It is less work to keep current visitors returning then to try to find new customers. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:
1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox
If you have a strong niche website this tactic works very well. People are very fanatical about their hobbies or even their pets and boy, do they love talking about them. When you start a forum or chatroom you are providing your visitors a place to connect with other people with the same interest and interact with their peers — all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost every day.
2) Start a Blog
Having a blog on your site, especially if it is an ecommerce site, and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.
3) Post a Poll
Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.
4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games
Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.
5) Update frequently with fresh content
Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. Utilize your RSS feeds and Google Readers to be the first to get breaking news and report on it. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites and switch things up here and there to check your own conversion rates.
6) Announce your latest Awards
Have you received any award nominations or won an award? Be sure to make a big deal of it! This will also help build your credibility for new visitors.
7) Give away Freebies
Enough said, everyone loves freebies and if you offer a good free resource list or free quality ebooks and people will check back for more. Put your autoresponder to work and offer a free ecourse on how to use one of your products!
7) Give readers other ways of connecting
The big world of the web can be a lonely place, that’s why social media is so popular- people love to connect! Make sure you give visitors to your site an easy way to find you in other social media communities.
Ask Questions
I know you put a poll on your site like above, but now draw customers into the true beauty of a blog and make it interactive. Ask them questions, ask them for feedback and let them leave a comment. Still not getting any response? Post something controversial about one of the hot topics in the social sites, then bookmark it and let you are sure to spark some comments.
9) Personality
Don’t underestimate the value of your own personality and let it shine.
10) Return the Link Love
Pay attention to who is commenting on your blog and return the favor. Visit their site and leave them a comment or better yet, post about them ON your site.
Online Business Blogging