When you are spending money to generate traffic for your web site, doesn’t it make sense that you’d want to ensure that your web site is doing its job in keeping those visitors to your web site at your web site as long as possible? After all, the more reasons you give them to stay, come back or participate more in your business, the more likely you’ll have a long term customer who will spend plenty with you.
So just how do you make your site “sticky” enough so that people will hang around? Glad you asked because in this article, I’m going to show you my top five strategies for doing just this.
1. Original Content
You’ve likely heard this before, but it’s very, very true. Think about it for a second. When you go to a site that’s got nothing but rehashed content, do you stick around, or do you click away, right away? Keep your site fresh by providing original articles, tips, tricks, opinions or reviews that you do on various products. “Leak” information about upcoming promotions or new products you are going to be carrying. Make your site unique with the content you provide and people will not only stick around, they’ll come back.
2. Discussion Boards
This is a great way to get your customers coming back. Allowing your customers to talk with each other about their experiences with your business and answering each others questions can really build loyalty towards your business. They’ll also get to know and communicate with your employees as well as yourself. But a word of warning – you or an employee is going to have to monitor any discussion boards you set up as the larger the group you have, the more out of control things can get. It could be about a problem with a product of yours, or rude comments between customers. Discussion Boards are a great customer retention tool, just be sure to have someone monitor it.
3. Have Customers Provide Content
Don’t be afraid to ask long time and loyal customers to write product guides and reviews for you. Run a contest where the best contributor each month gets a free product or gift certificate. Customers love to be included and many will be honored if you ask the to participate. A great example of this is on a nostalgic photo site I ran across the other day – shorpy.com. This site has their members add photos to the site. It generates a huge amount of personal pride – not to mention the number of comments and resulting traffic the site receives.
4. Provide Up To Date Content
Always strive to update your content on a regular basis. Using a blog format for your web site makes this process extremely easy, but it can be done on a static site as well. You or one of your employees should constantly add and change content to keep things fresh. Again – if you think about your visits to web sites, do you return to sites that are never updated?
5. Provide Support
Be sure you provide a way for customers to obtain support and help if needed. Include:
A FAQ Section
Support Documents
Drivers If your deal in software products, this is essential.
Articles that describe installation or assembly instructions or tips to fix problems with products that you sell.
By following these five tips, you’ll go a long way in making your site a “sticky” site that your customers will enjoy spending time at, returning to and ultimately spending plenty of money at.
