by Corey
Rudl
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 or service 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, so here are a few ideas for
articles you could post on your site:
- Three
ways your product can save your customer's time.
-
Three ways your product has saved your customer's money.
-
Interesting or unique applications for your product.
Okay,
okay... 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:
http://www.elance.com
http://www.sunoasis.com
http://www.marketingtool.com
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 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:
1. 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 what
they think of your merchandise.
2. 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.
3.
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.
------------------------------
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
recommend going 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
-----------------------------------
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:
http://www.freesticky.com/stickyweb/
http://certificate.net/wwio/index.shtml
http://www.web-source.net/syndicator.htm
http://www.ideamarketers.com
And,
don't forget, you can always use the content you read in this newsletter at your own
site or in your own newsletter. Just
follow the instructions later in this newsletter to find
out how!
----------------------------
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!
