A much undervalued area of online marketing is getting people to visit your site again and again. Some of the highest traffic websites on the internet do so by creating a community or offering new and interesting content. If every time someone comes to your website, it's the same old thing, then they will find more interesting sites.
I totally agree with you raju! A site should provided an interesting and always updated content for visitors to come back. Some popular examples are forums and blogs...
You can also provide a service that needs users to login to use it online...
To me, it sounds easy to encourage your visitors to come back, but when it comes to actual implementation, it seems alot harder. I believe these are the keys to attract your visitors to come back:
1. Excellent and up to date site content
2. Good strong community
3. Interactive components
4. Nice and easy to navigate site
Everything you guys have said is completely true! I agree that content on the site should be updated frequently. It is proven system!
Retention rate is crucial so offer lot of things that people like to see..
1. Prizes
2. Free giveaways
3. Run contests
4. Reward them for referrals etc..
As we have heard before, content is king. Updating and adding fresh content regularly brings back repeat visitors.
newsletters telling previous visitors that there is somethign going on on the website that they have not seen yet works for me,
Just write an original article each month, add it to your site, and distribute it effectively. It works
Julian
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned blogs yet. Ooops. There, now I have. I've been hearing BLOGS shouted from the rooftops so much lately that just hearing that recently, just hearing it or reading it, BLOG, started making me more than a little queasy.
But, that has all, quite suddenly and dramatically changed for me recently. So, I thought I should mention it here. I'm a new believer in using blogs for repeat visitors now after experiencing the James Brausch blog. Apparently, when doing it right, the level of interaction you can achieve with your customers in a blog is astounding. He makes it seem easy to have it all: Excellent and up to date site content, a strong community, a nice and easy to navigate site, holding contests, having discussions, giveaways, prizes... easy and all from one place. How cool is that? And it must be way less work than moderating forums(yuck).
I agree that blogs work. The problem lately has been all of the spam, so I've had to shut comments off on my blogs. One afternoon I had over 700 automated spam comments -- it was a nightmare!
Chris
Wow. I'd be interested in hearing the topic that got you that many replies. Oh, ooops. I just realized you said "automated spam" replies. That sucks. Why in the world would anyone bother?