James Schramko here, SuperFastBusiness.com with Kory Basaraba from GrowFastMarketing.com.
Good day, mate!
Hey, James, how are you?
I'm great! And today we're talking about paid traffic.
And in particular, how we can scale it really quickly.
And, of course, there's three things that you're going to need if you're going to grow paid traffic.
And I'm sure we've covered these a few times, but you're going to need traffic,
you're going to need conversions, and then you're going to need data, right?
So I just want to put that out there as a general overall, but within that you found three pillars
that will really accelerate the growth of your paid traffic.
And these are the things that you do as a professional conversion rate optimizer,
as a funnel fixer, as a traffic god and conversion genius.
These are the three things that you've developed for your system
that you put behind the campaigns of some of the biggest names online.
You've been there in the driver's seat, you know, behind dark-tinted windows,
making that vehicle run.
What are the three pillars that really help accelerate traffic growth?
And we're particularly talking about paid traffic here, because I think this would be very insightful.
Well, first of all, thanks for that crazy intro, blushing ear-to-ear on this one.
So yeah, these three pillars really come down to troubleshooting and scaling.
So it's really easy to get a campaign off the ground, get a funnel built and get things moving.
But then you hit a point where it's not working. And so when I look at a situation like that,
there's three things I look at. So the first pillar I call Constraint Clarity, right?
And this is, you and I both understand, you know, Goldratt and his Theory of Constraints.
But the understanding that in any system, there's one thing that's stopping the whole thing,
it's slowing everything down. And if you don't know what that constraint is,
if you don't know what's really stopping you from scaling your business,
you risk investing a lot of time fixing stuff that is not actually going to make a difference.
Hence the need for data, right?
Hence the need for data, that's right. They all go together.
So first thing is make sure you really know what your constraint is.
If you think it's your Facebook campaigns, and you'll end up asking your media buyer to replace
your creative or refresh your creative, make sure that that's really the problem.
Well, some people just rotate media buyer after media buyer,
but that might not have been the problem.
That's exactly it. So make sure you know what the constraint is. And that's where you start.
Typically, what sort of things could be the constraint? Could it be the message-to-market match?
Could it be there's not enough proof on the sales page? Could it be that there's a usability error?
Like what typical things do you see come up at this phase?
Yeah, well, it's a great question because funnels are complex and there could be a lot of different things.
But typically, the constraint is going to be somewhere in your conversion. That's what I found.
You don't have the right message to take a total stranger and turn them into a customer
on that first visit. So there's going to be something in there.
And the other constraint that's common is your average order value is too low.
Right.
Facebook's getting more and more expensive, other platforms are getting more expensive,
you have to be able to collect enough cash on that first transaction to pay for your media.
So a low customer value is often the constraint. And if you change that one thing, that changes
the whole picture, you can afford to spend more.
So I really look at that customer value as a key number.
Is that maybe like instead of doing a $7 campaign, maybe going for a bigger sale up front
or you know, having a different sales pathway?
Yeah, that's right.
And sometimes if you have a low price first offer, you might look at what are the upsells
you're going to offer immediately after. Do you have order bumps?
Do you have ways to increase that order value? Maybe it's follow up over the next seven days
where you get them into another program or sell another product.
But a lot of attention needs to be paid to that. If you get that right, then it really makes it much easier
to go out there and buy traffic.
Gotcha. Yeah, I found significant benefits before like, adding an extra 60 days of follow up,
where I thought initially, I wasn't making the conversion.
But just doing that really beefy cart abandonment follow up with a variety of approaches
made a significant change, and then realizing that that's because there was something
not quite right in the messaging part, and then going back and fixing that.
So I'd suppose when you fix one constraint, it should reveal another constraint?
Yeah, that's exactly it. Well, and it's...
Like, Kaizen,
Exactly, it's always moving. That's right. If you fixed your funnel, then you have ruined your traffic.
And now your traffic is your constraint. But if you're not aware of this dynamic of a moving constraint,
or if you're dealing with multiple teams or agencies to fix things, it gets complicated to turn your
attention quickly. But that's right, it moves and you have to be aware of where's the constraint today,
this week, and then you focus all of your energy on fixing it.
And what about a second pillar?
Second pillar is what I call Data Leadership. And I kind of phrase it that way because people, at the
beginning of their business, relegate data to kind of the crazy old uncle that we don't want to invite
to the BBQ, right? We know we have to invite them but we're not, right?
They don't pay attention to it. It's something they know they need to have but it's not figured out.
You hit a certain point where you startusing your data to lead and you accept the role of a leader
in your business by insisting on data. So this idea of leading with data, investing in it
and making sure that you can trust it is a key part of scaling.
So you want to develop this idea of data leadership in your business where the data talks to you,
you trust it, and you move forward. And that's its own journey as you know.
And if you don't have the data, then you can really forget about ever flying with the instruments.
The plane could crash anytime, you wouldn't even know it.
I mean, I had this exact thing happen yesterday.
Someone called me, they were supposed to be doing coaching, brilliant story,
this person has made millions of dollars in their first few years online and they want some coaching
to go to the next level because everyone in their mastermind group is not as smart as this person.
And they've evolved past their group, they're too pedestrian.
But then found out from the accountant, that there's X amount in the checking account
but the bills owed to everyone else is double that.
Like completely flying blind on the revenue, on the stats. There's no correlation between revenue
coming in and costs going out. They are making a negative profit.
Definitely places this person outside the mastermind but not in the way that this person thought.
And I've seen this happen all too often.
And I am thankful my parents sort of encouraged me to go and do accounting after
I left school because they figured it would be a good industry to learn about no matter what I did.
And I have a knack for numbers now. I'm good at looking at the reports and I think you obviously
like your numbers and you've probably know your way around the spreadsheet, Kory, and a dashboard.
But without that, forget it. Now, if you have the data leadership, what about pillar number three?
Number three is what I call Story-based Messaging. That's not like I call it, I did not invent this.
Yes, Mr. Campbell.
Yeah, that's right. I got this great idea. Let's tell a story.
We could call it the hero's journey. It should fly.
That's right. That's a great one, good name. You should trademark that one, yeah.
Essentially, it's this idea that the days of interruption marketing or push marketing, where we can
force our message in front of an audience are gone. They're leaving.
Ad blockers, and, you know, television, we don't have the ability to force our way into everyone's lives.
And people couldn't be more excited to get rid of marketers, right?
And so when you look at what's actually working now, you have to pull and attract people to you
and there's nothing more attractive than a story-based message.
And if you look at what's working in across all domains now, it's investing in storytelling
and knowing how to craft a story and shape your marketing message as a story.
So that's the third pillar. It is if you've got really great story-based messaging in your funnel,
including your Facebook ads or your videos, and you combine that with great data
and you always know what your constraint is, those are the tools you're going to need
if you really want to scale and that's how I view that.
So basically, if you're taking on a campaign or you're working with anyone,
you're going to be looking where's the story?
That little journalist in you is trying to dig out the story because that's what resonates
with the customers. Like I share stories in these discussions we have because they're relevant,
they're also a great way to teach, and they can emphasize a point and it's not salesy which is terrific.
Alright, so that's the three pillars of accelerated growth for paid traffic. Very insightful. I'm inspired now.
I'm going to go and craft some stories and check on some data and make sure that I'm really clear on
you know, where my campaign could be improved. This is really a wonderful catch up.
So if you want to some help from Kory, go to GrowFastMarketing.com and he can help you out
with the campaign. If you don't know your constraint or you're still going through data and you find
some discoveries or you want some tuning on the story, I'm sure Kory can help with all those things.
Thanks Kory.
Alright, thanks James.