Ana Hoffman of TrafficGenerationCafe
(Click the link to listen or right-click and select ‘save as’)
Ok, it’s been a while in the making, but finally here’s the interview with Ana Hofmann, on how to attract the right kind of traffic to your site.
The reason it took a while is that my site had trouble and wouldn’t do what it should – while a brand new website was almost ready to launch.
The new site is now there, the interview is up, and you’ll also see new portraits of yours Stellar.
But don’t click just for that reason: go listen to the interview, because Ana is not only fun, she’s also a true expert at generating traffic.
And without traffic, your website doesn’t do you any go.
So in this interview you’ll hear:
- Why Twitter isn’t necessarily the best choice for artists: people don’t necessarily go to Twitter to look for visual ideas. Ana thinks Pinterest and Instagram have much more potential – and don’t forget Youtube!
- A whole bunch of free resources for you on Ana’s site – check the links at the bottom of this page)
- Why you’d do well to focus on networks that maximise your time, in other words: go where your audience is most likely to hang out
- Why and how to create interest, so that people come back to your site. In other words: bridging the gap between ‘Oh this is nice’ and ‘hey I’ll have that, here’s money’
- Tips on how to make your site layout work for you, and encourage people to buy
- The why and how of building a funnel. Art is an emotional purchase, and very rarely an impulse decision. Ana explains why you must think in terms of progression through stages.
- Why it’s worth your time to think in terms of conditioning: If people don’t buy right off the bat, you need to make sure they’ll want to come back and see your work again and again.
- Where list building comes in, and how to create an email sequence to educate your audience on the merits of buying art in general and your work in particular
- Why Ana considers education the best way to sell
- The non-salesy way to sell: Earning permission to pitch by giving something useful, and how to keep doing that so that you retain that permission.
- The ultimate sales machine: sell without selling
- How to build an email sequence with a start and finish, but also to keep adding to it so that it keeps growing.
- A bit of a surprise: even Ana didn’t really think that daily emails can work, but she just might give it a try
- How Ana started out with no list and no blogging strategy. But I remember Ana from years ago and I remember how she just started conversations with people. And these days, she runs a healthy business, and so can you if only you engage with people.
- Why the secret to a successful business is conversations and relationship building.
- A very simple way to instantly start a relationship the very moment people sign up.
- Tips for how to get fans and ambassadors to take action and spread the word about you
- Big think: don’t just focus on the buyers.
- Why Ana is adamant there’s no recipe, no cookie-cutter solution for everyone, and why you’ll always have to find out what works for you and your audience
- Why you should focus on who you are as an artist, and present that rather than give things away
- Why nobody would buy colour-by-numbers art, which is why there’s no standard marketing approach that works for everyone
- Landing pages: what’s the best entry point that gets people to sign up
- What Ana thinks of popups – probably not what you would expect from an expert in traffic and conversions
- What to do if you don’t like popups – but you still want to grow your email list – you just don’t want to pester people.
- The value of analytics, and whether or not you should use them
- A special gift from Ana (links in the shownotes), to make your analytics much easier to understand, instantly.
- Why you should talk about your art progress, especially on visual platforms
- A platform you had probably not considered but which can give you thousands of visitors in very short time, even if you have very little fame or exposure
- How she used that same platform to generate 243.000 pageviews in just 30 days, and her students are seeing great results too.
- Why stories are so incredibly important in your marketing
- A tip to help you repurpose your visual material for even more exposure and traffic
What can I say?
Listen to this interview and you’ll come away with a ton of ideas.
Click the links to access the interview, and the special bonus links Ana has for you.
