What Content Should You Drive Cold Traffic To?

In order to gain the most from your marketing budget, it is essential to employ three different types of targeting: cold, warm, and hot. Each traffic segment is made up of different people ranging from those who have bought from your brand to those who have never heard of it. For each stage of the marketing funnel, there is different content that should be utilized to bring value and try to convert audience members into customers.

Related: What is a Marketing Funnel

What Is Cold Traffic?

Cold traffic is a segment of people who have not heard of or interacted with your brand before. When these people click on your ads it is not because they have heard of your brand, it is simply because they are intrigued by what you are promoting

This group of people is more often than not searching for a solution. Instead, they are seeking out information. It is extremely difficult to sell to cold traffic. Rarely do people buy on the first touch, but this doesn’t mean there is no chance on turning them into a customer. In fact, the goal with cold traffic is to capture their email so that you can nurture them and push them along the buyer’s journey to convert them at a later date.

While audience members are in the cold traffic segment, it is where you introduce them to your brand and begin to build a relationship with them. The ultimate goal is to turn your cold traffic into warm traffic and then into hot traffic. It is also imperative to monitor your audience’s behavior on site so that you can see what they are interested in and continue to serve them relevant content. This tactic will help build that relationship and hopefully nudge them to convert.

Types Of Content For Cold Traffic

So, what types of content should you drive cold traffic to? Well, it is important to note that the same content that is being shared with your warm or hot audiences is not the same content that should be shared with your cold audiences. Because these people are new to your brand, if you send them straight to a sales landing page it could scare them away for good. Content for cold traffic needs to be extremely top of funnel and non-promotional.

Related: What Are The Goals of  TOFU Content?

The content you promote to this type of traffic needs to slowly introduce your brand and products without being too forceful. Certain types of content that attract cold traffic audience include blog posts, videos, podcasts, surveys, quizzes, infographics, ebooks, and guides. In addition, social media updates also can be used to engage cold traffic. It is not necessary to employ every type of these content examples to your cold traffic. It’s normal to focus on a few and make sure they are high-quality and valuable.

The most common type of content used for cold traffic are blog posts. Interactive quizzes are excellent for cold traffic because they are extremely entertaining and engaging. The whole point of content used for cold traffic is to grab their attention and make them want to learn more. Additional goals of cold traffic are: increasing offer awareness, growing your retargeting list, increasing engagement, and growing website traffic. By delivering useful content to cold traffic you can catch their attention and hopefully convert them into customers down the line.

How Do You Convert Cold Traffic Into Warm Traffic?

As mentioned above, it is rare to see cold traffic convert. It takes time to convince people to try products especially if they are brand new to your products/services. The most effective way to turn cold traffic into warm is through email marketing. By consistently delivering your audience useful and relevant content via email they will continue to get to know your brand and products. One way to capture those emails in the first place is by utilizing a lead magnet. The lead magnet you use needs to be valuable enough that people will give you their email in return.

Related: What Is A Lead Magnet?

Once you have their email you can continue to show them value through content that is educational, engaging, and helpful. Converting your email subscribers into customers will not happen overnight, so it is important to be patient and continue to nurture them through the buyer’s journey.

As you can see, it is critical to understand the specific types of content that is successful for each traffic segment. Since cold traffic is new to your brand, the content needs to be educational and non-promotional. Break your content out into cold, warm, and hot to ensure you are promoting the correct content to each audience.