Article: How
to Generate Repeat Traffic
By Julie Friedman Bacchini
“Repeat traffic.” Those words are music to
the ears of every businessperson, whether you’re
talking about repeat traffic beating a path to your physical
store location, or visitors clicking consistently through
to your web site.
If you own a store, you know how to generate that repeat
traffic: quality products attractively displayed, personal
service, good pricing, etc. But what do you need to do
on the web to get customers marking you as one of their “favorites” and
coming back again and again?
Interestingly, the principles are identical. Let’s
compare building a web site to building a bookstore such
as Barnes & Noble or Borders:
Construct a well-organized site. Imagine walking into
a bookstore and being confronted with a scene of chaos.
Book shelves are haphazardly spread around the interior;
books are stacked horizontally on some shelves and vertically
on the others; there are no signs directing you to different
sections. Would you return? Of course not. You would probably
turn around and walk out immediately.
The same holds true for your web site. You need to make
it easy for your visitors to find what they are looking
for. You need order, continuity, and structure. That means
that your menu navigation should be intuitive and easy
to use, sections and pages should have a consistent format,
information should be presented intelligently, etc.
Create an aesthetically-pleasing
site. Think about the
last time you went into a large bookstore. Remember the
attractive displays? The cleanliness? The warm colors and
the wood paneling that made you take a deep breath and
exhale all the day’s stress?
Your web site should strike people the same way: it should
be attractive to your target market (a key term there is “to
your target market” – different target markets
will find different styles attractive). It should present
information cleanly and beautifully. It should invite people
to browse and stay awhile. Create an atmosphere on your
web site that welcomes your target audience and encourages
long and repeated visits.
Design an organic site. Would you return to a bookstore
that always had exactly the same selection of books, the
same special offers, the same displays? No – eventually,
you would want something new.
Web visitors are no different. To generate repeat traffic,
you need to constantly provide them with something new
and different. New products, new information, new graphics,
new opportunities, new deals, etc. A common habit is to
throw up a web site and never look at it again. That is
a surefire way to discourage repeat traffic. To keep people
coming back, you have to give them a reason to return.
And that reason is: there’s always something new.
Become a resource site. Do you always go into a bookstore
to buy something? Not necessarily. Perhaps you just want
to browse. Perhaps you aren’t sure what you are looking
for, so you’re seeking information. Perhaps you just
want to read a chapter out of a book to clarify a point.
The bookstore personnel will never stop someone from browsing,
or even from reading entire books while standing in the
aisle. Why not? Because they know that the people who browse
are eventually the people who buy.
Likewise, your web site should serve your target market
as a resource with value-added information and content.
Determine what your visitors are interested in, what they
need, what they want – then collect that information
for them and deliver it in a way that is easy and user-friendly.
That may involve articles, ebooks, tools, blogs, videos,
podcasts, link pages, recommendations, etc. The more people
look to you as a reliable online resource, the more likely
they are to purchase products from your site.
Develop a community site. Have you noticed a trend in
the large bookstores? They often have a café area.
Coffee, tea, pastries, chic yet comfortable décor … the
message is clear: you can relax and chat here. You can
find people of like-mind here. You can establish relationships
here.
The web is no different: people want to belong to communities.
Those communities may be based upon a shared cause or common
interest where visitors come to you because they know you
are a resource for quality information, events, links,
etc. Or they may be truly interactive web communities where
you provide a place for them to connect with one another
through forums, blogs, chat rooms, etc. In both cases,
you provide the place and the common theme, and your visitors
take over from there to develop a true online community.
In a nutshell, to build a site that generates repeat traffic,
imagine that the site is a physical store location. What
do visitors see the moment they walk in the door? Have
you made it easy for them to find what they want – whether
that is a product, a resource, or a community? Have you
given them a reason to return? Was it easy for them to
make a purchase? Do you have good sales support if they
have questions or need help?
Apply all the same questions rigorously to your web site
and you will see repeat traffic – and repeat sales.
Guaranteed.
© 2009 Julie Friedman Bacchini
Article Source: http://www.neptunemoon.com
About the Author:
© 2009 Neptune Moon
|
