An opinion that would get me drop-kicked by Alex Hormozi:
I would rather start with a mediocre offer with a proven traffic model than a genuinely brilliant, one-of-a-kind product/service and then have to figure out where to go for traffic.
As an entrepreneur and investor, I’m constantly looking for new opportunities.
My #1 criteria for a business: I have to know where the traffic will come from.
As traffic gets more expensive and commoditized, this is only proving truer with time.
I’ve spent over a decade driving traffic. “Daytrading attention” à la Gary Vaynerchuk. SEO, social media, (of course) paid advertising.
I can tell you from personal and hard-earned experience that traffic is the most expensive variable in the business success formula.
I have seen genuinely amazing businesses whither away and die because they didn’t have a scalable traffic solution. In fact, fixing a bad business with good traffic is way easier than fixing a good business with bad traffic.
Traffic is the lifeblood of all marketing. You’re dead if it’s not flowing.
When evaluating new opportunities, I’m looking for things that already have the traffic problem solved.
This can be through a partner, past customers, affiliates, referral partners, existing communities, available lists, or proven paid traffic strategies.
I don’t care what the traffic strategy is, just as long as it’s proven and viable. Emphasis on proven.
I want to know exactly where I will go for customers with as much information as possible on how deep that well goes. I also want to know how future-proof the strategy is.
If I fall deeply in love with a business idea (which happens all the time), the very first thing I’ll do is test the viable traffic strategies.
If I can’t make the traffic work, I don’t pursue it any further.
Period. Full stop. Dramatic emphasis.
When I look back at my past entrepreneurial successes, they’re all businesses that started with the traffic problem solved first. With Nido Marketing (my Montessori agency), I partnered with someone deeply entrenched and known by the entire community.
With GeoFlip, my real estate leads agency, we had a close relationship with InvestorFuse (a CRM specifically for real estate investors). Almost all of our early customers came from their direct referrals. We were profitable before we were publicly accepting new clients.
With Solutions 8, we narrowed it down to Google Ads only after proving that we could acquire Google Ads customers through (drum roll) Google Ads. Ironically, CPCs are up nearly 10x from when I started. I don’t know if I could prove that same model if I started today.
Even with Driven Mastermind, almost all of our first round of members either came from the recently sunset WarRoom or Perry Belcher’s personal network. A mastermind is only as good as its members. Try building a group of elite entrepreneurs from scratch.
I’m not saying you can’t succeed in the traffic fight.
Obviously, we know that isn’t true.
I am saying that it’s the hardest of all the new start fights, and it just makes sense to sidestep it if possible. If you’re looking for something new, you have that luxury now. Take it!
What’s your take on prioritizing traffic over a groundbreaking product?