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How Do
I Make My Site "Sticky"?
In "geek-speak", when
customers find your site interesting and stay there for a while, the site is
said to be "sticky". Below are some suggestions for a stickier web site.
Naturally, you'll want to read the basic stuff pertaining to all businesses, but we
suggest you read all the categories. You may well find an idea that's ripe
for your business. A well known writer for Ziff-Davis, (ZDnet, Cnet), was
still predicting, (even after the technology bubble burst in 2000), that, "90% of the
billion dollar dot-coms of the year 2010 haven't even been thought of
yet!" Be creative!
The Basics - All Businesses
Update your site regularly! When a customer visits your business and inquires,
"What's new?", that's not a greeting! That's a legitimate buying
question, and you ought to be able to show him something new! When he
visits your web site, he's really asking the same question, i.e., "is there
anything new here"! And if there is, he'll stay a while, and if not,
he'll leave. It's an old adage on the internet that there are only two
types of web sites out there. Those that are in the process of
changing, and those that have been abandoned. Don't be guilty of
abandonment! Make sure
your web site is not a pain in the rear!
Make it easy to
navigate. Don't use massive graphics that make it load too
slow. The rule of thumb is your front page should be visible on a
56k modem after 20 seconds. If you use advertising banners to make even more money, limit
them. Same with pop-ups or pop-unders. People detest sites that
get carried away with unrelated advertising.
Give your
customers a reason to visit often.
And/or stay when they get there! If you're in a
daily or weekly type of repeat business such as a restaurant, bar or gym,
you can use specials, coupons, etc. Or make it unique if you're in an
"as needed" type of business such as auto body work, (See "Automotive"
below). All businesses can employ links to other sites or information
to keep people visiting your site. If you have enough of them, (neatly
categorized so as not to take up your entire home page!), the customer might
even use your site as his home page! Here are some general link
suggestions:
|
Related Business
Links, (Foremost) |
Local News &
Weather |
|
Teams or Events (Bucs or NASCAR) |
Local TV Stations &
Newspapers |
| TV Guide |
Movie
Guide |
"Weekend" Guide |
Search
Engines |
A
Picture's worth a thousand words!
How many times have you heard that? Pictures of
your products, pictures of your finished work, pictures of the interior or
exterior of your business, pictures of yourself or your staff.
Pictures introduce the customer to you and/or your business. Strangely
enough, they work as well as a third party recommendation. Pictures of
the interior of your business, (if you invite people in, such as a
restaurant), allow people to see that you have a clean, comfortable
environment and make them want to visit. Pictures of the exterior
show people that you have an established, reputable business. Pictures
of your finished work show the quality of your craftsmanship. And
pictures of you and/or your employees show people they'll be greeted and
taken care of by a competent, friendly staff. And people like to
browse through pictures! But be careful. Don't clutter up the
front page of your site with them. Put your pictures on a separate
page, with links to them. And if you have quite a few, thumbnail them
so the page loads fast, and the viewer can then click on the ones he wants
to see full size.
Business Specific
Automotive
One
body shop owner we know spent 2 or 3 hours a day on the phone answering the
"Is my car ready yet?" question, (even though they told them up
front when it would be ready). So he made up a checklist, and told
the customer he could check on his car's progress on their website.
When he took in a car, he simply saved a copy of the checklist with the
customer's name on it and made a link to it. Then once a day he
simply logged on and filled in the appropriate X's. The list
had a checkbox or blank by each line and contained items like: Parts List
Compiled; All Parts Ordered; All Parts Received; Scheduled For Parts
Replacement (with a date); Parts Replacement Complete; Scheduled for
Bodywork (with a date); Bodywork Complete; Scheduled for Paint (with a
date); Paint Complete; and Ready for Pick Up. In total, it
took him less than 15 minutes a day to update the site, and cut his
unnecessary phone time by 75%! Plus, his customers thought this was
so unique that they would show their friends, and he gained a good deal of
free advertising from it including an article in his local newspaper about
the site. Construction
Trades Before, during, and after pictures are sticky
items for the construction trades. The more unique the project, the
better. People like to browse through pictures of other peoples
construction and/or remodeling projects not only to see the quality of
your work specifically, but also to get ideas for the project they want
done. Links to suppliers sites are also great. Most have full
color pictures of their products, sans pricing. And the customer
gets a chance to select the type and color of siding, roofing, stone
facade, paint, etc., without you spending hours upon hours helping them
select. So the site will not only bring you new customers, but save
you time in the sales process when you get them! Be sure and place
your license number and logos to any associations you belong to on your
front page! And be sure to make a page about your experience in the
business and/or that of your crew.
Food
and Beverage Printable coupons are a biggie! Also, most
bars and restaurants have daily specials they have to write up and place
in the menus every day anyway. Why not type it up once, (on your web
site), and print it from there? Additionally, links to other
restaurants work well! Be realistic. Although you'd like your
customers to eat in your establishment every day, that's not going to
happen. People like variety. So set up reciprocal links with
other good restaurants that don't directly compete with you. One
Italian restaurant I'm familiar with, (that didn't serve pizza), set up
reciprocal links with a good local pizza shop, a Chinese restaurant, a
seafood restaurant, a hot dog shop, and an ice cream parlor. The
hits on all their web sites went up, (as did their sales!), but they all
wanted to know if it was the links that were doing it. So they made
up a coupon; "Eat at all 6 restaurants 6 times in 6 months, and get 6
free meals!", (one free meal from each). That's a lot of eating
out, (so they didn't give away that many free meals!), but they did see
what was working for them. Seems that 60% of everyone's new
customers were coming in with coupons.
Retail
Percentage or dollars off coupons work, as do weekly or monthly
specials. But again, it's the pictures that make people stick.
Product pictures, particularly when coupled with adequate descriptions,
make them want to buy that particular product. And interior,
exterior and staff pictures make them feel comfortable enough to buy it
from you. (Writing product descriptions, particularly if you have a
large number of items, may sound like a daunting task, but you usually
don't have to write those, just copy and paste them from the product
manufacturer's site). If you choose to try your hand at selling
globally after you've got the basics down, the search engines are going to
be of paramount importance to you. Be sure and read that FAQ.
You may also want to incorporate a shopping cart into your site.
Great. Now make sure it works! Nothing is more
aggravating to a customer than taking the time to go through your entire
site, select the items he wants, enter shipping and payment information,
and then have the shopping cart hiccup on you! He'll never bother to
come back! Remember, you get what you pay for, and your customer
judges how well your company or product will perform by how well your
company's website performs. Believe it!
If you think any of the above ideas will work for your
business, then by all means steal them! Ideas are not copyrighted, and our
goal here at BQIK.NET is to see you succeed!
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