How to Create Traffic Online Using Advertising

In a conventional retail business, the rule of thumb for success is: “Location, location, location.” In retail, location is important because it immediately positions your store for traffic. The better the location, the better the traffic.

Not true for the internet. On the internet, all stores essential have the same location on the information highway. Getting traffic is not a matter of being there, it’s a matter of attracting or directing visitors to your web site location. It means advertising.

Sure, advertising, but advertising where? The answer is simple: wherever your prospective customers are likely to see your advertisement – on and off the internet! For example, let’s assume you are the manufacturer of library book covers and your primary market is libraries and librarians. Where do you advertise?

Online you may start with Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising (like Google’s AdWords) indexed to keywords like “library supplies” and “book covers”. You may also consider taking out ads on the “Internet Library for Librarians” (www.itcompany.com/inforetriever/vend_sup.htm). Offline you may want to insert standard print ads that drive librarians to your web site in the the Special Libraries Association which deals with corporate libraries (http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/busdevelopment/advertising/index.cfm) and the American Library Associations publications at [http://www.ala.org/ala/ProductsandPublications/Products_and_Publications.htm].

Whatever mix of advertising your choose, the key element is that your online and offline ads will focus on making offers that reside on your web site.

An important consideration in using advertising to create traffic online, however, is to be sure that you know where the traffic comes from. With PPC advertising, the providers often have tools for measuring traffic and response. With print advertising however, it may be a good idea, to have each print ad or ad campaign drive traffic to a particular “landing page” – an introductory page just for people responding in that way. For example, for people that respond to an SLA (from above) advertisement, your landing page may have a heading that says “Welcome SLA Members!) before entering your main page. In this way, you can track traffic to that page to tell you how your ads are doing.

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