Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Web Traffic Up After E-mail Campaign... Then Down

Posted by Mario R on 4/16/2010 at 12:18 PM ET 125 Points
Hi, we've noticed a really nice spike in visitors and page views on our site after our email campaigns, which is great... but unfortunately this traffic boost is short lived and within the week we seem to be back to our regular traffic numbers. This has been the case for months now.

Our e-mail subscriptions and inquiries have been on the rise in the last 6 months, so that's a positive, but our average monthly traffic seems to have plateaued. It makes makes me wonder how effective these campaigns are being in the long-run in increasing traffic.

How would you guys interpret these base results? Am I looking at this the wrong way?

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 4/16/2010 at 1:00 PM Accepted
    Hi, Mario -

    Based on what you've shared, I think email is doing its job perfectly. Speaking for myself, I don't usually look at email as part of a long-term branding effort (although you do want to reinforce the brand, of course). Rather, for me, email is more of a direct-response channel; there's *something* you want the email recipient to do, and the email gives the recipient the opportunity to do it.

    Without really knowing what you're trying to achieve, I think your mission now is to separate that email list into people who won't mind if you (a) email them once a week, (b) email them every other week, and (c) email them once a month. You've already proven to yourself that people will pay attention when your emails go out, so now you need to see how much email you can get away with without driving removes through the roof.

    Just my $0.02.

    Looking forward to other responses.

    Paul
  • Posted on 4/16/2010 at 1:50 PM Accepted
    I think Paul has it right. I'm not sure why you would expect a long-term effect from email. Not many people go back and re-read old email and respond to offers that were made days/weeks ago.

    Be thankful that you get the spikes when you send out email campaigns. It means you're doing something right.

    As for the long-term effect you're hoping for, email probably isn't the right vehicle for that.
  • Posted by melissa.paulik on 4/16/2010 at 3:47 PM Accepted
    A couple thoughts:

    - email driven traffic isn't likely to have a lasting effect. That doesn't diminish the importance of short term effect, but it is what it is.

    - Are you looking at other ways to drive traffic such as SEO?

    - Traffic is a useful metric, but conversions are where the rubber meets the road. What are your visitors doing once they hit your site? Are you able to turn visitors into prospects?

    Melissa
  • Posted by Mario R on 4/16/2010 at 5:23 PM Author
    My hope is to boost traffic overall to the site, but it's also important as all of you mentioned to look at other metrics, and if conversions are rising, traffic flows may be less important.

    Thank you all so much. Wonderful feedback!
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 4/16/2010 at 5:23 PM Member
    People visited and left. They didn't come back because odds are, there wasn't a reason to do so. Unless your website has compelling content that changes daily, your best bet is to simply focus on being top-of-mind when their buy decision happens.
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