There are three primary temperatures of traffic. It’s important to think about each type as you build your digital marketing strategy. If you’ve heard Ryan Deiss talk about how dating and marketing are similar, you’ll get these right away. If not…keep reading! You’ll see how easy it is to turn cold leads into hot leads.
What is Cold Traffic ?
Someone who knows nothing about your product is a cold lead. Honestly, a cold lead might not even recognize they have a problem. If they are aware of a problem, they might not know a solution exists.
- Cold traffic isn’t ready to engage.
- Cold traffic isn’t ready to buy.
- Cold traffic might not even want to hear from you.
You might be thinking, “why waste my time and ad spend trying to win over someone who doesn’t even want to hear from me?” Because…they actually DO want to hear from you, they just don’t know it yet.
Marketing is Relationship Building
I feel strongly that digital marketing is relationship building. Think about any new relationship. They all start out cold with what Ryan Deiss calls a glance. You see someone from across the room that looks interesting. They glance back. It’s just a moment.
What’s the next step? Go and introduce yourself. That’s what paid traffic does. It introduces your product to the prospect.
Marketing is Relationship Building
Before marketing to anyone, you should create a buyer persona. At Digital Marketer, we call it the Customer Avatar. Completing a Customer Avatar Canvas helps you know the prospect to a point where you know:
- What their goals are.
- What their pain points are.
- Their hobbies and interests.
- Where they hang out.
- Their dreams and plans.
- What keeps them up at night.
If your marketing speaks to those issues, you’ll start to turn that traffic into warm traffic.
What Is Warm Traffic?
At the warm traffic stage, prospects don’t need to know about you, your product, or your brand to be considered warm leads or warm traffic. They do, however, need to be aware that they have a problem.
Warm traffic is any potential customer who has identified an issue and they’re interested in having that issue addressed in some way.
Examples of warm traffic include:
- The minivan mom who realizes, “I need an oil change.”
- The newly wedded couple who decides, “We’re interested in buying a new house.”
- The overworked attorney who says, “I want to go to Tahiti.”
In other words, warm traffic is a potential customer who has identified a need.
What Is Hot Traffic?
Hot leads are the folks that are ready to go. You’ve “turned a glance into a stare,” as Ryan would say. You’ve introduced yourself and gotten the number. Now you’re ready for the first date!
- Hot traffic wants to engage.
- Hot traffic wants to subscribe.
- Hot traffic wants to convert.
- Hot traffic wants to buy!
As you might expect, this is the most valuable traffic. It’s also the most expensive.
How To Turn A Cold Lead Into A Hot Lead With Paid Traffic
Quality leads don’t flow into a business on accident. The lead generation strategy you put into place has to gradually warm them up. At the cold lead stage, your job as a marketer is to put the message in front of them. The Facebook ad, Google ads, or whatever, has to be something that’s attractive to them and captures their attention.
This all goes back to the Customer Avatar or buyer persona. You’ve got to know your target audience before you can craft a high-converting offer.
What Is A Sales Funnel?
