5 Steps to Finding Your Best Prospect
On the Web
Dear Business Builder,
Happy Friday and welcome back to In the ‘Net Trenches. In last week’s issue, we discussed an often overlooked opportunity for driving website traffic beyond Google and SEO. It’s paid Web media. We also took a closer look at several different types of paid media available for advertising your wares on the Internet.
Well, from that information, one big question arose. It’s simply the question of “where.” Where are you buying media? What websites are working for you?
Oh, wouldn’t you just like to know …
The inherent problem with the question of “where” is that my “where” may be very different from your “where.” And that’s simply because the products I market and my customers are likely different from your products and customers.
So rather than me taking the easy way out and making this week’s issue one big list of websites, let’s take a little closer look at my research process and see how you might make it work for you.
Web media research can be a painstaking process. It can take a considerable amount of time and testing to find the sites that will work for you. But don’t let that stop you, because once you find a few that work for your offer … finding others like them is as easy as breeding bunny rabbits.
Five steps to finding the sites that can work for you!
Step 1: Let your customer be your guide …
Knowing your customer is hands down the most important piece of information you can have when marketing your products and services online … and offline for that matter.
If you don’t have a clear picture of who your customers are, I suggest you start doing some research immediately. One excellent way to do that is by surveying your existing customers. A great tool for doing e-mail and online surveys can be found at www.surveymonkey.com.
Core survey questions should have to do with customer demographics. Demographics are simply the statistics of a population – age, gender, income level, geographic location, marital status, etc.
Armed with this information, you can then start thinking like your customers and looking for websites they might be likely to visit. A tool I like for researching a website’s demographics is www.quantcast.com. It will also tell you if a site accepts advertising and recommend other sites that have a similar demo to the one you’re researching.
Here’s an example of my demographic – rich, old, white guys that live in the United States, Canada and Europe. So when researching Web media, I think of where my rich, old, white guys might like to hang out – news sites, financial sites, political sites … I’m sure you get the picture.
Step 2: Going Psycho …
Next up, Psychographics. Psychographics have to do with your customer’s interests, buying patterns and lifestyle choices.
It is likely you already know a bit about your customer’s psychographic behavior just by the sheer fact they bought your product or service. But this is not enough.
You must delve deeper into this category to learn even more about your customer’s common interests, because this will give you additional opportunities to find other pockets of similar customers that may be interested in your product.
So, taking my rich, old, white guy example from above, I’ll add some psychographic data. I now know that my customers are rich, old, white guys that are politically conservative, information seekers concerned about their health and finances, like to travel and are more likely than the average person to give to charitable causes.
Hmmm, maybe you’re getting a much clearer picture of where my man might be hanging out. Is it on MySpace.com? I think not!
So, let’s think about what that might translate into from a website perspective … newsmax.com (political), forbes.com (financial), foxnews.com (conservative news) … it’s likely that sites like these could have great potential for my offers.
So, now that you’re armed with a lot of great information about your potential customers, it’s time to start researching and making a list of the sites they’re likely to be visiting.
Step 3: Beep, beep! Move that %&*$#@ piece of junk …
Ah traffic! You gotta love it … that is unless you’re stuck in it.
Once you’ve made your list of potential sites using the intelligence you’ve gleaned from above, the next step is to take a closer look at each of the sites’ traffic.
Two third party tools I like for learning about a site’s traffic numbers are www.alexa.com and www.quantcast.com.
Every site on the Web is given a traffic ranking. The lower the ranking number, the higher the traffic. So to give you an example, the #1 ranked website according to Alexa is Yahoo.com – Yahoo gets the most traffic of any website on the Internet.
But what does this mean to you …
Use the traffic rankings as a qualifier. It’s likely you’ve made a rather large list of potential websites. But, it’s not likely you have a starting budget to test them all. It’s time to narrow them down …
By adding a traffic ranking to your list, you can sort your list from most traffic to least traffic and concentrate your test budget on the sites that get the most visitors. But, it’s important to note that higher ranked sites may command higher ad prices or have larger minimum ad buys.
On the flip side, if you have a smaller ad budget, you can start testing sites with a little less traffic but with more affordable ad rates. Then roll out to higher traffic sites as your confidence grows.
Step 4: Birds of a feather flock together …
By now, you have a list of websites that seem to have really good potential. The sites on your list are frequented by your demographic, and also speak to your prospects’ interests (or psychographics). You’ve also determined which sites attract the right amount of traffic and are possibly worthy of testing.
The next step is to take a closer look at the sites themselves. Does the site attract direct response buyers?
One big rule of thumb for direct response marketers is to look for lists of prospects that have demonstrated to buy products similar to yours in the past. In direct mail, this is fairly easy to accomplish … you just buy your competitors’ mailing lists and you’re off to the races.
On the Web, you have to do a little more investigating. Look closer at the site and ask yourself a few questions …
Does the website offer its own products or services for sale?
Does the website have its own e-newsletter or e-zine – its own opt-in subscriber list?
Are other direct response marketers advertising on this site?
If yes, are there similar offers to yours?
If you answered yes to some or all of the above questions, congratulations – it’s likely the website attracts prospects that are more likely to purchase your products online or via e-mail.
Step 5: How much is that doggie in the window …
The last and final step in our analysis is to determine whether the websites on your list show paid ads above the fold.
Above the fold simply means the amount of the site you can see on your monitor before you have to scroll down.
When a site has ads displayed above the fold it demonstrates two important things:
- The site’s visitors are used to seeing advertising on the site and are thus more likely to respond. Repeat advertisers are a good indication that marketer’s efforts are paying off.
- The website has a commitment to making ads work for its advertisers. These websites generate a considerable portion of their income from ad revenue. That means the site owners are more likely to work with you on ad rates and are more willing to make good on poor performing ads.
Armed with my five steps for researching Web media, you can now create a list of websites that …
- Attract your customer demographic …
- Speak to your prospects’ interests …
- Command a large volume of traffic …
- Attract direct response buyers …
- Are committed to your success!
You now have everything you need to answer the question of “where” … now get out there and start testing. And be sure to let me know how you do!
As always post any successes, comments or questions to the blog.
Until next week,
Julie McManus
Editor, In the ‘Net Trenches
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™
And Web Media Goddess
P.S. Are you in the ‘net trenches? Do you need help? Send me an e-mail to AskJulie@MakepeaceTotalPackage.com and I just might answer your question in an upcoming issue.
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Comment by Brian — May 9, 2008 @ 11:10 am
Hi Julie,
Thanks for not taking the easy way out! Great article that I’ll be able to put to good use right away. Good job!
Comment by Merilyn — May 10, 2008 @ 4:33 am
Thanks for this article. I’m new to this but you’re step by step guide makes me think I can do it too. I’m a gonna try! Much appreciated.
Comment by Dali — May 12, 2008 @ 6:16 pm
Julie - This is an excellent article! I personally know someone who is using web media and is having amazing response and success with it. This is definitely the way to go - targeting and tapping into quality traffic. Thank you writing this!
Dali Burgado