Stop Trying to Get More Traffic Before Fixing What You Already Have
One of the most common conversations I have with ecommerce founders starts like this:
“How do I get more traffic?”
“Should I start running ads?”
“How do I grow on Reddit?”
“How much should I spend on SEO?”
Usually my first question is:
What percentage of the traffic you already have is converting?
Then:
What happens to everyone who doesn’t buy?
Because those two questions tell me whether the business actually needs more traffic yet.
If your website converts poorly and there is no real retention system behind it, I would rather spend money fixing those problems first.
There Are Two Leaks I Want to Fix
Think about your ecommerce funnel as having two major leaks.
Leak #1: Visitors who should have purchased but didn’t
That’s an onsite conversion problem.
Maybe:
- The website is slow
- Mobile UX is bad
- Navigation is confusing
- Product pages are weak
- Testing documentation is difficult to find
- Trust signals are missing
- Payment options aren’t presented clearly
- Checkout has too much friction
- Shipping information is confusing
- Your offer isn’t obvious
- There are no meaningful upsells
- The site looks generic
- Customers don’t understand why they should buy from you instead of someone else
Before I buy another visitor, I want to improve the percentage of existing visitors who become customers.
Leak #2: Visitors who leave before purchasing
That’s where email comes in.
People get distracted.
They compare competitors.
They abandon carts.
They browse and leave.
They aren’t ready to purchase today.
That doesn’t necessarily mean they are a bad lead.
But if you don’t capture them and follow up, you’ve given yourself one opportunity to make the sale.
Then they’re gone.
That’s why I pair CRO + email automation together.
Conversion Optimization Makes Every Traffic Source More Valuable
Let’s say two RUO stores each receive 10,000 visitors.
Store A converts poorly.
Store B has spent time optimizing:
- Homepage messaging
- Product hierarchy
- Navigation
- Mobile design
- Product pages
- Trust
- Testing presentation
- Checkout
- Payment selection
- Upsells
- Email capture
Store B doesn’t necessarily need more traffic to outperform Store A.
It simply gets more revenue from the traffic it already has.
Now imagine both companies start running ads.
Store B has an enormous advantage because every dollar it spends is entering a stronger conversion environment.
This is why paid advertising shouldn’t usually be the first solution to weak sales.
Sometimes you don’t have a traffic problem.
You have a conversion problem.
Then Build the Email Recovery System
Once the website itself is doing a better job converting visitors, I want automation catching the people who still don’t purchase.
My core flows would include:
Welcome Flow
Turn new subscribers into educated prospects.
Browse Abandonment
Follow up with people showing interest in particular products or categories.
Cart Abandonment
Recover people who added products but didn’t finish.
Checkout Abandonment
Focus on the highest-intent visitors who got close to purchasing.
Post-Purchase Flow
Continue the relationship after the first transaction.
VIP Flow
Recognize and communicate differently with your best customers.
Winback Flow
Bring previously active customers back.
Back-in-Stock Automation
Capture demand when inventory isn’t immediately available.
Now the website isn’t relying entirely on one session to produce revenue.
CRO Gets the First Sale. Retention Helps Create the Next One.
This is why I don’t really separate website optimization and email marketing.
They’re connected.
The website might get someone from:
Visitor → Customer
Email might take them from:
Visitor → Subscriber → Customer
Then:
Customer → Repeat Customer
Then potentially:
Repeat Customer → VIP
You’re building an ecosystem around every person you acquire.
Why I Would Do This Before Building a Huge Reddit Channel
I’m extremely bullish on Reddit and organic community building.
But Reddit takes real effort.
Imagine publishing dozens of useful posts, building a subreddit, ranking discussions on Google, answering questions every day, and eventually driving thousands of visitors…
only to send them into a poorly optimized website.
That’s painful.
You did the difficult part.
You got attention.
Then you wasted it.
I’d rather have the website and retention infrastructure ready before that organic snowball really starts rolling.
Then every piece of Reddit traffic has more potential value.
And God Forbid You Start Buying Traffic First
This is where the mistake gets expensive.
Organic traffic costs time.
Paid traffic sends you an invoice.
If your website converts badly, you’re paying to send more people into a broken funnel.
If your checkout has friction, you’re paying to expose more people to it.
If you have no abandoned-cart flow, you’re paying for visitors who disappear.
If your retention sucks, you’re repeatedly buying customers you could have kept.
Paid advertising magnifies whatever already exists.
That’s why I want:
CRO first.
Email automation second.
Traffic acceleration third.
My Order of Operations
If I were launching another RUO ecommerce company today, my acquisition infrastructure would roughly follow this order:
1. Strong Website Foundation
↓
2. Onsite Conversion Optimization
↓
3. Email Capture
↓
4. Automated Email Flows
↓
5. Analytics & Attribution
↓
6. Reddit + SEO + Organic Content
↓
7. Affiliate Expansion
↓
8. Paid Advertising
↓
9. Scale What Works
That sequence matters.
Because once you reach the bottom of the funnel, you’re no longer buying traffic and hoping something happens.
You’re feeding traffic into a machine you’ve already spent time improving.
Build the Funnel Before You Fill It
I like the bucket analogy, but I’d take it one step further.
Your website is the funnel.
Your email system catches what falls through it.
Traffic is what you’re pouring into the top.
Most founders immediately try to pour more into the funnel.
I want to improve the funnel first.
Then build something underneath it to catch the people who don’t convert immediately.
Then I turn on the hose.
Because the goal isn’t simply:
More traffic.
It’s:
More revenue and more customers from every visitor you acquire.
Need Help Fixing the Funnel Before You Buy More Traffic?
At Hatana Marketing, this is exactly how I prefer approaching RUO growth.
Before recommending that a company pour money into acquisition, we can look at the website itself, identify conversion bottlenecks, improve the customer journey, and build the automated email infrastructure that monetizes more of the traffic you’re already receiving.
Then we can talk about Reddit, SEO, affiliates and paid acquisition.
Because I’d much rather make your next 10,000 visitors more valuable than simply sell you another 10,000 visitors.
Contact Hatana Marketing:
https://hatanamarketing.com/contact/
