When a sticky situation can work for your business!

The average web surfer is a fickle creature, flitting from one website to the next in search of information. Research has shown that a visitor to a website will make a decision on whether they are going to stay within the first few seconds.

You might have employed all of the design tricks that are going to capture your visitors' attention – but are they enough? How do you keep their attention? More importantly how do you persuade them to come back for a repeat visit?

It can take a few visits to your website for an initial view to turn into an enquiry; your online presence needs to be able to form a relationship with potential customers before they are likely to part with their money.

This is particularly so for the corporate website. Very often the first visit to a website will be a research mission to gather information. The second may be a return visit to look at a specific service in more detail and it could take a third visit for an enquiry to take place.

So how do you form this initial relationship with potential clients? How do you persuade them to revisit your website as opposed to your competitors'? In other words…

How do you make your website 'sticky'?

The first thing that you need to do is identify your target audience. It may seem obvious but it is very easy to forget what people are actually looking for when visiting your website. Are they decision makers, information gatherers, computer savvy or just short of time?

Once this is established you can start to identify the kind of information that will fulfil their needs, in the time they have available.

If your website is being visited by people gathering information for research purposes, to report to someone else, make the information easy to take away. Provide downloadable datasheets and make each of your web pages easy to print.

If your website will be visited by high-level decision makers with very little time, present your information in a succinct but easy to understand fashion. Don't provide too much information on each page, don't fill your website with gimmicks that may attract the eye but don't really provide information.

By giving the visitor a successful first visit you have already won the first battle. Giving a good first experience will encourage a high percentage of your visitors to remember your website and return.

However one return visit is often not enough to secure that first enquiry. What other techniques can you employ to give your visitors reason to return to your website on a regular basis?

1. Keep your website content up to date

No one will remember your website above others if it contains information that is out of date. Update your content on a regular basis, whether this is with the latest product info, new services or even recent news releases.

A great vehicle for adding new content to your site and persuading people to read it on a regular basis is a blog. A blog is an online diary of sorts that you can use to give your business a face, comment on your industry, provide advice, discuss your services etc.

You can offer your site visitors an RSS feed which will automatically update them with your latest blog content. People who sign up to these will see your new content as soon as you publish it and are more likely to return the site on a regular basis.

2. Provide your visitors with useful tools

Are there any tools that the type of person who visits your website might find useful? Examples of these could be mortgage calculators, currency converters, online quotes, etc.

Is there one applicable to your business that people may return to the website to use on a regular basis? These tools can also generate a large number of new visitors to the site as they will encourage people who visit the site to tell others about it.

3. Get tagged!

With the emergence of web 2.0 and user generated content, a plethora of social networking sites have appeared which enable people to tag sites they think are of use and interest within their own personal accounts.

This means they will add your site to a sort of online ‘favourites' account and are able to give the site a number of labels relating to the content/service it offers. These online accounts enable users to revisit your site easily but also share their favourites with other people online, thereby increasing both new and return visitors to your site.

Make it as easy as possible for people to tag your site or add it to their accounts by having social bookmarking buttons on your site such as ‘Add to del.icio.us' or ‘Digg This.'

Find out more about social bookmarking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking)

4. Offer visitors a valuable newsletter

Newsletters offering regular, free information and advice are a great way of forming an ongoing relationship with potential customers.

If the client associates your company with expert advice and information and a need arises for a service you offer, it is more likely your company will be approached to fulfil that need. Put an archive of your newsletters online to entice people back to your website.

5. Utilise email marketing

Try and gather email addresses of those who visit your site either by offering newsletters, as above, or offering exclusive information to those that sign up for premium content. You will then build a targeted base of potential customers that you can use for focused email marketing.

The emails could comprise of special offers, news and product updates – information that will keep your brand in the eyes of your pre-qualified audience, thereby increasing the chances of them returning to your site. Conversion rates from this type of marketing can also be particularly high if it's carried out correctly.

6. Turn your website into an information portal

Many people think that having a number of links from your website to others is a way of losing visitors to these other websites. However making your website a gateway to a host of other information that's relevant and valuable to your audience will entice them to return.

The more useful information you can provide to visitors, the more they will view you as an authority and return back to your site to make use of those links on a regular basis.

Utilising any of these methods to make your site ‘sticky' is a large step towards creating relationships with your clients – so make a good first impression.

Research your target audience thoroughly and make your site work for them. Whatever industry you are in, you will not be the only website vying for your target audience's attention – but you can be the only website that holds it!