Part of the guide: Blog Traffic
This is part 5 of The Ultimate Website Marketing Strategy, click here to read part four.
8. Convert Traffic Into Subscribers
If you’ve done all of the previous steps correctly, you should start to generate a lot of traffic. It’s really not that difficult to generate traffic. It’s as simple as following a cooking recipe. It’s been done 10,000 times before, there is an exact blueprint; you just have to follow it and not make any bad mistakes.
The real task is in converting traffic into subscribers and subscribers into customers. So first, how do we convert traffic into subscribers? The first step is to get an autoresponder like Aweber (works, checked as of 2024). Aweber will handle your list management/emails and capture subscribers for you. The next step is to create a compelling offer to entice visitors to join your email list.
This can be as simple as a 10-page PDF or as complex as a 10-hour-long video series. There’s really no explanation needed—create a free product/report to incentivize visitors to join your list. Using Aweber or some kind of opt-in form builder or popup software, strategically place opt-in forms around your site. That’s all you need to do to start building a list. Checklist:
- Sign up for an Autoresponder Service
- Create a Free Offer to Incentivize Visitors
- Create a Landing Page Promoting the Offer – Promote the landing page via banner/widget on site/blog
- Link Call to Actions in Blog Content to the Landing Page
- Create a Thank You Page Where Visitors Are Redirected After Opt-in
On top of opt-in forms in the sidebar and popups, create an actual landing page promoting the offer. Link to it at the bottom of all your blog posts—this will drive a lot of subscribers if your content is valuable.
After a visitor opts in, they will be redirected to a thank you page. You should create a thank you page that welcomes subscribers to your list and gives them the free offer/report download link. You can also use the thank you page to promote a product or paid offer.
9. Email Marketing
Email marketing is the ultimate way to nurture your subscribers, build rapport, and make sales. After a visitor joins your list, you can email them whenever you like. With an autoresponder like Aweber, you can create a follow-up series of emails to automatically be sent out to new subscribers on set dates.
Your email marketing strategy will greatly vary depending on the kind of business you’re operating. However, the fundamentals apply to every business. Send your list free information, goodies, discounts, videos, free reports, and promotions. Before you start marketing products to your list, you need to build rapport.
You do this by sending them a series of free information, reports, videos, and other content.
- Craft a follow-up email series designed to build rapport and then sell a product(s). The email series should consist of free reports, information, videos, and other content.
- After building enough rapport, you can start mailing subscribers product promotions.
- Use a real name! Email marketing is far more effective when you use a personal name instead of a company/brand name. People prefer receiving emails from individuals; it feels more personal and boosts open rates.
- Create attractive emails; don’t write big blocks of text. Use short and concise sentences. Incorporate relevant images and headlines. Write engaging subject lines.
- Measure open rates, CTR, and track conversions.
Email marketing is all about testing. Split-test various subject lines and email formats to find out what works for your subscribers. Split-test email formats for optimal click-through rates, and track sales conversions to see which emails drive the most sales.
10. Analyze
After following everything outlined in this ultimate website marketing checklist, you should see consistent traffic. Perhaps the most important aspect of online marketing is analytics. Analyze everything, split-test, and see what works best. The 80/20 rule applies significantly—20% of your marketing/traffic generation efforts will result in 80% of your traffic and sales.
- Test as many traffic generation strategies as possible. Over time, narrow down to the top 5–10 most effective strategies.
- Identify traffic opportunities and implement them.
- Always modify your site/blog, change the layout, and see where visitors are clicking.
- Identify the pages on your site that make the most money and leverage other pages to drive traffic to those pages.
- Pay attention to Google Analytics.
In the end, it’s all about seeing what works and what doesn’t. There’s no one strategy for every niche or business with online marketing. Your strategy should be customized for your site and can only be perfected over years of split-testing and optimization.
In Prosperity,
David Wood
P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments, and questions below.
Comments
JohnM
This is a really helpful checklist! I’ve been struggling with traffic conversion and I think I was missing a few steps you’ve mentioned here. Thanks for the advice!
SusanW
Great article! I just started using Aweber for my email campaigns, and it has made a big difference. Do you recommend any specific opt-in form plugins for WordPress?
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MichaelT
I’ve been following this series, and I must say, this part on converting traffic into subscribers is a game-changer. The checklist is clear and actionable. Keep up the great work!
KarenL
I find it hard to believe that simply using an autoresponder like Aweber can lead to such a significant improvement in conversions. Do you have any stats or case studies to back this up?
ChrisB
In your experience, do you think it’s better to offer a PDF or a video series as the free incentive for subscribers? I’d love to know what has worked best for you.
EmmaD
While this article is informative, I think more emphasis should be placed on the quality of the content offered as the incentive. Simply having an autoresponder isn’t enough without high-value content. What do you think?
RobertF
Thanks for the post, David! It’s been a while since we last caught up. Hope you’re doing well. Let’s grab a coffee sometime soon!
LauraK
This is exactly what I needed! I’ve been struggling with my email marketing strategy for months. Your breakdown of using a follow-up series to build rapport really resonates with me, as I’ve been experiencing low engagement. Thank you!
JamesH
For those looking for an alternative to Aweber, I’d recommend trying MailChimp or ConvertKit. Both offer excellent autoresponder services and are user-friendly for beginners.
SophieP
This article has really helped me understand how to optimize my website traffic into meaningful subscribers. I didn’t realize the importance of a thank you page until now. Thanks for the insights!
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Where in this eight-step opt-in-to-thank-you-page funnel does anyone actually get asked what they want, versus just being routed toward the next form?
Everything from step 8 downward is scriptable — the syndication, the thank-you-page redirect, even the split-test rotation on subject lines. Built a version of this whole funnel with just the autoresponder’s own API and a cron job last year, no popup software needed. The only bit that can’t be automated is writing the actual free report people are opting in for, which is obviously the part this post skips.
Fine, automate the redirect. Look, the actual bottleneck was never the thank you page. It’s rapport. You can script an email sequence. You cannot script somebody actually caring what you send them. The post treats ‘build rapport’ as a checklist item with the same weight as ‘create a thank you page.’ It isn’t.
Marla’s right that rapport and mechanics aren’t the same weight class. To sort what’s here: 1) capture — autoresponder plus opt-in form, 2) incentivize — the free offer, 3) route — landing page and thank you page, 4) nurture — the rapport-building sequence, 5) sell. Steps 1 and 3 are pure mechanics, exactly the part Trina can automate. Step 4 is the one the whole post spends two sentences on and calls done. That’s the gap — no real guidance on what actually builds rapport, just an instruction to go build it.
Trina, twenty-two years in corporate taught me that automating the funnel is the easy 80% and nobody ever budgets time for the hard 20%, which is exactly the ‘write something worth opting in for’ problem you just flagged. We had entire departments dedicated to marketing automation platforms and precisely nobody whose job was ‘make the lead magnet not embarrassing.’