Re: Estimating traffic and conversion

From: Jim Sterne <jsterne_at_targeting.com>
Date: Thu 17 Jul 2003 08:40:50 -0500

At 07:26 AM 7/16/03, Michael Ormsby wrote:
>We are having difficulty predicting our ROI because we
>cannot make estimates on the number of visitors
>we might expect to the website, and the conversion
>of these visitors to actual sales.

In that case, all the VC's in the world will
believe you.

>Does anyone
>know of sources for this kind of information?

Take a look at Online Marketing Benchmarks: Setting realistic goals and how
to achieve them - Various Contributors, e-consultancy, 2003
http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/marketing_benchmarks/
I will be the first to argue that everybody's mileage may
vary, but at least it's a place to start.

>Secondly, we are concerned with the ramp up time
>for traffic to the website. How long does it take to
>get established with search engines?

Anywhere from longer than you'd like to
never.

>If we use PPC search engines will the website get traffic
>quicker?

Much.
Instantly, in fact.
Just be sure you have your tracking systems in
place so you can tell which keywords are bringing
you buyers, rather than just browsers. It's easy to
spend a lot per day getting people to your site with
no financial results.

>Does it make any sense to get the
>website up and running before we have developed
>our full product line? We could start by capturing e-
>mail addresses with a newsletter and practice
>testing program and then trying to convert those to
>purchases at a later date.

Yes it makes sense and the plan you outlined
above is one of the best reasons. Search Engines
and a linking strategy are other good reasons.
Also - launching a large site all at once is
quite a challenge and brining it up bit by bit
will help get you in shape.

All the best!

------------------------------------------------------
Jim Sterne Target Marketing of Santa Barbara
www.targeting.com www.emetrics.org
Author, Speaker, Consultant +1 805-965-3184
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Received on Thu Jul 17 2003 - 08:40:50 CDT