Conversion matters when you have a small, passionate community.
It’s easy to get wrapped up with chasing big numbers.
We’re talking about spending all your time trying to build website traffic. Or, creating a masisve social media following because that’s just what you’ve read about building a brand.
Satisfying as they may be, it’s not about the numbers.
Spending long hours making website improvements, launching marketing campaigns, and building social engagement doesn’t do much for business if you’re not turning followers into customers.
The true measure of success comes from conversions.
This post has two purposes:
- Why you shouldn’t worry so much about the numbers
- How small communities can have a big impact on business
This is that type of post that’ll put you at ease if you’re worried you’re not doing enough to get followers.
Passionate communities play a part as to why conversion matters
Twitter followers, Facebook fan page likes, website traffic, LinkedIn network, impressions, click-through, on and on and on. These numbers fill our dashboards. We obsess stats on a daily basis.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in monitoring and tracking your numbers. It’s exciting watching the graphs spike when visitors land on the site. Almost the same way you get a rush when winning a game.
We are addicted to information.
Though useful for optimizing your website, stats are a “nag” much like how you can’t leave a notification status on your phone. There’s something about it that drives you crazy. It’s an engagement loop. You clear the notification but it keeps coming back… and you keep checking.
This is the same for when you’re addicted to watching site metrics.
You:
- Strive to double your traffic and followers
- Want better open rates and feedback
- Push to create stronger campaigns
…not hitting these marks make you feel like a failure.
Stop it.
The numbers are driving you insane and, worse, it’s distracting you from completing goals.
Small communities have big impacts
What good are the numbers if no one engages with your message?
It’s way better to have:
- A solid core of followers
- That are constantly buying products
- That’ll promote your brand
…veruses one where you get no response, at all.
You’ll get on track and retain focus when you forget about the numbers.
Take the routine out of checking the numbers
Instead of checking your site stats every few minutes…
- Your time and energy will go toward projects that matter (ones that earn you an income)
- You’re not obessed about “what ifs” having you obsessive with tweaking everything
You could treat it like how you track investments or weight loss: Check once a week.
Take five minutes on a lazy Sunday afternoon to mull over the stats. Use the opportunity to make a few notes of what you’d like to do next week. Close the analytics and move on.
Conversion matters, so feedback and experience needs to become the focus of your online and buisness efforts
The number that does matter is how many sales you’ve generated.
Don’t get me wrong:
The numbers will give you some great insight about how visitors are using the Web. I’ll bet that most don’t know what these stats really mean. The graph pointing up looks nice, right? What’s all that other stuff? Eh. You assume it’s good because there’s a + next to it all.
Stats are cold… The better way is to:
Understand your visitors by asking them
Or
Examine their interactions using tracking tools
Visitors are pretty open about voicing their experiences. They’ll point the flaws and what they enjoyed. If you notice a common theme with problems, then you can eliminate it to improve the conversion rate optimization (CRO).
The heat mapping tool will provide similar insights of how people use your site. It’ll show the barriers and points of interests. You can use the info to remove the “boring” parts and swap in something that’ll hold their attention.
There needs to be a customer base and, more importantly, you need to know what your visitors want.
When you’re focused on increasing numbers – you forget about cultivating the community.
The early days of your affiliate marketing business are the best times to garnish feedback and support. It’s these early moments when you can interact with your community and align your goals. Versus, overloading yourself with too many numbers and statistics.
