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/tipsltr.html
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!
