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Podcast (10k-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:12 — 22.6MB)
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Traffic sources for business are all about knowing which one is the best ones to use. There are lots of new channels coming out and the shiny object syndrome comes up. Tune in to the most effective ones.
Background
Davis takes online businesses to 7 figures within a year.
So far – coaching and info-product businesses.
Grandmother
Created a local store.
Lesson: perseverance as a value (overcame Robbery and arson).
Current business
Worked at a startup before became an entrepreneur
Started a side hustle in the living room while working at another company
Wanted to be able to work anywhere
Now lives/works in Asia or the USA (mostly San Francisco).
6 figure profit first year
7 figure profit second year
Did have one physical product
– tried to build a comfortable hiking boot
- Got design made by an engineer
- But nobody bought it
- Sell 10 pairs to test it’s a viable market
How do you figure where to get traffic from?
There are lots of new channels coming out when you try to find traffic sources for business.
Manychat was the business channel of choice in 2019.
Shiny object syndrome comes up.
Instead, Davis works on first principles.
Strategies
Give people the mindset of how to find traffic sources for business.
There are 2 axes on which to assess a traffic source:
Axis 1: Relevance to my audience
Eg Reddit, gaming platforms etc. – Reddit passionate community – $800.$1200
And not many competitors.
Davis’s target audience is those who want to be management consultants for example
Axis 2: what is ROI? (Profit÷investment)
That’s related to low competition
- Early adoption
- Pricing of product –
- what is the customer finds valuable
Example -Selling podia
Toastmasters international – sponsor those guys
How do you find where the audience is?
Literally talk to your customers!
- Look at reviews
- How did you find out about our product?
Find out about traffic sources for business.
Example – ran the public speaking business –
- Toastmasters
- But Toastmasters was not good for one-on-one coaching
- Usually, salespeople or someone getting funding for business
- Eg someone trying to raise money
- So probably at tech meetings
- Hang out a bit more
- A lot is on the Y Combinator hack forum
- Where do you hang out
Also, think offline as well as online – for example:
- You can sponsor events or clubs
- You could even give away a product for free to a club or organization.
How to identify the right traffic source
Find out EVERYTHING about your target client:
- Where do they hang out?
- Do they go to church?
You can’t just call people on Amazon. But you can get mailing addresses, so you could write to them (physical postcards for example)
Example of physical product business
We have a concept of who your audience is, but in reality, things emerge
Davis’s Client was looking out for doing offline marketing. They did an hour of reading reviews.
Identified a group of unexpected buyers on one listing: Probably parents – buying for PTA clubs. They checked the competition – the same picture.
So now the client is making a list of PTAs.
Think about how they found you.
Mailing people
If someone is willing to read a postcard from you, they are a fan
It’s not very scalable, but that’s not relevant to the exercise: we just need to really understand the target customer (NOT try to reach lots of them)
What about scaling things?
First of all, Toastmasters, for example, might be 300,000 people
Secondly, don’t worry about scalability.
“Do things that don’t Scale” – Paul Graham (the founder of Y-Combinator – the most successful startup accelerator in the world, incubator of eg Reddit, Twitter etc.)
Are Facebook Ads still a good channel?
Davis used to spend 7 figures on ads in a company
It does work – but it works if you know what you’re doing.
He consulted with a casket company [coffins!] …and still made it work on FaceBook.
The question is, however: is this the best use of your time?
If it could be on multiple platforms, which is an easier start for your particular audience?
Scenario: selling $100s on Amazon
How do we get to the customers?
Reviews!
Remember that customers you think are the target are often not who the ones who buy; or the traditional use (eg yoga) is not necessarily the actual use.
For example, Davis was building a gym in the garage.
He was looking for padding.
And the best product for that was yoga mats!
If you look at the reviews, you can kind of tell the kind of personality
- Product is being gifted
- Yoga mat – I was looking for an extra-wide yoga mat
- A lot of people use it as a PLAYpen!
- They don’t use it for a yoga mat! (because it’s Not toxic for kids)
But they were positioned as yoga mats!
Most of the competition DON’T read reviews.
Don’t just use reviews to tell you how to make the product “better”.
Sure, 3-4 reviews tell you how to make it better.
But 5-star reviews often give you a different use case.
How to reach out to customers?
Amazon consumers are in fact hard to address.
Getting them on the phone is tricky
But we do have the shipping address
Sometimes “Personalised” postcards can work really well to make small scale but high-value connections, saying a few things:
- Thank you
- Put out something with a phone number
- put in some kind of survey
Some of the services Davis uses to give a physical address – get a flyer for a regional event.
Sometimes as a consumer, Davis buys things on page 2 of Amazon.
Recently, Davis got a personalised card in something product packaging.
There was a number he could reach and call out.
Davis actually called the number…and he looked at their revised sales description; he felt that he basically wrote their new sales description as a consumer.
They actually moved onto page 1!
Davis’s Previous startup – Powered by Postcard!
He Started with a handwritten postcards
Two people lived in the offices because they actually lived in the area!
If in area, dropped by the office for wonderful products.
How to contact Davis
Watch my full interview with Davis Nguyen
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