Don't be a stranger! How to attract web visitors to make repeat visits.
So, you have developed a marketing programme to attract visitors to your web site and developed the site to successfully convert browsers to buyers. Congratulations. You have already done a better job than the vast majority of web sites. A one off purchase or subscription is welcome but do you encourage your visitors to come back soon and not be a stranger? How do you do this?
Increasing customer lifetime value
If you can attract your customer to make additional purchases over a longer time period, customer lifetime value will significantly improve. If customer lifetime value improves you will be able to invest more in acquiring new customers and still grow your business profitably. Encouraging repeat visits will play an important role in driving additional sales and different businesses will have different strategies for encouraging repeat visits.
Retailer offers
Some of you will know that I previously worked at Egg. When we launched Egg Card in 1999, I developed the Egg Shopping Zone as part of the launch strategy. It consisted of more than 14 shopping categories such as books, clothes & electrical goods. Each category had a range of monthly special offers and best buys. By providing specific offers for Egg card customers combined with the innovative Egg Card "no risk" Internet guarantee we encouraged customers to shop online at egg.com. Apart from reducing the fear of online shopping, it increased card spend by moving the card from the back to the front of the wallet. It also clearly demonstrated Egg's innovative approach to financial services. By encouraging repeat visits, we were also able to cost effectively communicate new products and services via the web site.
Today it is commonplace for online retailers to use special offers to encourage repeat visits. To be effective, special offers need to be special and best buys need to be best. With competitor sites only 1 click away, dressing up poor or average deals as special offers is unlikely to be a successful strategy. Update offers on a frequent basis, weekly or daily. Many retailers send out regular emails with special offers to encourage repeat visits. Try to personalise the offer based on the customers' preferences to improve response.
New content
Some sites develop new valuable content on a regular basis to encourage repeat visits. The ultimate example would be a news site like www.bbc.co.uk that updates news throughout the day. When I developed the RAC web site in 96, the pioneering online Traffic News was a major generator of initial visits and repeat traffic.
However, the principle of new content could be applied to other businesses. For example, an online fruit and vegetable supplier could have a recipe of the week which would encourage repeat visits and stimulate sales especially if linked with promotions. Recipes are a powerful tool. In the 90's, Salisbury's had a TV campaign showing celebrities preparing a mouth watering meal. As soon as the commercial went on air, they usually went out of stock of the ingredients. I was at Asda at the time and our sales of the ingredients Salisbury's advertised always went through the roof.
An electrical goods retailer could have a product of the week where their resident expert talks about how to choose a wide screen TV.
New services
Sometimes there is a need to develop a new service to generate repeat traffic. When I launched the RAC website back in 96 it was an integral part of the brand repositioning. Live traffic news and dynamic online route planning helped communicate the RAC as a modern high tech organisation. We also wanted to move the perception from being aloof and elitist to being approachable. I developed a forum called "Your Voice" which gave RAC members a place to discuss motoring related issues whatever their views. The first email received criticised the new corporate identity and in particular the removal of the crown from the RAC logo. I published it and immediately received another email saying how cool the new corporate identity was. By encouraging dialogue, both positive and negative, the section played an important role in making the RAC more approachable and encouraged repeat visits from a community passionate about motoring.
Recently, I worked with the AA to develop the marketing strategy for a new online service called the Car Buyer's Guide. It brought together a huge but fragmented library of motoring information, facts and figures into one place. It also included new functionality like the ability to save and compare cars researched. As a result, the site became increasingly "sticky" encouraging repeat visits and opportunities to cross sell related products like car insurance and car loans.
Summary
Repeat visits are likely to play an important part in increasing customer value.
- Review your repeat visit strategy
- Choose a period and identify the current volume and percentage of repeat visits
- Develop repeat visit targets
- Develop a strategy to achieve the target. Consider routes such as news, special offers, forums, articles, competitions etc
- Test and measure results
- Go back to 1
This article was taken from the Brand New Way SME marketing newsletter which is published every 2 weeks.
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