Attracting Repeat Visitors |
|
Attracting Repeat Visitors |
Developing Repeat Visitors
Effectiveness of web site is judged by how your communication with your target audience increases over time. You want to build a relationship with your visitor because you want them to become a client, a supporter or a partner. In order to do this they have to visit more than once.
Web Site Journal has some great articles delivering insight from Web Site Experts. They also have a great email newsletter that you can subscribe to for free!
Using Email to Build Web Traffic
by Kyle Arteaga"When you are out looking for visitors, always remember the best and easiest group of people to get to visit your site are the ones that have already been there. In other words, never forget to keep in contact with your Web site visitors and let them know when and why they should revisit your site.
There are many ways to bring visitors back to your site; some sites offer contests and games, other sites offer free email accounts for their visitors (such as ZapZone Networks) and others just offer compelling content. But the only way your visitors will find out about your new offerings on your site is if you tell them.
To start your campaign to keep your visitors coming back to your site you need only one thing: their email address. Many of you have probably already started collecting your visitors email addresses with products like Web Site Post Office (http://www.WebSitePostOffice.com) but don't know what to do with them. So this week we're going to tell you how to write effective email messages to your visitors to keep them coming back to your site.
Start off by writing your email offline. Think about what you want to say and how you are going to say it. You may want to consider outlining your email with the specific points you want to make in the text. By writing your email offline you also have the opportunity to check spelling, formatting and make changes more easily.
Write your subject line after you have already written the text. Take a close look at what you wrote, and come up with a catchy title. Without a good subject line your email may very well be deleted before it is read. Think about what kind of headline would cause you to open the email if you were the recipient.
Make sure your email is consistent and clear. Before you send it out to all your visitors (or even one) have someone else read it for clarity. We have several people read our newsletter before we send it, and are always surprised with the different things each person discovers.
Create a signature tag to be placed at the end of all your email correspondence. Each email you send is an opportunity for free advertising; take advantage of it. Try out several different versions before you send it out to all your visitors. We consider an effective signature tag one that includes the person or company's name on the first line, a way to contact them on the second line (phone number or email), URL of the company on the third line, and a statement at the end (most often a mission statement or value proposition).
For example, my [the article author's] signature tag is:
Kyle Arteaga
Editor@websitejournal.com
http://www.WebSiteJournal.com
Delivering Insight from Web Experts to Web Site Owners!
Be sure to include useful information to your visitors, other than just hype about your site. Tell them about some new service you offer and why or how it would help them; or about a new content you have added that they might be interested in.
Perhaps one of the most overlooked keys to creating effective email messages is to simply save the ones you have already written. This allows you to pull phrases, words, signature tags and subject lines that may have worked in the past and either reuse them or rework them to create new messages.
Email is a cheap and easy way to keep your visitors coming back. But be sure before you email them that you have something useful to say. By creating new content or adding new products to your site that better suit your visitors, you will also make your site much more attractive to potential visitors."
Ways to Encourage visitors to come back:
A "Preview of Coming Attractions" section.
NACD Workshop 2: Web Design
created by Cyber-SierraYour Internet Presence How Web Sites Work Say What? Design Basics Navigation Get Repeat Visits Edit your Pages Need a Pro? Need a Domain? Market your Site
Back to Workshop 1
Forward to Workshop 3
Conservation Jobs Center | Conservation Grants Center | Oak Run Library | Cyber-Sierra
The beginning of the workshop is at: http://nacdnet.org/workshops/intro.htm
