The Trust Element of Traffic

I saw an ad disguised as a newsletter the other day for something I desire greatly. Funds weren’t an issue, and my desire had begun to feel like a pressing need.

I had an opportunity to buy- and I didn’t. Guess why?

It wasn’t that I realized that particular issue of the newsletter was an ad. As a web traffic specialist, I actually admired the fact that even though it was clearly advertising, it spoke directly to a desire I had and offered me a solution.

In web traffic sales terms, everything had gone right. Here are the elements you want.

You want a targeted person to end up at your site. Preferably through a referral from a trusted source, be it a friend, or search engine.

Once the visitor arrives, you want them to like the information on your site enough to sign up for a newsletter. Some people will even say to risk an immediate sale for the permission to follow up, because it’s better to have 20% of newsletter subscribers buy something within 7 contacts, than 1.5% of people to buy on first visit (the industry average).

Then, during some subsequent follow up, as soon as possinle, you hopefully hit on something they want to buy, timed to coincide with when they should have the money to do it.

Everything had gone right. A friend sent me a link, so I arrived at the site, not just by trusted referral, but by a glowing one.

I signed up for the newsletter. While waiting for the next issue I researched the company and decided to trust them.

The thing that went wrong is that I didn’t trust the vendor whose product they were reselling. I’ve even corresponded with her once. Nice enough lady but when it comes to the item in question, I have read my fair share of reviews and have had my own experiences with her product that resulted in distrust.

There’s so much more important to web traffic and website promotion than getting people to your site. Next time: How to Build the Trust Element Into Your Traffic Trail