7 Sure-Fire Ways to Keep Your Customers Coming Back For More
If
you've been
reading our newsletter for awhile, you already know how important it is
to
drive qualified prospects to your web site. What's even more important,
though,
is finding ways to keep them there once they've arrived.
After
all,
what's the use of spending all that time and money on securing top
rankings on
search engines, setting up a network of affiliates, and building a
200-page
site if nobody stays once they arrive? That's the hard way to learn the
value
of "sticky" content.
The
easy way is
to keep reading.The information I'm about to share with you will show
you how
to use
content to turn
visitors into
shoppers…
and shoppers into repeat buyers!
We've
boiled it
down to 7 simple ways to keep your visitors coming back for more. Put
these
tips into practice, and watch your sales start climbing almost
immediately.
1.
Take
charge of your
content
It's
important
to spend a few minutes thinking about how often you really need to
update your
content. If your site sells reports on housing trends, your visitors
may expect
new content about the housing market on a fairly regular basis. If
you're
selling nails and screws, your content probably won't need updating
nearly as
often.
If
your site
isn't going to need content changes on a regular basis, think about
writing the
content yourself. Nobody knows your product as well as you do, so who
better to
write about it? Of course, you'll want the content to have a strong focus on the features and
benefits
of
your product or service, so here are a few ideas for articles you could
post on
your site:
- Three
ways your product can save your customers time.
- Three
ways your product has saved your customers money.
- Interesting
or unique applications for your product.
Ok,
ok… I can
already hear some of you saying "I'm an entrepreneur -- I'm not a
writer!" My answer: Why don't you give it a try? You'll probably
surprise
yourself. Even if your writing isn't as clear and flowing as something
crafted
by a professional copywriter, your enthusiasm for your product will go
a really
long way.
There
are a
couple of situations where I would recommend hiring the services of a
professional writer. If you simply aren't comfortable writing your own
content,
then this is definitely the way to go. You will also probably want to
look into
the services of a professional if your site is going to require
frequent
content updates. Writing can be very time-consuming, and as a business
owner,
you'll need to decide on the
most
profitable
way to spend your time.
Here
are a few
of the better resources I've found for tracking down copywriters:
NOTE:
Top-notch copywriters
can charge up to $250 per hour, so you won't want to hire one just to
proofread
your web site. A writer, editor, or proofreader can be hired for
between $17
and $75 per hour. Make sure to check references and establish deadlines!
2.
Tell your
visitors
"What's New"
Let's
face it…
nobody spends even close to as much time hanging around your web site
as you
do. Your visitors may spend just a few minutes a month at your web
site, so
you'd better be sure that their attention is immediately drawn to where
you
want it.
If
you're
introducing a new product or service, it's important to make sure that
your
visitors know that it's new. Remember, people scan web pages, they
don't read
them. They're more likely to pay attention to an item with a "NEW"
icon beside it, or something labeled with the current date.
Unless
you
label new content as being special or important, your customers have no
way of
knowing that they should bother paying attention to it. But keep in
mind that
it's just as important to remove those "NEW" labels every so often.
Your customers won't be very impressed by a flashing "NEW" banner
next to an item about last year's Super Bowl.
Want
a great
way to tell your customers what's new while
building your opt-in e-mail list
and customer base at the same time?
Offer to e-mail your customers new
content on a monthly basis in the form of a newsletter. Of course,
you'll want
to include information about new products, upcoming specials, and
current
sale-priced items.
Place
a box
somewhere on your front page with a small blurb explaining that, by
entering
their e-mail address in the space provided, they'll be e-mailed
exciting new content
on a monthly basis, along with exclusive offers available only to
subscribers.
The
best part
is, it's MUCH easier than you might think to set up this kind of
monthly
newsletter. You've already got the content, since it's up on your web
site, so
it's just a matter of making a few formatting changes and then mailing
it out
to your customers.
3.
Get Your
Visitors
Involved
It's
a proven
fact that the more your visitors interact with your web site, the more
comfortable they become. And the more comfortable they become, the more
likely
they are to make purchases. Here are three tried-and-true ways to get
your
visitors to interact with your site:
- Set up
an online suggestion box. This is
a great way to get your customers involved with your products or
services. Let them suggest products they'd like to see featured,
recommend ways to improve your product, or tell you know what they
think of your merchandise.
- Run a
contest. Ask
your customers to submit a short blurb about why they love your
product, and offer a cash or merchandise prize to the weekly or monthly
winners. Not only will you be getting your customers involved, you'll
be collecting testimonials to post on your site.
- Conduct
an online survey. They'll
be able to voice their opinions about your business, and you'll learn a
lot about what they like (and don't like) about your products or
service. More about this later.
4.
Check
"All"
of Your Content
Remember,
when
we talk about content, we're not just talking about the text on your
site.
We're talking about every single word, image, link, logo, and e-mail
address.
One
of the most
important things you can do to keep your site current (and drive sales)
is to rotate
your features
and
specials.
Is
your best-selling product featured prominently on your site? If not,
visitors
won't find what they came for… and that's costing you
profits!
Always
keep
your catalog up-to-date. Nothing will drive customers away faster than
receiving an e-mail from your company saying that the product they
ordered
yesterday is no longer available. It never ceases to amaze me how often
I come
across sites with outdated, unavailable products still posted online.
Check all of your links. Every last one of them. Even that one at the
very
bottom that links to your privacy policy. If the link through to your
"Satisfied Customers" page isn't working, how comfortable is a
customer going to be entering their credit card number?
And
while
you're at it, make sure that anything labeled "Coming Soon" will be
actually coming soon. If it's not going to be ready within a week, take
it
down.
I'd
also highly
recommend that you go through your web site on a computer other than
your own.
It's amazing what you'll learn. That image that looks so great on your
computer
may actually be broken when viewed on someone else's! Make sure you
take note
of how long content and images are taking to come up… If it
takes more than 10
seconds for the image of your product to appear, you're probably losing
customers by the truckload!
The
idea here
is to make
your visitors
comfortable
enough to make a purchase from you. There is a direct correlation
between how
comfortable people are and how likely they are to make a purchase. And
a web
site where everything works is a comfortable place to be.
5.
Check Out
Free Content
Providers
In
a word: YES!
Believe it or not, there are actually a number of places to find
content on
just about every topic imaginable that you can post on your site at no
cost. Of
course, the quality of this content varies tremendously, so be sure to
choose
carefully.
You
should be
aware that some free content providers will try to take visitors away
from your
site. You may find, for example, that the news headlines you've posted
on your
site whisk visitors away as soon as they click on them. Obviously, this
is not
what you want.
If
you want to
look into free
content for
your site,
here are a few good places to start:
And
don't
forget, you now have permission to reprint these "Marketing Tips"
articles on your web site or in your e-zine as long as:
- Each
article is printed in its full form with no changes.
- You send
a quick e-mail to editor@marketingtips.com to let us know where you'll
be publishing them.
- You
include the following byline at the end of each article:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Corey Rudl is the owner of four highly
successful online businesses that attract more than 1.8
million visitors monthly and generate over $6.6 million each year.
He is also the author of the #1 best-selling Internet
Marketing course online.
To
check out his site that's JAM-PACKED WITH THE EXACT
INFORMATION YOU NEED to start, build, and grow your very
own profitable Internet business, I highly recommend
visiting http://www.marketingtips.com
This
guy really knows what he's talking about
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.
Never
Throw Anything
Away
Want
to know an
almost effortless way to make
your site
50% more useful
to your visitors? Archive your content. A study
by online usability guru Jakob Nielsen showed that an archive of past
content
increases a site's usefulness by about 50%. And since you've already
produced
the content, it's no hassle to simply index all of those articles in an
archive. And, believe me, your customers will be glad you did.
As
a subscriber
to this newsletter, you know that you have access to our complete
archive of
dynamite marketing tips and advice at:
http://www.marketingtips.com/newsletter/.
That's pretty valuable, isn't it? Now, why not offer the same to your
customers?
As
your archive
grows, you'll add
credibility
to your business, because your customers will be able to see how long
you've
been around. With all those extra pages, your customers should be
hanging out
at your site a little longer -- making them more comfortable and more
likely to
buy.
7.
Look,
Listen, and Learn
So
now that
you've spent all of this time getting your web site as current as it
should be,
you need to find out what kind of impact you've made. Of course, if
you've done
everything right, you'll start seeing results right where it counts --
in your
bankbook!
There
are,
however, a couple of other great ways to judge the success of all your
hard
work. Invest some time in going through your server logs (provided by
your Web
host), and see how much time people are actually spending looking at
your
content. If, for whatever reason, people aren't using your "Weekly
Updates" page, you probably shouldn't waste too much time writing
content
for it.
The
online
suggestion box that you set up is also a great way to measure the
usefulness of
your content. If nobody EVER comments on your "Monthly News" section,
it's probably not worth your while to slave over it at the beginning of
every
month.
Final
Thoughts:
Having
fresh
content isn't about having today's news headlines scrolling across the
top of
your homepage. As always, keep your eye on the bottom line and ask
yourself,
"Is this content helping my sales"? If the answer is YES, you know
you're on the right track.
REMEMBER:
Marketing a product online means that your web site is probably the
ONLY way
your customers will ever interact with you. What you have posted on
your site
will speak volumes about the kind of company you're running: a site
with
relevant and current information will deliver instant credibility to
you and
your products.
Keep
your site
current and your content relevant, and I guarantee that your visitors
will
start spending more time there. And the longer they stay, the more
dramatic the
impact will be on your profits!
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR: Derek Gehl
specializes in teaching real people how to start
profitable Internet businesses that make $100,000 to $2.5 Million (or
more) per
year. To get instant access to all his most profitable marketing
campaigns,
strategies, tools, and resources that he's used to grow $25 into over
$40
Million in online sales, visit: http://www.marketingtips.com
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