Do you know that Rolling Stones song? “You Can't Always Get What You Want?” It goes on to say, “But if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.”

I think that “Want” is a term that talks about the future. I WANT (desire to obtain) a cool new computer and desk in our new home in North Carolina. But since we have to live in an apartment for 3 months, I NEED a desk and my old computer stuff to work and conduct business.

The Mad Scrabble

Since our house sold and closed ten days earlier than we wanted or expected (long story) I had to pack a POD (moving container) and then my car. I needed to fit in my wife, dog, and all the belongings we NEED to survive for a few weeks while we wait for the POD to make the journey. We needed to put as much on top of the car as possible to make room for the dog to be comfortable for a 1000-mile ride in the back of an SUV.

It was a battle to decide between what was essential (NEED), and what we could wait for or just buy when we get situated (WANT).

When we got to our hotel (expected to be at 5-6 pm) it was midnight. I got Kim and Layla (and the stuff we needed from the car) up to our room. It was not what we wanted (I called ahead to confirm our room). But we needed a place to shower and sleep. Next, I NEEDED to find a place to park.

Nothing says, “Break into THIS CAR” like an orange vinyl car top carrier. The front desk told me that their parking garage was full and they gave me a pass to park in the street. I NEEDED to find a space in that garage to protect our stuff. So after midnight, I stalked the garage waiting for someone to leave. I went row by row looking and finally found that elusive empty spot! Then I had to take everything on top of the car and put it inside and hide it with the carrier.

I knew in the morning I would have to reverse that to drive the last legs of the trip. We made it to our apartment and brought all the stuff we NEEDED up three flights of stairs, while all the stuff we wanted was traveling in our POD.

Two Kinds of Traffic

On our trip, we hit lots of traffic. Congestion coming out of Chicago, detours in Indianapolis, and a few accidents that had us stopped cold through construction zones. That's the bad kind of traffic (I will explain.)

Once we hit the mountains over West Virginia, it was starting to get dark. We still had 200+ miles to go. Keep in mind, one bad decision and you could end up over a cliff. The traffic was lighter. We played… “Follow the Big White Truck.” They usually stayed in the right lane, but they could see what was up ahead and we could react when they swerved to avoid any deer, or cars and trucks pulled over in the road.

It was slower, but it ultimately got us to our hotel, safe, and ALIVE!

In the website business game, there are two types of traffic. Paid (lots of traffic, but expensive and many headaches) or earning it (getting people to follow your Big White Truck to safety) with content you place in the road!

Buying Traffic

The kind of traffic we were stuck in was an annoyance, and that's what paid traffic to your website can feel like. You pay top dollar to bid on Google, Facebook, or even LinkedIn (my favorite) to get eyes on your website and content. You can choose, keywords, audience, and even demographics, but there is no guarantee that they are really potential customers. So it's 80% lookie-loos, tire kickers, and people researching how to sell YOU, and 20% real potential. Even from that 20% you may only have 1-2 people who are at a point in their buyer's journey, that they could be in a place to actually need what you sell, and are getting ready to buy it!

The main thing you have to be aware of is that advertising and marketing take time and repetition. It can take 7-20 views before someone even click on your ad. That's a lot of clicks that you're paying for with no profit. You have to have pretty high margins to make money that way. It works fine in an e-commerce setting, where once you get someone to buy, you can add them to your marketing campaigns (social and email) and continue to sell to them at a lower cost.

Earning Traffic

Let's look at earning traffic. This is one of the core principles I teach in the Bacon System. The Bacon System is all about trying to generate leads without spending money on advertising. It's really based on having a killer website, Google Analytics, and content marketing. Content marketing is about creating great content that talks directly to your perfect customer or prospect.

When we do this for our customers, we write blogs or produce videos and podcasts which are answering questions and engaging their perfect clients. You need to give them something of value that will keep them coming back for more.

It's not just enough to create great content. You have to use that content to drive them back to your website. There has to be that call to action that gets people to either pick up the phone, fill out a form, join your email list, or do something else of value for you. When you're doing this, you're basically leading prospects through a buyer's journey.

The key thing you have to do is focus on getting people to pay attention to the messages and keep them wanting to come back for more.

Final Thoughts

Now that we are in our rental apartment while our house is being completed, we do not NEED or WANT for much! It is fully furnished and all utilities (including internet and TV) are included in the monthly fees. They did seed the place with paper towels, toilet paper, dishes, glass, silverware, linens, and much more) it's very comfortable and our view is perfect.