3 Proven Tips To Build Blog Traffic

This post on How to Increase Blog Traffic is sponsored by Russell Brunson.  Thank you for supporting the brands I have chosen to partner with and support this blog!

I’m a big believer in working smarter, not harder.  I wear a lot of hats every day as a full-time as a software developer, a full-time blogger / social influencer, and a wife and mom to two little ones — I don’t have nearly the time that I need to fit everything that I would like to get everything done. It’s no surprise then that maximizing the time that I do have is so important to me!

I recently heard about the book Traffic Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Filling Your Websites and Funnels with Your Dream Customers and was interested to see if it could help me figure out how best to spend my time when it came to my blog and social influencer business.  The book is written by Russell Brunson, someone who started his first online company in college and ended up selling over a million dollars worth of his own product within a year of graduation!  Russell founded the company called ClickFunnels, now worth over $100 million dollars, and it’s all about providing an easy way to market, sell, and deliver products online.  For someone with zero marketing background and no idea what a “funnel” even meant, I knew I needed all the help I could get!

In full transparency, I have not completed the book yet.  But, I’ve already learned so much and wanted to let you all in on my journey as I go through implementing the tactics mentioned in Traffic Secrets.  I joined in on a 30-Day Challenge to keep me accountable and below, I’m detailing 3 of the most impactful tips from the book and the changes I’m implementing as a result!

Traffic Secrets book
stripe shirt | denim shorts in medium destroy | hair scrunchie | huggie earrings | bookshelves

How to Increase Blog Traffic

Traffic Secret #1: Identify Your Dream Customer

Have an exact image of the person you are trying to appeal to whenever they come to your site.  One of the biggest mistakes when creating a website and trying to sell product is focusing on the product.  Instead, the focus should be on the customer — what are their core desires?  what problems are they trying to solve?  what are they seeking to improve in their life?

For me, cute & little originated as a place where I documented my struggle to find clothes that fit my petite 5’0 frame.  I had just moved to Dallas, started working at a local hedge fund where I needed to dress professionally everyday, and worked as a female software developer in a very male-dominated industry.  I loved shopping and dressing up but it can be frustrating when nothing fits off the rack and the junior’s department wasn’t cutting it for me anymore.  I found a community of petite fashion bloggers and loved the online friendship, camaraderie, as well as inspiration.

My site has since evolved and the focus has grown beyond petite fashion over the years.  While in a way it’s been good for me to add in more lifestyle components, reading this section of the book has reminded me that I need to refocus more of my fashion posts to solving the challenges of petites.

Traffic Secret #2: Go To Where Your Customers Congregate

Go to where your dream customers go.  Russell Brunson notes that one of the key misunderstandings with traffic is that it has to be “created”, when instead it’s all about tapping into existing streams of traffic!  Questions to consider include: What websites are my dream customers already going to?  Who are other influencers they follow on Facebook and Instagram?

When it comes to cute & little, social media is a big component of targeting my dream customers.   In the past few months I’ve actually gotten much better at Instagram hashtags and I’ve seen a dramatic boost in my post impressions as a result.

Also knowing that most of my audience is on Instagram, I’m hoping to expand my reach there by collaborating with other similar influencers through story shares and/or giveaways.

I also recently signed on a new Pinterest marketing agency to help gain traction on that platform and have seen some new strategies that are definitely making a difference.

Traffic Secret #3: Hook, Story, Offer

Grab your dream customer’s attention, connect and create desire through a story, and finally provide them with an offer.  This 3-step process made so much sense to me and I love how succinctly the book summarized this process.  It is this “funnel” that ultimately will convert an audience to customers.

A hook can be an eye-catching image, a headline that piques your interest, or a video of a silly prank — anything that makes you stop scrolling.  Now that the hook has the user’s attention, there’s a small window to connect via a story.  Either create an “epiphany bridge” that shows perceived value for what you’re selling to create desire or share something to that is relatable to build a connection.  Even if an immediate sale isn’t generated, it’s building a relationship and trust.  Finally, the offer doesn’t always mean asking people to buy something.  Just having someone like, comment, and/or subscribe in return for a freebie can also be a big win.

I’ve implemented the hook, story, offer tactic in the past without even realizing, but having it laid out in a simple 3-step process really makes me think more about what I post, how I caption my post to really connect with my audience, and finally what I’m offering to my customer to provide them with value.

I know I can get better on the story-telling aspect whenever I do post so that’ll be my immediate focus the next few weeks!

I’ll be sharing more frequent updates on my Twitter and Instagram stories as I make my way through this book.  Let me know if you found this helpful and whether you’d like a follow-up post!

Sponsored by Russell Brunson.  Thank you for supporting the brands I have chosen to partner with and support this blog!