Get Return Visitors through Engagement
How many times have you found yourself looking at your website statistics and noticed
that 90% + of your visitors were brand new? You may have looked at that statistic
and found yourself getting excited that so many new people were finding you each
month.
Well I am not trying to make you feel bad but….
That’s not a good thing. What it should be telling you is that visitors
are arriving to your site, possibly clicking into it a bit, and not finding anything
memorable enough to make them want to return. Hang on a second … I am not slamming
your current site or trying to make you feel as if your company is the only company
in this position. It’s actually quite normal. It doesn’t have to be though.
Think about the sites you frequent the most. Heck, let’s look beyond you
and take a look at the top ten websites on a global level and see what all these
sites have in common. The following is a list of the top ten global websites based
on the amount of traffic they receive. I am proud to report that there is not one
single porn site on this list. Looks like the Internet is beginning to mature.
1. Google
2. Yahoo
3. You Tube
4. Live
5. FaceBook
6. MSN
7. Wikipedia
8. Blogger
9. MySpace
10. Yahoo.co.jp (Yahoo Japan)
Alright, now that you know what the top ten sites are, what do they all
have in common? Well I am sure you can see each of these sites ENGAGE their visitors.
Whether they provide the ability for the visitors to search for an answer to that
elusive question they’ve been seeking the answer to, or whether they provide the
ability for them to socialize with people they graduated with over 20 years ago
and have completely lost touch, or giving them the ability to learn how to tie a
tie on a video that someone from half way around the globe posted to You Tube.
You may be saying, “Well that’s great for those websites since their entire
purpose of their existence is to provide these options to their visitors. That simply
wouldn’t work for my site.” Well, I am here to tell you that is NOT correct. The
people who are visiting your site are doing so because they have an interest in
the products, services, or the cause you are promoting online. With web 2.0 you
are provided several options to easily create pieces of functionality that will
allow you to make a connection with your visitors and provide them with the ability
to tell you what is important to them.
You could add a blog to your site to keep your visitors up to date on new
developments within your industry or examples of how your product was used in unique
ways to help another company experience significant growth. You could add a discussion
forum so your visitors could get their questions answered or review the answer to
a question that was asked by someone else. You could have “how to” videos on your
website that help your visitor figure out how to accomplish that task that’s been
driving them crazy for the last month.
The bottom line is if you put yourself in the shoes of your potential visitor,
and create mechanisms on your site that engage your visitors once they arrive, you
will give them a reason to return to your site time and time again. If you take
the time to do this you’ll see that “new visitor” percentage drop, and your actual
visitor number will begin to rise because you’ll be adding return clients every
single month. I promise you if you add these mechanisms and focus on providing compelling
information for your visitors you can double your traffic in no time.
I’d love to hear any stories of how you added this type of functionality
to your site and what the results were. Leave a comment. If you are having a difficult
time figuring out how you can engage your visitors, leave a comment as well or visit
our Ask the Web Marketing Expert page and post your question. We’ll answer it as
quickly as we can. Every day you are not taking action, you are losing potential
return visitors and not maximizing your online revenue potential. DO SOMETHING NOW!