This week I was on the phone with a client we’ve been doing business with for three years. I don’t hear much from this client except for needing to make small changes to his site – phone number additions, policy changes, and every now and then adding or changing a name on his shareholder page.
While we were chatting, I asked him if he had any more press articles he wanted to add while we were making these changes. He said what he always says, “No, not this time around.” But then he added, “I don’t think anyone is even looking at those pages anyway. It’s just good to have for new people coming to the site to see what we’ve done.”
I almost fell out of my chair in shock. I finally understood why he was always reluctant to make changes to his site. To him, his site is simply a brochure for newcomers seeking information. But he’s missing the big picture. Are you?
Your web site is not a brochure. It’s a sales-force!
All web sites have a shelf-life. They become stale over time, and even the search engine robots will get bored with the same old information and stop by less frequently. Frequent updates provide a “sticky” element to your web site, and it’s one of the most powerful things you can do to empower the sales-force within your web site.
According to Webpronews.com, “Research indicates that it takes the average shopper up to nine visits before they’ll make a buying decision. In other words, every effective sales process requires an element of repetition.” They go on to say, “Unlike a ‘bricks-and-mortar’ retail store, there is no ‘drive-by’ traffic on the Internet. In many cases when someone clicks on the little ‘exit’ button in the top right hand corner of the screen… they’re gone forever.”
Nine visits to sell your product is a lot to ask from a site that offers everything it has on the very first go-round. So, how can you update your site if there’s nothing new to add? Remember our “sticky” concept? What you want are frequent visits and sticky elements – things that keep people coming back to your site.
What’s sticky?
Surveys, Industry News, Blogs, Forums, an FAQ Corner where you change out the question once a month, Highlights (highlight a product or service once a month) and regular Product or Service Specials are just some of a long list of elements that will keep users coming back to your site. The best news is that these elements don’t require a ton of new information to come up with once a month. And yet, they’re powerful, and will show the frequent visitor that there are things happening at your company. Indeed, there are people behind your site that care about the user enough to provide all this great information!
Note: The terms “sticky” and “stickyness” are real web terms. Feel free to use them when mingling at your next cocktail party to dazzle and amaze.
About the author: Jeune Ortiz is VP of Marketing and Creative Director at future-ink. With more than 20 years of experience in graphic design and marketing, Jeune brings extensive knowledge and creativity to each website and internet marketing solution to grow your business.
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