Your Site—From Storyboarding to Programming 31

Your Site—From Storyboarding to Programming 31
REFERENCES
CNET Builder.com
http://www.builder.com
An outstanding resource and how-to for all things related to Web site
development.
Color Matters
http://www.colormatters.com/entercolormatters.html
Explores the use of color and the effects color combinations have on
your design.
Eyewire
http://www.eyewire.com/tips/design
A great list of articles on Web design.
Web Monkey
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey
The Web developer’s resource.
Whatis.com
http://www.whatis.com
Whatis.com is “definition” paradise; it defines any computer-related
word you ever wondered about.
The World Wide Web Consortium
http://www.w3c.org
“The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies
(specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web
to its full potential as a forum for information, commerce, communication,
and collective understanding”—description quoted from site.
GRAPHICS
gif.com
http://www.gif.com
An extensive resource for Web graphic design.
Graphics 101
http://builder.com.com/5100-31-5075807.html
A series of tutorials covering Web graphics: preparing images for the
Web, color depth, transparencies, techniques, and more.
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32 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
32
3
Web Site Elements That
Keep ’Em Coming Back
There are many little things that will spice up your Web site to “keep
’em coming back.” Learn the tips, tools, and techniques to get visitors
to return to your site again and again. In this chapter, we cover:
• Attractive Web site content
• How to have your own What’s New page, Tip of the Day, and
Awards page
• Hosting online seminars
• Ensuring that you are bookmarked
• Cartoons, contests, jokes, and trivia
• Calendar of events and reminder services
• Interesting bulletin boards
• Online chat sessions, workshops, and discussion groups
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Web Site Elements That Keep ’Em Coming Back 33
• Special guests or celebrity appearances
• Giveaways, awards, and surveys
• Offline tactics for promotion.
Encourage Repeat Visits
Just as you would want customers to visit your place of business frequently,
so too in cyberspace you want customers and potential customers
to visit often. The more often people visit your site, the more
likely they are to purchase something. You want to ensure that the techniques
you use to get repeat traffic are appropriate for your target market.
For example, if you were having a contest on your site targeted
toward children, you would not want to give away a bread-maker as
the prize. That would be fine, however, if your target market is families
or homemakers. You want to offer something of interest to the market
you are targeting. If your target is business professionals, then something
along the lines of the latest pocket PC that they could use in their
everyday business would be appropriate. If your target market is skiers,
then a weekend in Vail might work. You should always remember your
objectives when doing any form of online marketing, because you don’t
want to do something inappropriate that might drive your target audience
away from your site.
I am a big proponent of leveraging everything you do for maximum
marketing results. Almost every repeat traffic generator provides an
opportunity for permission marketing and also for viral marketing. Make
sure you review the repeat traffic generators you use on your site and
incorporate the right permission and viral marketing elements.
Use a What’s New Page for Repeat Visits
A What’s New page can mean different things to different sites. For
some, this page updates users with the summaries of the most recent
product or service offerings, as in Figure 3.1. Your What’s New page
should be accessible from your home page so that when people visit
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34 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
your site they do not have to search through your entire site to find out
what is new. If visitors repeatedly find interesting additions in the What’s
New section, they will come back to your site on a regular basis to
check out what’s new. Without this, they might visit and search through
your site and find that nothing is new and they just wasted 20 minutes
looking for anything new. Here you can leverage this repeat-traffic generator
with permission marketing by asking if visitors would like to be
notified via e-mail when you’ve added something to the What’s New
section. It’s all about getting their permission to send them e-mail and
therefore include them in your community.
Another approach is for the What’s New page to cover What’s New
in your industry or What’s New in your product line. Whatever it is,
you should always make sure that it is of interest to your target market.
Again, you can ask your visitors if they would like to be notified when
updates are made to this section of your Web site. This once again gives
you permission to e-mail them and present them with new information
that might make them want to come back to your site again.
Figure 3.1. You can use a What’s New page to tell visitors about updates to
your company’s products or services.
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Web Site Elements That Keep ’Em Coming Back 35
Free Stuff—Everyone Loves It
Giving things away is a great way to increase traffic—everybody likes a
freebie. If you give something different away each week, you are sure to
have a steady stream of repeat traffic. When you have freebies or giveaways
on your site, your pages can also be listed and linked from the
many sites on the Internet that list places where people can receive free
stuff. To find these listings of free stuff, simply go to a search engine and
do a search on “Free Stuff Index” or “Free Stuff Links.” You will be
amazed at how many people are giving things away online.
You don’t have to give something away to everyone. You could simply
have a drawing every week. You could then ask entrants if they
would like you to notify them of the winner, which again gives you
permission to e-mail them. An example of a site that has a featured
contest is Redken (see Figure 3.2).
If you want to bring only people from your target market to your
site, then don’t give away mainstream items as screen savers, shareware
games, utilities, and so on. Try to give away something that only people
interested in your industry would want. If you don’t care what traffic
Figure 3.2. Redken has a featured contest and a weekly giveaway.
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36 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
comes your way, and any traffic is good traffic, then give away useful
things that everybody needs. Try to have your logo and URL displayed
on the item. For example, a neat screen saver can be made that displays
your logo and URL. When this is made available as a download, there is
no handling or shipping charges associated with it. If your freebie is
something that has your URL on it and is something that is generally
kept around a computer, it reminds and encourages people to visit your
site. A mouse pad displaying your URL is a good example.
You should change your freebie often and let your site visitors know
how often you do this. Something like “We change our free offer every
single week! Keep checking back” or “Click here to be notified by e-mail
when we update” also works well.
Freebies provide ideal viral marketing opportunities as well. Have a
“Tell a friend about this” button near the freebie so site visitors can
quickly and easily tell their friends.
Give a Taste of Your Product with Sample Giveaways
Use a traditional marketing approach and give away free samples of
your product from your Web site. After giving away the samples, follow
up with an e-mail. Ask the people who received a sample what they
thought of it, if they had any problems, and if they have any questions.
Direct the samplers back to your Web site for more information and
discounts on purchasing the regular version of the product. If you have
a number of products, you might consider alternating your free samples.
Ask if visitors would like to be notified by e-mail when you change your
free sample. This gives you permission to e-mail the visitors on a regular
basis to remind them about the sample. You also get to update them
with new information regarding your Web site, your products, or your
company. This can entice them to visit your site again. Make sure you
include your signature file in your e-mail message.
Free samples also provide a great viral marketing opportunity.
Everyone Wants the Best Price—Coupons and Discounts
Offer coupons and discount vouchers that can be printed from your
site. You can change the coupon daily or weekly to encourage repeat
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Web Site Elements That Keep ’Em Coming Back 37
visits. People will come back to your site again and again if they know
they can find good deals there. This is a great strategy to use in conjunction
with a free sample giveaway. If people liked the sample, give them
a coupon to purchase the regular version at a discount. If they like the
regular version, they may purchase it again at full price or recommend
the product to a friend. You can also ask people if they want to be
notified by e-mail when you update the coupons on your Web site. This
once again gives you the opportunity to present them with new information
about your business. Offering coupons is a great idea if you
have a physical location as well as a Web site. These can be your loss
leader to get customers to come into your store.
You can develop a coupon banner ad that links to your site, where
the coupon can be printed. The banner ads should be placed on sites
frequented by your target market. You can trade coupons with
noncompeting sites that target the same market you do. Your coupon
on their site links to your site, and their coupon on your site links to
their site.
By offering coupons from your Web site, you also cut down your
overhead cost because people are printing the coupons on their own
printers, thus not using your paper. Remember that you should have
terms and conditions on the coupons that are available for printing. For
example, you should have an expiration date. Someone could print a
coupon, then visit your store in a year and try to use it. You should try
to have the expiration date close to the release of the coupon. This will
entice the visitor to use the coupon more quickly and then come back
for more coupons.
We are seeing an increase in the number of coupon-related sites
that are appearing on the Internet. CoolSavings.com (http://www.
coolsavings.com) is an online coupon network where businesses can
advertise and place coupons for their products and services, as seen in
Figure 3.3. Sites like this are a good way to promote your business, for
they receive a high amount of traffic. Another benefit is that the traffic
is already in a buying mood. CoolSavings.com has been a household
name since it launched its national advertising campaign in the
late 1990s. If you offer coupons from your site, it benefits you to be
listed on these types of sites. If you are not aiming for a national appeal,
you should search to find out if there are coupon networks in the
geographic location that you are targeting (see Figure 3.4). Other coupon
sites are listed in the Internet Resources section at the end of this
chapter. There are meta-indexes to sites with coupons or discounts
from which you can be linked for greater exposure.
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38 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
Figure 3.3. CoolSavings.com offers coupons from businesses to people all
over the United States.
Figure 3.4. The Coupon Network offers coupons and deals for specific
geographic regions.
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Web Site Elements That Keep ’Em Coming Back 39
Coupons provide ideal viral marketing opportunities—for example,
“Send this coupon to a friend.”
Specials and Promotions
Everyone likes to get a deal. You might consider having a special promotions
section on your Web site. You’ll want to change your promotion
fairly frequently and let your site visitors know: “We change our
specials every week. Bookmark our site and keep checking back!”
You might employ permission marketing here as well: “We change
our specials every week. Click here if you’d like to be notified when we
update” or “Click here to receive our e-specials weekly.” If you send
e-specials via e-mail, make sure you give them a reason to visit your site
and provide the appropriate hypertext links in the e-mail.
Make it easy to have your site visitors tell their friends about your
specials. Have a “Tell a friend about this special” button placed next to
each one of your special promotions. You can leverage the viral marketing
with an incentive: “Tell three friends about our special and be included
in a drawing for (something appropriate for your target market).”
A Calendar of Events Keeps Visitors Informed
A comprehensive, current calendar of events related to your company
or your industry can encourage repeat visits. A sample calendar is shown
in Figure 3.5. Your calendar should always be kept up to date and be of
value to your readers. A calendar of events for a band might show their
scheduled appearances. A calendar of events of what is going on in your
business community is very appropriate for a Chamber of Commerce
or Board of Trade site. This can encourage a lot of repeat traffic as long
as the calendar is kept current and complete. Calendars of events are
also appropriate on community sites, because residents access these calendars
often to stay current. Again, you can ask people if they’d like to
be notified via e-mail when you update your calendar of events.
If you have a great calendar of events, you can encourage others to
use it by providing a link to it from their Web site. This offer works well
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40 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site
because you are providing them with great content that is kept current
and they are providing you with traffic.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to develop your own calendar
of events but one would be great content for your site, you might
provide a link from your Web site to a calendar you consider top-notch.
If you do this, make sure your link opens a new browser window rather
than takes the visitor from your site to the referred site.
Luring Customers with Contests and Competitions
Contests and competitions are great traffic builders. Some sites hold
regular contests on a weekly or monthly basis to generate repeat visitors.
Holding contests is also a great way to find out about your target
market by requesting information on the entry form.
What type of contest you hold depends upon your Internet marketing
objectives. If you want to attract as many people as possible to your
site regardless of who they are, then offer items such as money, trips,
cars, computers, and so on, as in Figures 3.6 and 3.7. If you want to