What is Traffic Acquisition Marketing (TAM)?

New industries have a habit of ushering in new buzzwords, and internet marketing now has a new one - following 'traffic acquisition', we now have 'traffic acquisition marketing'. But what is traffic acquisition marketing?


New York based Forward Branding & Identification, reference it a list of job requirements for a Web Project Manager:

"Experience in online consumer media, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, with success in online traffic acquisition marketing."

So, it's clearly something to do with social marketing and Web 2.0, and Miami, Florida's Apparent Internet Marketing would seem to agree:

"Apparent offers an array of white hat online traffic acquisition marketing services, in addition to strategic website and landing page optimization efforts, to help our clients build a loyal audience following."

So, what do we glean from these? Firstly, traffic acquisition marketing seems to be about generating traffic through a marketing message geared towards awareness and loyalty over advertising and traffic purchase.


It's also clear from Apparent that it's not about search engine optimization or landing pages, nor is it about straight up advertising. It's about generating (or acquiring) traffic because that traffic wants to visit the site, out of loyalty or brand attachment, and not just because they need to buy something.


Google returns around 13,000 pages that use the exact term, and using their Keyword Tool to research around the topic, another well-known phrase comes up : customer acquisition marketing.


Suzanne Taylor, a marketing consultant with clients including Adobe, Yahoo! and PayCycle, and member of Stanford University's faculty, defines customer acquisition marketing as having three main aspects:

• Awareness - does the target market know you exist?
• Learning - what does your market know about your benefits?
• Persuasion - do they want to buy from you?

She also notes that it's part of a model that she calls the 'Customer Experience Model', and notes that:

"It is driven by the other two elements of the Customer Experience Model—Product Wow and Customer Retention."

Putting all this together, we have a workable idea to answer the leading question - what is traffic acquisition marketing?


My summary would be as follows : Traffic Acquisition Marketing pulls in the target market by giving the marketing message an online personality, that can draw in, delight, and retain a loyal following online.


It's no longer just about the product. Now you also have to deliver a reason.