting.

Reply Diggy - Upgradereality.com on September 25th, 2009 at 1:28 am

Heya Pat!

Man you are so right, it’s totally true. I find that when discovering new blogs, if the layout looks tacky and sloppy mostly I don’t bother reading let alone subscribing.

If I open a blog for the first time and the design is like WOW, sleek and sexy, then it will make me want to stay and read, even if I don’t know what the content is about.

Thanks for the great post!
Diggy

Reply The Obvious Part of Online Marketing that Most People Are Missing | The Smart Passive Income Blog « Creative Evolution on September 25th, 2009 at 2:35 am

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Reply IM Headlines on September 25th, 2009 at 6:33 am

Good analogy

A good bar will always make sure that he has the best beer & drinks in store. Bloggers don’t offer beer, we offer content & a smart blogger will always make sure that he provides the BEST content!

Layout is also important. They say that you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, yet people do this every day, so yeah looks are important.

And let’s not forget about traffic, which is the “fuel” for blogs…

Cheers
Johnny

Reply Dustin | Engaged Marriage on September 25th, 2009 at 8:47 am

This is a great analogy, and I look forward to hearing more from you on the topic. I would be particularly interested in hearing any specific guidance you have regarding what are good thresholds for bounce rate, % returning visitors, overall unique hits, etc. as a previous commenter noted.

These items are of great interest to me as a relatively new blogger with a ‘non-techy” niche. I get good feedback from those who choose to comment or email me. But I struggle wondering if I’m doing a “good enough” job reaching an audience.

Reply Enrique S on September 25th, 2009 at 10:44 am

What a great analogy! A blog is a place where you drop in, take a look around, size up the place, and decide if it’s right for you. I’ve struggled to make my own blog more inviting, by eliminating some ads and writing deeper content. Thanks for setting a good example.

Reply Taylor Marek on September 25th, 2009 at 12:46 pm

Awesome points, yet so easy to miss out. Be sure to back up once in a while and notice the bigger picture. You need people to “stick around” for things to start taking off. Then you can start a movement…

Reply Vance on September 28th, 2009 at 6:32 pm

Spot on. All traffic is not made the same. The goal should be to provide useful, actionable information, to drive targeted traffic to your site. Those are the followers who care about the information you are providing and look to you for guidance. Just getting traffic for traffic’s sake is for the birds. I’d rather have visits from 10 targeted readers than 50 random visitors.

Reply A Wordpress Plugin For Instant Traffic in 5 Minutes | The Smart Passive Income Blog on September 30th, 2009 at 10:03 am

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