52. Sticky buns
You want to attract users, keep them a while, then let them go so they can come back for more. A simple enough task. Here are some tips to help.
How to make a sticky bun: blend up-to-date cool text and images in an attractive and always-available web site. Pop on a cherry and visitors will come back again and again, spending money and just hanging out…
Mi Casa Su Casa
Most internet users eventually work out that they can alter their homepage from whatever default is foisted upon them by either their operating system or by their ISP (Internet Service Provider). For many, this is their company web site (don’t you just love the dedication?), a search engine or their own personal web site. But that still leaves a large number of users who might just be convinced to set your web site as their homepage. Never, ever force users to make the change, and certainly don’t do it without their knowledge (tempting though it may be), but if somebody has registered with you (not just landed on your homepage), they shouldn’t be offended if you ask if they would like your site as their homepage. A simple click on yes can reconfigure their options settings and there you are, pride of place, every time the user launches their web browser.
Ah! Here We Are
It is so easy to implement, yet so few sites do it. Let users know where they are on your site. A quick and easy way to help your visitor feel safe, secure and in control is by giving them a ‘virtual hug’. Show them what they are doing in simple text:
Home>Products>Clamps>Executive>Offers
Your potential customer can immediately see from this that they have come into the products area of the store. He is looking through the selection of clamps for sale and is now within the offers area of the executive section. This knowledge takes next to no room up at the top of the page (below the navigation bar) but adds so much value to the site. It gives them yet another reason not to leave the site and to continue through to purchase. Put simply, it costs nothing to be courteous; but it could cost a lot not to be.
So, What’s New?
Giving users a reason to return does involve some work from you, but by constantly updating your products, information or news you’ll be making your web site an exciting and innovative place to visit. Internet users feel that they are at the cutting edge of information retrieval. They are! You can find out pretty much anything you want to on the internet, pretty much as soon as it happens. To take part in this and become an information provider you must pander to users’ need for quick, reliable, easy-to-access information and react accordingly. There really isn’t much point updating your site only once a month. Someone else will beat you to it and in doing so will win the custom of your users.
You’re a Winner
The ubiquitous competition is quickly becoming the favoured mechanism to keep user interest in a site. The prizes don’t have to be huge (although it does help). If you are offering a prize for actually doing something, however little (registering, recommending a friend, etc.), then users feel they have a good chance of winning, and compared with most national or state lotteries, they do. Use a competition that unfolds over a number of weeks. That way, users must keep logging on to answer the next question, and only when the competition is complete (maybe after five visits) can they be entered to win the prize.
How did it go?
Q. We monitored the number of users entering each week and there was a significant tailing off towards the end. Should we reduce the number of weeks that we run the competition?
A. Hard to tell. First, the perceived value of the prize you are offering will dictate how patient users will be. Put simply, the more attractive the prize, the more you can ask of entrants. If the number of visitors entering in weeks two and three remained pretty constant and then dropped off before week four, then maybe three weeks is the most you can expect with that level of prize. Still, you have succeeded in bringing users back to you for little investment. You’ll perfect it if you run it over time with different objectives and prizes, and meanwhile you’ll be enjoying more and more users on your site.
Q. We host the web site off-premises. How can we guarantee it’s always available?
A. You can’t – not 100 per cent. Ensure that your service provider issues you with an SLA – a service level agreement – that makes a promise to you about up time and shows how they will react if things go wrong.
Here’s an idea for you…
Ask the marketing department to devise a competition that’s in keeping with the products or services you are promoting. Set four stages to the competition; its main purpose should be to encourage existing visitors to visit more often (a separate competition should be devised to capture new visitors). The prize should be a product or service from your web site; don’t choose the most expensive, choose the most popular.
Defining idea…
‘Why is it drug addicts and computer aficionados are both called users?’
Clifford Stoll
Defining idea…
‘I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.’
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Defining idea…
‘We are what we repeatedly do.’
Aristotle