As a web and ecommerce guy, I spent 20 years figuring out how to build websites to gain traffic and convert that traffic into buying customers.
I do it pretty well.
What many people don’t understand is that getting enough traffic to fuel conversions takes time (unless you’re pouring money into testing ads).
- It can take months to have enough quality content written to rank for any type of keyword.
- Google may take 6 months or more to consider showing your brand new URL in a search result.
- It can take 6-12 months of consistent networking to get people talking about your product or business.
- Etc, etc.
So, when a business is just starting out, there is no traffic. And with no traffic, there are no conversions. No conversions? No money.
This is where 98% of people quit.
People will come up with every reason why the business isn’t working. The problem isn’t the business (yet) - the problem is patience.
Most people don’t have patience. So, we’re going to touch on a few things that can accelerate the first 6 months of your business results beyond creating a great website, optimizing it, and dedicating yourself to writing content - which everyone should be doing for the strongest long-term results.
I admit this list won’t directly apply to every type of business, but at least one should apply to yours. They all revolve around “pounding the pavement” - getting out into the real world and talking to real people about real problems and solutions.
Sorry, I wish it was easier.
Number 1: Leverage Your Existing Network
I’ve seen many occasions where it appears someone launched a business to overnight success. This is often the result of MANY previous failures and a strong network built during those failures. They’re launching into a strong existing network.
The other thing these entrepreneurs are often doing is creating a product or service FOR their network.
If you’re at the stage of conception - figuring out exactly what you want to offer as a business - consider your existing network and what their problem areas are. This is, BY FAR, the strongest way to launch a new product or business.
- Make a list of 20 people in your network that you could easily take to coffee or lunch.
- Ask what they (or their businesses) struggle the most with.
- Ask them about what they’ve tried to solve that problem and what they liked/didn’t like about those solutions.
- Ask them how much a solution to that problem would be worth to them.
If you start to get overlapping problems you can solve, you can bet that those ratios will probably extend out into the rest of your network. When you launch, you’ll have a built-in base of customers ready to buy.
Number 2: Cold Calling
Modern technology removes almost all barriers to this age-old sales solution.
If you’re not selling something to local businesses, where literally pounding the pavement and walking into offices could work, then calling or emailing cold still actually works.
There are incredible tools available for building lists of potential customers. Just one I reviewed recently is Clay (not an affiliate link), which connects several data sources to find contacts and enrich the contacts you find with additional data—even content that allows you to highly personalize an outreach email automatically. Clay can even AI-write and send the outreach email for you.
With the right offer, cold calling makes a ton of sense and is just a numbers game. If you can reach out to 1000 people with highly personalized messages that resonate with problems they need to solve, you might be able to book 30-50 calls. You might book 3-5 customers from that.
What would your business look like if you were adding 3-5 clients per month?
Number 3: Become a Digital Helper
I didn’t know what to call this one - but I do know not enough people do it!
The idea is pretty simple: It’s basically networking online. You’re looking for places where people talk about the problems your business solves and doing your best to try and help solve those problems right where those people are.
For example, if you have a coaching business that caters to new managers, you could use Twitter Pro (formerly TweetDeck) to set up a search that finds anyone talking about their transition from employee to manager. You would dive right into the comments and post something helpful.
Almost every interest on earth has one or more forums dedicated to the people with those interests. Become a member and start helping!
The main idea is that you aren’t focused on mentioning your product or service here—that’s in your bio (right?). People will find that!
The idea is helping. The most helpful people get to help more people.
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We’d all love for traffic to our new website and business to just flood in on day one. We were taught, “Build it, and they will come,” right?
Don’t be one of the 98% who quit before they’ve even started. Get out there, get your feet dirty, and pound that pavement.
Elliott
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