Where Are Your Clients? How to Simplify Your Traffic

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If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the many channels of traffic and how to optimize them all - this post is for you. It’s controversial though, while many people are saying you really have to be everywhere and develop this “omnipresence” to grow your brand, I’m saying you don’t.

Especially if you’re going after the big accounts that will drastically move the needle in your business.

Stop the Crazy.

LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, Pinterest, Podcasts, and one hundred other channels are all competing for your attention. It’s true that if you see someone on Facebook, you check out their site, their google ads follow you all around the internet, and then you go to LinkedIn and there they are again…

In a way, they are instilling trust because you’re seeing them everywhere - they must be doing something right, yes?

Maybe. They’re also spending a TON in ads, content creation, and distribution. How can small businesses who don’t have a huge budget keep up? 

The good news is, for most small businesses not only is this “omnipresence” not necessary, but it can also actually be hurting your company if you’re not careful. 

I’m sure you’re familiar with the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule - 

“Where for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.”

The same is true for your traffic sources. If you jump the gun too soon, creating so much content and increasing your ad budget might not be your best bet if you haven’t conquered the basics and built a strong foundation.

That foundation is this: Know your clients and build real relationships with them.

How to Simplify Your Traffic

How do you know which traffic sources would be best to focus on? Let's go back to the 80/20 principle. If you know who your clients are and where they hang out - you can easily find them and connect with them. My typical clients, for example, are small business owners, entrepreneurs, or managers or directors. I find that LinkedIn is a fantastic place because it is the place people in those positions go to network, to find relevant articles, and more. So for me, while I do get traffic from other sources, especially at the beginning when I was still building that foundation and before I was ready to scale, approximately 80% of my clients came from one or two traffic sources.

Once I started focusing on those, I found that I had better results. I could be more creative in one channel because I dropped all my other efforts and dedicated my time to mastering LinkedIn. I realize that if I could build authority there and carve out a corner for myself and my business, I didn’t need to be everywhere. Just consistent on one platform. 

That’s the nature of high-end clients, you don’t need a lot of them, you just need quality ones. I found that building relationships and making connections on LinkedIn was a perfect fit for my services.

Application

How can you apply this idea in your business?

First, you need to realize what stage you’re at. If you already have a consistent traffic source and consistent lead generation on one platform, you can start to scale and include other platforms into your marketing mix. 

However, if your leads aren’t consistent, analyze how many you need each month and find a platform they visit regularly. Let’s take LinkedIn, for example. If you want to target small business owners for your accounting business, you can search for the title of “owner” in a specific location, or you can keep location general. You can narrow it further by focusing on a specific vertical. So that would be something like “owners of construction businesses.” LinkedIn has really ramped up their search capabilities in the last couple of years and made it extremely easy to find these prospects. 

Second, do a little competitor research. If you have a competitor that’s doing well, see where they post. What platforms are they most active on? They might have already done the legwork and you can take advantage of it.

Third, think of your best clients. Do they have a specific interest related to their work, or even outside of work? In other words, does your audience have a specific interest, groups they'd follow, influencers they'd follow? Follow or join those groups and influencers, and see where they post (and what kinds of posts get the most reactions). 

At the end of the day, you need to ask yourself what is the easiest platform for you to get started on. Which platform allows you to easily find and communicate with your ideal prospects? Pick one and dominate it before you can be everywhere.

You’ll find that instead of creating content and focusing on a ton of platforms, now you’re on a platform where you’re confident your future clients are.  This frees up more time and bandwidth in your day (and budget). And by focusing on one traffic source you’ll be able to get better results.