Brand is More Important than Traffic for Internet Marketers

Internet entrepreneurs all have goals in place. The problem is that their goals may not generate them any money. One of their primary obsessions is generating traffic to their website. Instead, they should be focusing on building a brand for their business and targeting the right audience.

Don?t get me wrong. Traffic is very important when you are generating an online presence. You can?t generate sales if no one comes to your site. ?The problem is that traffic itself doesn?t guarantee sales either.

When you are building your business, you need to have the right visitors. Imagine if you were trying to sell your new software for physicians. You could market yourself by conducting lectures at accountants offices. You might generate strong brand awareness, but you won?t generate many sales. You are wasting your time marketing to the wrong audience.

Building a Loyal Brand Following Is Crucial

The same concept holds true for web entrepreneurs. You may bring traffic to your website, but you must reach your target audience. Identify the demographic you are marketing to, before you build traffic. Then make sure that demographic is coming to your site. Don?t pat yourself on the back because you are bringing in traffic.

Visitors that won?t buy your product or service are a waste of bandwidth. Forget they exist unless they can refer real buyers to you.

Stop measuring your traffic and pay closer attention to who your visitors actually are. Here are some guidelines you should look at:

1. Check your Google Analytics Data. Your analytics data provides the most accurate information on your visitors. First and foremost, it will tell you where your visitors are located. This is key to selling anything online. You also need to know how they are finding you. The traffic sources won?t tell you who your visitors are, but you can extrapolate that information based on the search terms or links they use. Check the visitor tab regularly to learn who is finding you.
2. Use Alexa and Compete. These sites will tell you many details about your target audience. I ran a check on one of my client?s websites on Alexa recently. I found that most of their visitors came from the United States and were college educated females between the ages of 25 and 34.
3. Interact with your visitors. Communicating with your visitors directly is one of the best ways to find out who they are. Install social networking plugins and allow them to communicate publicly. Invite them to contact you and follow up with them. They are the most descriptive source of information available.

After paying closer attention to your visitors, you will have a better idea of how to implement your branding campaign. You will have a better idea which traffic generation strategies work. Always build keep your priorities in line. Traffic generation is important but it should not be your primary concern. Outline your conversion goals and decide a plan of action to reach them. Your traffic stats should be a measurement of your ability to reach your goals rather than a goal in and of themselves.

Kalen Smith is the founder of Online Rookies and a provider of SEO and social media services. He teaches?Internet marketing newbies how to create an online presence that captivates their audience and inspire them to take action.

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Source: http://techlunatic.com/2011/07/internet-marketing-failure-blame-faulty-brand-building/

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