Online marketing sensation Dan Lok says that when it comes to marketing online, there are only two things, conversion and traffic. That’s it. “To convert the right attention, to convert followers and likes into money, in between you a need conversion mechanism,” says Lok.

Lok adds that if you are getting zero conversions it doesn’t matter if you increase your traffic because you cannot multiply zero.

Dan Lok, one of the most-in-demand marketing consultants in the world, a 2 times TEDx speaker, and best-selling author, recently talked about the first rule of online marketing in a YouTube video (watch below):

Know Who Your Audience Is

The very first rule of online marketing is you need to know who your audience is. It’s not about making noise, it’s not about just getting your name out there. A lot of people I talk about, even entrepreneurs, marketers, and business owners, you hear this all the time, I just need to get my name out there. It’s not about getting your name out there, it’s about getting your customers into your door. It’s not getting them out there it’s getting them in here. That’s the very first rule of marketing online.

You Need the Right Type of Attention

You have to know it’s not just about getting attention. A lot of people they think they need a lot of followers or need a lot of fans or a big social media reach. I have a massive social media reach but fame doesn’t equal fortune. The right type of fame to the right type of people equals fortune. So it’s not just about getting attention because right now you could run around naked in the winter in Vancouver. Guess what, you will get a lot of attention but it’s not the right attention.

You need the right type of attention at the right time from the right prospect, that’s what makes sales. If you run any kind of business, it can be a home-based business or any type, whatever you’re selling online, first, you have to define exactly who you’re selling to. Who is your ideal customer? If your answer is anyone who breathes, anyone who has a heartbeat, then you’ve got a problem.

Who are they? Are they men or woman? What age group? What kind of professions? What did they do and what are their ping points. Once you’ve narrowed that down then you craft your offer, you craft your message specifically talking to this group of people. The amount of money you’ll make from marketing, the amount of money you make for your business, is in direct proportion to how well you understand your potential customers. Once you do that then you will know where you could get traffic.

When Marketing There is Only Conversion and Traffic

For example, if you know this is your demographic, this is the ideal customer profile, then yes now you can do Facebook Ads, now you can do banner ads, now you can do affiliate marketing, now you can run Google Ads, now you can do Instagram, now you know exactly who you’re talking to. Versus I need to get more followers, I just need to make some noise, I need to get more traffic. It doesn’t help. When it comes to marketing online, there are only two things, conversion and traffic. That’s it.

If you’ve got these conversions going on, let’s say you are converting one out of every hundred visitors buying your product, a one percent conversion. That’s fine, so now you know if you get two hundred visitors that are the right type of visitors that will get you two sales and then three hundred visitors and so on and so forth. It’s a one percent conversion.

You Need a Conversion Mechanism

However, if you have had a few hundred visitors or even a few thousand visitors to your website, to your offer, and none of them bought, listen to me, you cannot multiply zero. If you’re not getting sells with a few thousand visitors, guess what, let me get more followers, let me get more visitors. I’ll get 20,000 visitors and then my problem will be solved. I’ll get more sales. No, it won’t.

You cannot multiply zero and you cannot go to the bank and say hey, you know what, I don’t have a check to deposit but I’ve got a lot of Instagram followers to deposit. The bank wants cash. You cannot deposit likes, you cannot deposit followers, you cannot deposit fans, you deposit cash. To convert the right attention, to convert followers and likes into money, in between you a need conversion mechanism. Whatever that thing might be.

Most People Suck at the Conversion Mechanism

It could be your ecommerce site, it could be a webinar, it could be a good old telephone to convert them to a sale. Whatever that mechanism is I can tell you from my experience that when it comes to making money online most people they focus on traffic, but they all suck at this conversion mechanism. Either they don’t have one in place or the conversion mechanism they have sucks.

Their web page sucks, it doesn’t convert, it doesn’t get people to act, it doesn’t get people to buy, it doesn’t get people to click. They thought, then just get more people viewing my page, let me get more traffic and that will solve my problem. It won’t.

What Offer Will Get Them to Put Up Their Hand?

The very first action that you need to figure out is who is my ideal audience? What kind of offer can I put in front of them to get them to put up their hand? Maybe it’s generating a lead, maybe it’s a making a small purchase, maybe a big purchase, it doesn’t matter. What is the right offer to put in front of them?

Once that’s converting then you can find ways to buy traffic. There are so many ways and so many places you can buy traffic. That’s how you do it, that’s the rule of marketing online and that’s the rule of selling anything online.