What is Cold Traffic?

Wish your audience would warm up to your content? When you started your business, you probably determined the demographics of your target audience and what their pain points were. While this is a crucial step in understanding your place in the market, you need to take things a step deeper to make the most of your online marketing budget. If you’re ready to turn your content into a lead magnet, it pays to understand the different types of traffic. Those that have never heard of your brand will engage differently with your content than those that come back again and again. So what is cold traffic, and how does it differ from warm traffic? We explain below.

Cold Traffic vs. Warm Traffic: What’s the Difference?

Cold, warm, and hot traffic refer to the different levels of familiarity with your brands. As users “warm up” to your business, they move closer to making a purchase. Conversion rates, then, tend to increase as well. Members of your audience that have no connection to your company or brand are called cold traffic. While cold traffic itself doesn’t make much of an impact on your bottom line, there’s no doubt that it’s hugely valuable to your business. After all, if you can build trust with members of this chilly audience, then you can turn them into the hot traffic of tomorrow.

What Kind of Qualities Does Cold Traffic Have?

Cold traffic is by far the hardest group of people to sell to. They haven’t heard of your business and aren’t necessarily looking for your solution. Depending on your product or service, they might not even be aware of the problem that you solve. Cold audiences aren’t seeking you out, so instead, they’re brought in from your advertisements and outreach. Social media ads, SEO efforts, and pay-per-click (PPC) can all generate new potential customers.

Someone that clicks on some of this content is interested in a portion of your messaging, so it’s important to pay attention. What ad or post did they click on, and what information are they expecting to get from it? Understanding their behavior on your site can help you determine what they’re interested in and continue to serve up relevant, optimized content with retargeting efforts.

What Types of Content Suit Cold Traffic?

Cold traffic is often clicking on your content because they’re curious about something in your ad, search engine result, or post. They’re looking for information, so make sure you’re giving it to them! Blog posts, podcasts, infographics, free ebooks, videos, and webinars are all known for attracting cold traffic because they’re highly informative. Regardless of what type of content you choose to employ, make sure it’s entertaining and engaging. After all, these users don’t have the brand awareness or loyalty to stick around if they aren’t enjoying themselves.

How Can You Convert Cold Traffic into Warm Traffic?

The majority of your cold traffic is not going to make a purchase in their first interaction, which is why we don’t recommend sending them straight to a sales page. Instead, they’ll need repeated interactions that include relevant, useful content. There are several ways to do this, but the most common options are retargeting cold audiences through social media advertising email marketing with a drip or nurture campaign.

For the latter, you’ll need to have a user hand over their email contact information. The first time someone visits your site, they’re unlikely to do this. Instead, remarketing with Facebook ads can help you build trust and start to warm them farther into the sales funnel. Eventually, you can drive them to a landing page for one of your lead magnets to capture their contact information. At this point, you’re in warm traffic territory, and you can start delivering relevant marketing campaigns to these subscribers. As with all digital marketing, you’ll want to continue to test and optimize to see what conversion rates and patterns emerge.

Ready to make the most of your website traffic? The Front Porch Solutions team has the know-how to help you reach new potential customers and turn them into sales conversions. Consider getting in touch today to learn more about how we can help!