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Is Copy for Cold Traffic Different Than Warm Traffic?

by rimam1
8 replies
I love selling online... and I'm grateful to be selling online versus through catalogs and other print media 100 years ago. But there's gotta be lessons we can apply today from those days.

I use mostly cold PPC traffic (Facebook ads and media buys) and wanted to know if the approach is different when selling to cold traffic. I know everyone says to build a list... but on cold traffic, the average optin rate is 15% to 20%... and who knows what percentage of your list will even read your messages... let alone buy (of course, the better your AR sequence, the more they'll buy... but that isn't easy to do)

Check out this read: Why Squeeze Pages Suck

I generally agree with his logic there.

Yeah, you can make money by having affiliates promote you, or if you spend years to build a sizeable list. But you've got real marketing chops if you can get cold traffic to buy from you.

So if you're buying cold traffic, what copywriting skills do you use to get that traffic to turn a profit? What approach do you take?

I'd love your thoughts (and I don't mean "search" traffic, I mean cold, interruption traffic like media buys and Facebook ads)

Raza
#cold #copy #traffic #warm
  • Profile picture of the author benracz
    You're right - at first the math might show as if PPC traffic to an opt-in page directly is not always worth it.

    The difference in the two approaches is if you drive cold traffic to a sales page you get people who either buy or they don't.

    With a squeeze page you have a way to build a relationship with them and turn cold traffic into a warm list. Warm traffic not only converts better on your sales page, but you also get to pitch them using a sequence, build a relationship and after you've pitched them on your product you can also pitch them on other products.

    In fact you can pitch them every week on a different one as long as you also give them value - as a reason for them to keep opening your emails.
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  • Profile picture of the author RickDuris
    "Is Copy for Cold Traffic Different Than Warm Traffic?"

    The answer is yes. Very different.

    Even within cold traffic channels, there are significant differences.

    Your campaigns should be customized accordingly for optimum conversions. Even down to the specific website if appropriate.

    - Rick Duris
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  • Profile picture of the author BrianMcLeod
    Cold traffic requires you to capture attention, warm traffic already has it to lose.

    Cold traffic needs qualification, warm traffic is presumably the result of it.

    Cold traffic is like tumbling boulders to mine down to the rocks that warm traffic already is.

    There's arguably no more scalable leverage point in an online business than controlling your own traffic/media. Once you really know your key metrics in terms of LCV, and you have cashflow, you can scale your business as high as you want without depending on ANYONE else.

    But you've got to step up your game more than most lazy IM'ers will ever be willing to do. That's why some generate a million online and others 100 million.
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    Brian McLeod
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Pescetti
    Look at it like this:

    Warm traffic is like you're chatting with a good friend, who listens, trusts you and will gladly take your advice.

    Cold traffic is like you're stopping some guy on the street - selling him on donating money to saving the Amazon Rainforest.

    He might be familiar with the Amazon crisis, but you need to give him a lot of backstory, explain the consequence of what happens - if we don't save it. And go beyond the call of duty to communicate the benefits of taking action RIGHT NOW.

    You gotta do all of this FAST!

    Mark

    P.S. Squeeze pages rock for testing different messages and positioning. The OP in the thread you linked is creating a lot of confusion - where none needs to exist. Throw some different squeeze pages in front of cold traffic and the data you gather will help you create a more effective campaign.
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    • Profile picture of the author rimam1
      Valid points. But if you could write effective copy that grabs cold traffic by throat, why not just do that than coddle a bunch of tire kickers? Assuming it's so expensive to build an email list in the first place...

      I can convince my grandma to buy my stuff, but that doesn't make me a good marketer.

      I'm very interested in how stellar copywriters turn cold traffic into cold, hard cash. Infomercials do a great job of that (think P90X).

      What's the science of getting cold traffic to trust and buy from you? What's the art of persuading people that you can help them... when they didn't know they had a problem in the first place.

      Maybe I'm being obstinate, but there's got to be a way to do this.

      Raza
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      • Profile picture of the author Steve Hill
        Originally Posted by rimam1 View Post

        What's the science of getting cold traffic to trust and buy from you? What's the art of persuading people that you can help them... when they didn't know they had a problem in the first place.

        Maybe I'm being obstinate, but there's got to be a way to do this.
        If you haven't read Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz, you'll find it useful for the type of questions you're asking.

        In addition to the warm/cold question, sophistication of the audience and the saturation level of the product's market also play a part.
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      • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
        Originally Posted by rimam1 View Post


        What's the science of getting cold traffic to trust and buy from you? What's the art of persuading people that you can help them... when they didn't know they had a problem in the first place.

        Maybe I'm being obstinate, but there's got to be a way to do this.

        Raza
        If they didn't know they have a problem in the first place,
        then you make it more an impulse buy
        which requires very little decision making.

        Going that route can be a costly learning experience.

        An alternative is to introduce a problem she didn't know existed.

        The classic is going from carpet cleaning to dust mite removal.

        A more certain route is knowing a person has a specific problem and
        wants it fixed.

        2 examples come to mind.

        -----------------------------
        Corns Gone In 5 Days Or Your
        Money Back
        -----------------------------

        That ad has been running for about 50 years.

        I have a client that sets up specific product name
        websites. They also deal with specific health problems.

        He has a script which clones the original high converting
        website.

        All traffic is from Google search.

        He's not the product owner, he's an affiliate.

        Once again, it's a case of the Commandment...

        "Know Thy Customer"

        Best,
        Ewen
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      • Profile picture of the author Sean Fry
        Originally Posted by rimam1 View Post

        I'm very interested in how stellar copywriters turn cold traffic into cold, hard cash. Infomercials do a great job of that (think P90X).
        This is the essence of everything written about, slaved over and discussed to death about in copyrighting. With the exception of copy done for product launches (and some affiliate traffic), nobody really writes for "warm" traffic. It doesn't make sense to. It's all for cold traffic, because that's the only traffic that really matters. You're writing copy that you need to be able to use when buying traffic, and that traffic is "cold."

        What's the science of getting cold traffic to trust and buy from you? What's the art of persuading people that you can help them... when they didn't know they had a problem in the first place.
        This is the essence of successful copy. Great copy gets a cold prospect to warm up to you, trust you, and ultimately pull out their credit card that they had no idea they'd be using after just sitting in front of your very "special presentation" that you're gonna "take down in 24 hours."

        Maybe I'm being obstinate, but there's got to be a way to do this.
        What do you think truth about abs does (or any successful offer for that matter)? You're in the fitness niche, check out their copy. That's what they do, all day every day, to the tune of 11 million a year.

        So, yes, there is a way to do this. But it ain't easy. Honestly, a well converting offer off of cold traffic is sort of the holy grail because it is so difficult to produce. But when you have that, and when you know how to reliably produce consistent traffic, the sky is the limit.
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