One of my books was featured
on a TV Show
with a huge audience.
I was super excited.
This is it, I thought.
I’ve broken out.
I’ve made it.
The feature resulted
in, at best,
100 new sales.
Why?
Because that wasn’t
my readership.
The TV show viewers
were interested
in the novelty of my book,
not in buying
and actually reading my book.
“Here’s the deal:
this kind of drive-by traffic is…
drive-by traffic by definition.
The very fact
that you have gone viral
is usually a sign
you have gone
beyond your target audience.
This kind of traffic isn’t sticky.
These people don’t hang around.
Well, maybe a handful will,
but if you expect a meaningful chunk
of the 10,000 or 100,000 or 1,000,000
people who clicked on your post
— because the planets happened
to align that day
— to turn into fans or readers
or customers or prospects,
you are going to be very disappointed.
It’s not junk traffic,
but you haven’t struck gold either.”
Going viral
outside of your target customer base
can be fun
but it adds very little value.