 The Living Web Site - Value = Return Visits
By Jan Eden of CEO In Training As I have
referred to in many of my previous articles, there are many layers to sustaining business
and marketing visibility. One of the most important layers and leveraging mechanisms today
to ensure local, national and global visibility is to own and maintain a Living Web Site.
‘Living’ refers to a web site that is deliberately kept
alive. The purpose of keeping your web site alive is to invite the visitor to gain ongoing
pertinent knowledge and offerings that will entice them to consistently return, which is
the biggest challenge for any web site. Without visitors returning on a regular basis, the
web site may become obsolete.
The enticement begins at the conception of the web site. The majority
of web sites today mostly constitute a glorified Yellow Pages ad. To offer an extension of
a Yellow Pages ad is fine if you do not choose to have the visitor return. To stimulate
higher visibility, it is imperative to graduate web sites from mediocrity and give them
either an educational or sales and marketing purpose. The Living Web Site’s ideal
intention is to develop a higher educational or sales and marketing momentum that stirs
the visitor to feel that they have gained greater value once they leave your web site.
It’s this value that will bring them back.
Today, time has become a precious commodity, therefore the web site
must offer visitors swift and targeted information that allows them to enter, understand
and move effortlessly to their point of interest. Generally, the visitor is only
interested in ‘what is in it for them’; everything else is a bonus. It’s
your responsibility as the owner to know the needs of your visitors and consistently
develop new information that is intended to honour their interests. Becoming the observer
and receiver of the information you have placed on your web site should initiate you to
ask, “Does this information serve me or serve the valued visitor?” Understanding
that each visitor has different interests and requirements, it is most important to never
assume that you know what those requirements may be. Therefore, the key to stimulating
good web site enticement is to establish a new business discipline that focuses on monthly
web site maintenance/review. This monthly maintenance is the ongoing fuel that allows the
web site to remain alive. If maintained properly, your web site will feature distinctions
that are technically designed to offer the visitor ‘what is in it for them’
through e-zines, e-books, on-line training, interactive web communication, reports,
newsletters, articles, e-commerce, opt in options, and animation. Due to the speed of
technological advancements, your web site will soon become obsolete without this monthly
maintenance/ review. When these distinctions are focused on the visitor, they will become
an incredible educational and sales and marketing magnet.
To sustain a Living Web Site, the owner must first establish the
specific purpose the web site will serve. Is the purpose to inform and educate visitors,
or to market and sell a product or service? The visitor who is interested in gaining
knowledge will appreciate ‘to the point’ information. When selling a product or
service on-line, the intention would be to develop an ideal offering that invites the
visitor to not only purchase once, but to buy again and again.
Most significantly, the web site must offer an incentive that allows
the visitor to effortlessly forward to others to take advantage of your unique offering. A
simple and proven web flow is to build the very first page as the ‘enticement
page’. This is what visitors view first. To keep the monthly maintenance simple and
cost effective, my suggestion would be to begin by only maintaining this page. This page
is not about you but ‘what is in it for the visitor’. Respecting the
visitor’s time, intelligence and discernment, this page must be inviting, visually
attractive and feature an enticement. The enticement must be displayed as to allow the
visitor to immediately enter and experience it.
Become the observer and receiver of your web site and ask yourself,
does my web site offer and focus on what is in it for the valued visitor? Knowing this,
does the web site naturally inspire them to want to return, spread the good news to
others, and, most significantly, entice them to engage?
Jan Eden, president & founder of CEO In Training Inc.,
invites you to experience for yourself her unique marketing & business skills &
techniques by attending her complimentary monthly Introductory Workshops. Visit www.ceointraining.com for
more details and registration. |
