How Do I Generate More Traffic?

Does Your Business Say Something Like This When It Is Open?

People just want to belong.  For some strange reason we all tend to go where others go.  We can travel a couple of hundred miles to a new town and get a motel room early in the afternoon.  After we get settled into the room with our stuff, we might want to go get a 'latte' somewhere.  We decide to venture out into this little town and see what we can find.  The motel we selected is located downtown with all of the 'old history' in this little town.  We hop into the 'car' and begin our search for a 'cute' little place that 'catches' our eye.  The downtown area 'is like' most old towns.  It has a route going one way on one street and another route going the other way on another street.  Checking out the downtown area for a 'good' place to stop and 'enjoy' ourselves will be 'easy' to do.

As we 'cruise the gut' looking for something that 'snags' our interest, we notice some 'familiar names'.  We see a 'Starbucks' and a few fast food name brand joints on one side of this downtown strip.  The town is small so we decide to continue to do the complete loop on both one way streets to see 'what else' is 'alive' and 'interesting' for us to consider.  We also notice on the one way street going the other direction a small section of downtown that has some 'people gathered' around a few little 'local' businesses.  We decide to find somewhere to 'park' and check it out.  There seems to be 'a lot going' on in this section of town.  We find a 'nice' parking lot that looks 'easy to do' and 'safe' to use.  We park the car and 'get out to walk' over to this 'section' we are headed to check out.

The closer we get to the place where 'everyone was wandering' about, we notice 'some music' going on.  As we begin to come up against the 'group of people' we start to 'notice more' reasons why they are 'gathered' here.  It seems to be a 'small festival' of weekend 'activities' centered around 'a farmers market' area on a back street next to downtown.  Some of the shops in this area are 'interesting' little boutiques.  'People are milling' about going in and out of these 'little businesses'.  We feel like we have found the 'happening' place in this little town.  We 'scored'.  Now all we need to do is 'find' the 'coffee shop' around here.

How do I generate more traffic?

Above is a physical description of how customers tend to move about.  It describes how people go hunting for the kinds of things they prefer to find.  This not only happens to small business models who operate in brick and mortar facilities, but the same process is how people find online stores they prefer to use.  Let's break down what helped this couple above find the place they decided to select.  Let's see how they became more traffic to the region that had traffic milling about.

People Tend To Gather Where it Is Happening.

When I was a little boy living in a rural neighborhood we had a lot of neighbors who had kids my age.  When I wanted to go out to play baseball in the field behind all of the houses on one street I would try to round up a few guys to see if they wanted to play baseball, too.  It was not as much fun playing by myself.  We want to spend time with more people.  It is more fun.  It adds interest when we see other people doing what they do.

Shopping is the same thing.  We are uncomfortable doing human activities all by ourselves.  We need other people around.  We do not often enjoy being the only customer in a large store.  The only time we enjoy that kind of shopping is when we are at that store getting specific items we know we need to get and we are in a hurry to get them because we are not there for any other reason.  When we go shopping for something to do, for enjoyment, we use other criteria for attracting why we choose where we choose.

When we went searching for the latte in that old little town after we got our motel room, we did more than shop for a latte.  We wanted to be entertained as well.  The motel room looked a lot like four walls, a bed and a TV.  It was too early in the day to tuck in for the night.  We wanted a little bit more.  The latte was our excuse to get more than what we currently had.  We are never satisfied with what we have.  We want more.  If place "A" offers more than place "B" we will likely choose to go to place "A" for our interest.  It offers more.  It is a pretty simple game.  Give them more.

In our little town during the last two years six new restaurants have opened their doors to give it a try.  Three of them seem to have all of the heavy traffic of customers.  The three with the most cars and the most people milling about are the ones that also have an outside eating area provided.  Those three businesses decided to give the customers more choice.  They gave them more.  That is where most people go.  Does your website do this same type of thing?  Look closely to make sure you are giving them more.

Whenever I need to get a small gift for someone I usually always go to this one little gift shop downtown.  If I do not find what I am looking for I at least give them a shot at the business every time.  I have made a half of dozen purchases at this little gift shop.  No other downtown shop gets more of my attention when I am buying gifts.  Here is why.  They have a gift wrapping station set up at the cash register and always ask to wrap the purchase 'for free' whenever I buy something.  It is willing, friendly and they like doing it.  They always give me more.  They solve my problem from going home to wrap it and it cost me nothing.  They give me more.  They get my business.  Does your online web business do this?  Dah.

How do I generate more traffic?

Stick your neck out and do more stuff.  Give them more.  The traffic will improve.  Quit worrying about what it will cost.  Build the cost into your margin of retail motions.  Once it is built in, offer the extra you give for free!  I know the gifts I buy at the gift shop are slightly higher than I prefer, but they solve a big problem for me.  It is worth it.  I know it is not free, but I tell everyone it is.  I want to win so badly I will lie to myself, and they do a great job in helping me to believe it is free.  They are so friendly about it.

Go back to the first page of this post and list the highlighted words and phrases that were part of the latte searching criteria we used.  These are the words that helped us become new traffic to some place of business.  Check them out.  They are important to know when you go to work on building larger traffic flows.

We will list them;

Latte, old history, car, cute, catches, is like, good, enjoy, easy, cruise the gut, snags, familiar names, Starbucks, what else, alive, interesting, people gathered, local, park, a lot going on, nice, easy to do, safe, get out to walk, section, everyone was wandering, some music, group of people, notice more, gathered, small festival, activities, a farmers market, interesting, people are milling, little businesses, happening, scored, find, and coffee shop.

Now let us break them up into organized reasons; the simple categories of consumer interests.

We like to belong:  Latte, old history, cruise the gut, familiar names, Starbucks, people gathered, a lot going on, everyone was wandering, group of people, gathered, small festival, activities, people are milling, and happening.    

We need familiarity:  Latte, old history, car, is like, catches, snags, familiar names, Starbucks, local, easy to do, safe, small festival, a farmers market, little businesses, and coffee shops.

We want to be entertained:  Latte, old history, cute, catches, good, enjoy, cruise the gut, alive, interesting, people gathered, a lot going on, nice, easy to do, get out to walk, everyone was wandering, some music, group of people, notice more, gathered, what else, small festival, activities, a farmers market, happening and find.  

We want more for the effort, more selection:  Latte, old history, cute, good, enjoy, easy, familiar names,what else, alive, interesting, local, a lot going on, nice, easy to do, safe, get out to walk, section, some music, notice more, gathered, small festival, activities, a farmers market, interesting, happening, scored, find, and coffee shop.

We want food or drink to be available:  Latte, enjoy, Starbucks, section, notice more, small festival, activities, a farmers market, little businesses, scored, find, and coffee shop.

We want it to represent something current, creative:  Latte, old history, cute, catches, is like, good, enjoy, easy, familiar names, Starbucks, what else, alive, interesting, people gathered, local, a lot going on, nice, easy to do, safe, get out to walk, section, everyone was wandering, some music, group of people, notice more, gathered, small festival, activities, a farmers market, interesting, people are milling, little businesses, happening, scored, find, and coffee shop.

We want something charming, quaint, green, relevant, current:  Latte, old history, cute, catches, is like, good, enjoy, easy, snags, familiar names, Starbucks, what else, alive, interesting, people gathered, local, park, a lot going on, nice, easy to do, safe, get out to walk, everyone was wandering, some music, notice more, gathered, small festival, activities, a farmers market, interesting, people are milling, little businesses, happening, scored, find, and coffee shop.

We want the past to connect with the new:  Latte, old history, car, is like, good, enjoy, cruise the gut, snags, familiar names, Starbucks, what else, alive, interesting, people gathered, local, a lot going on, nice, easy to do, get out to walk, everyone was wandering, some music, group of people, gathered, small festival, activities, a farmers market, interesting, people are milling, little businesses, happening, and coffee shop.

We want our experience to be affordable and quickly satisfying:  Latte, old history, car, good, enjoy, easy, alive, interesting, local, a lot going on, nice, easy to do, safe, some music, notice more, small festival, activities, a farmers market, interesting, happening, scored, find, and coffee shop.

We want to be right, correct, timely, on target, current:  Is like, good, enjoy, easy, familiar names, Starbucks, alive, interesting, people gathered, a lot going on, nice, easy to do, safe, everyone was wandering, group of people, gathered, interesting, people are milling, happening, scored, find, and coffee shop.

How do I generate more traffic?

Can you see where your business needs help to generate more traffic?  You may have a few of these elements right or you may be missing a whole lot of them.  If you are missing a whole lot of them, get to work on creating solutions to solve and fill in for those missing elements.  If you want more traffic you need to do the things that create more traffic.  Waiting for traffic to 'just show up' is not the correct method to use.  You need to make it happen.  Start doing the things that people want to be a part of and do them with other businesses to help make them happen.  Some online business models can learn form this example.  I can think immediately of many good ideas.

Good luck on the thinking.

Until next time...