Finding and Keeping Customers
Before building a website it is very important to find out what your main objectives for having one is. How will the website fit into your overall marketing plan? Generally there are two main objectives: to find new customers or to capture information in order to build repeat business. The two most important activities for any company or business to survive.
To find new customers:
Targeted traffic + Persuasive content + Calls to action = Leads and sales.
Targeted traffic:
Not all traffic is the same. It is great having visitors but it is far better to capture the interest of one specific visitor who then contacts you than it is to have a 100 uninterested visitors that are just browsing.
Persuasive content
It is estimated that you will have 3 secs to influence a visitor to stay or leave your site. Some components that help keep visitors are questions or statements that grab their attention, orientation statement and image that helps visitor recognise they are in the right place. It is important to realise that visitors to your site are more interested in what is in it for them than they are about how wonderful you are. The truth is they are not interested in you or your company – they are interested in how your services or products can meet their need or desire.
Calls to Action
Because as people we are prone to procrastination and laziness it is a good idea to lead the visitor, directing the path you want them to take through your site which ultimately ends in either a phone call or contact via the contact page.
To Keep Customers
Now that you have found your customers you definitely don’t want to lose them. It costs more to find customers than it does to keep them.
Data capture + personalized communication + dialogue = repeat business
Data capture
A database is essential to keeping track of who has contacted you via the website. You can specify the number of information fields required to find out information about the visitor from where they live to what interests them. This means you can do targeted marketing – ie you can send them information that they are specifically interested in.
Personalized communication
The ability to address the receiver by name, marketing only that which is relevant and interesting to them.
Dialogue
This an essential part of the Internet – no longer is it a case of the web owner talking to the visitor. Now the visitor wants to talk back. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc are all ways in which dialogue with the visitor can take place. This is a very powerful way to build rapport and find out what you visitors or customers think.
