Back in the day, many dotcom companies burned through cash like crazy when they advertised (typically offline) to drive visitors to their website. This tended to generate a short-lived "sugar rush" of visitors who never came back or bought anything. The thinking was, "you need to keep content fresh to keep visitors interested and coming back for more".
For some websites this is certainly the case (news sites, for example). However, this is not true for many other types of websites.
Most of the lead generation websites we build for clients are specifically for the purposes of new client acquisition. Once a prospect has found your website and becomes a client, there may not be any pressing need to keep your content "fresh" in order to drive repeat visits - your website has already done it's primary job.
One of the adages often repeated in the marketing world is that it takes seven contacts to make a conversion; but in reality, this depends on the nature of the product or service on offer. The more complex (or expensive) the wares, the more visits it will usually take to make a conversion.
Using a lead capture technique is the best way to make conversions from these repeat visitors. This can be a newsletter (with opt-in form) or in the form of providing contact information in return for a freebie such as a report, whitepaper or e-book.
These methods work in two ways. Not only do your capture leads which you can they keep in contact with, but you also have an opportunity to educate them on your product or service. By keeping in contact with your prospects, you'll be able to bring them back for repeated visits to your site.
This is a strategy we use often; not only on client's websites but on our own as well. Whether a lead capture strategy is needed or not depends largely on how difficult it is for your website to convert visitors to customers.
However, don't think that adding new content to your website doesn't matter; it's just not the ONLY thing that matters.
Keeping your content fresh can do great things for websites, particularly niche focused websites. Adding informative, niche-driven content can help these websites to establish themselves as authoritative sources of information. If your site is one of these, then a dedicated articles section may be very helpful in getting repeat traffic.
That's a fantastic position to be in, but it does require work. You need to write the articles (or have someone write them for you) and update them on a regular basis. And there's no guaranteed payoff.
A lot of business owners want to incorporate a section along the lines of "latest news" into their sites to encourage repeat visitors. For two reasons, I discourage this:
1. Unless you are a genuine authority in your field, these sections tend not to be all that informative or interesting to prospective customers.
2. "Latest News" requires regular updating. Most often these updates aren't made. How often have you seen a "Latest News" page that hasn't been updated for a coupla years?
The message here is to plan ahead. If you're building a website which will need weekly updates, then make sure that the resources are in place ahead of time so this will be done. If you can't make sure that this gets done, low maintenance is the way to go. - 15254
For some websites this is certainly the case (news sites, for example). However, this is not true for many other types of websites.
Most of the lead generation websites we build for clients are specifically for the purposes of new client acquisition. Once a prospect has found your website and becomes a client, there may not be any pressing need to keep your content "fresh" in order to drive repeat visits - your website has already done it's primary job.
One of the adages often repeated in the marketing world is that it takes seven contacts to make a conversion; but in reality, this depends on the nature of the product or service on offer. The more complex (or expensive) the wares, the more visits it will usually take to make a conversion.
Using a lead capture technique is the best way to make conversions from these repeat visitors. This can be a newsletter (with opt-in form) or in the form of providing contact information in return for a freebie such as a report, whitepaper or e-book.
These methods work in two ways. Not only do your capture leads which you can they keep in contact with, but you also have an opportunity to educate them on your product or service. By keeping in contact with your prospects, you'll be able to bring them back for repeated visits to your site.
This is a strategy we use often; not only on client's websites but on our own as well. Whether a lead capture strategy is needed or not depends largely on how difficult it is for your website to convert visitors to customers.
However, don't think that adding new content to your website doesn't matter; it's just not the ONLY thing that matters.
Keeping your content fresh can do great things for websites, particularly niche focused websites. Adding informative, niche-driven content can help these websites to establish themselves as authoritative sources of information. If your site is one of these, then a dedicated articles section may be very helpful in getting repeat traffic.
That's a fantastic position to be in, but it does require work. You need to write the articles (or have someone write them for you) and update them on a regular basis. And there's no guaranteed payoff.
A lot of business owners want to incorporate a section along the lines of "latest news" into their sites to encourage repeat visitors. For two reasons, I discourage this:
1. Unless you are a genuine authority in your field, these sections tend not to be all that informative or interesting to prospective customers.
2. "Latest News" requires regular updating. Most often these updates aren't made. How often have you seen a "Latest News" page that hasn't been updated for a coupla years?
The message here is to plan ahead. If you're building a website which will need weekly updates, then make sure that the resources are in place ahead of time so this will be done. If you can't make sure that this gets done, low maintenance is the way to go. - 15254
About the Author:
Author: David B. Ascot's expertise is in increasing sales lead generation results and your business can benefit from his winning strategies of online lead generation.
