Most businesses today will have some form of online presence; it is really difficult today for a business to get by without at least a website. Businesses do tend to have strategies designed to drive traffic to their websites, but that is simply half the battle. Think about it, do you see any results from the traffic that your website sees? If not, you might have a problem keeping the visitors engaged. This is precisely why we have put together the following article for you; so, keep reading for more.

Useful Content

If you want to keep visitors to your website engaged, it sounds obvious, but you simply need to give them something to keep them entertained. To that end, a lot of businesses choose to publish a blog on their site. Truthfully, producing a blog is a really great way to drive engagement, although, it does hinge on the content that you produce. Ideally, you will want to produce content that your audience will find useful. The idea being that your audience begins to view you as a trusted source of information, ensuring repeat visits. You should also think about how ‘shareable’ the content is because if your audience starts to share your content, then it could attract more users to the site and keep current users coming back.

Mailing List

One-off visits to your site are one thing; but, if you want to keep potential customers coming back and make sure they are engaged when they do, then it would make sense to build a community. You can do this by developing a mailing list. All you need to do is to collect email addresses. If you have a new product, offer, sale or whatever the case may be, you can email interest customers directly to make them aware. They are then more likely to visit your site and check out whatever it is that you are offering. Most businesses tend to use pop-ups to grow their mailing list, so that is an option you could explore. Remember, it is important that you offer an opt-out option, not all visitors to your site will want to sign up.

Internal Links

One of the best ways to keep the visitors to your site engaged is to suggest other content to them. Using internal links to other relevant content is a great way to keep their attention, and luckily, it is really easy to do too. Think about the content that you can suggest to them; building internal links can take time, but they can also be incorporated naturally into blog posts. You could also list them at the bottom, have other similar products listed at the bottom of product pages, or even include them in pop-ups. The idea is that they should look natural and not annoy your consumers otherwise, the opposite could happen, and instead of driving engagement, you could turn them off.

Chatbox

Sometimes, potential customers have questions or queries that they would like answered before they commit to making a purchase. Consumers can have their queries addressed in real time; this really helps to ensure that they are more engaged with what they are seeing, and they are far more likely to convert. Now, this does depend on the efficacy of the chatbox. Consumers like to feel like they are talking to a real person, so if your chatbox is too robotic, it could put them off. That’s why it’s always a good idea to have a section on your website that informs customers of your phonelines, so that they can speak to real people. A live receptionist service, such as the one offered by Signpost, allows you to have a friendly voice on the line to meet customer queries. These receptionists can then schedule appointments on your behalf, and provide suitable FAQ responses!

Freebies/Incentives

Consumers are much more likely to remain engaged and even make a purchase when they are incentivized to do so. Think about how you can offer visitors to your site an incentive to make a purchase. You could offer visitors to your site a discount, a free gift with purchase or even the opportunity to access a free trial – if it makes sense for the business, of course. The first two are only available when a purchase is made therefore keeping consumers engaged until this point. A free trial does often convert into a paying consumer, but not always, which is something to bear in mind.

Social Media

Finally, a great way to boost engagement on your website is to embed your social media feeds into it. You simply have to find the right plug-in that allows you to embed the social media platform of your choice. Whether that is Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or even Pinterest. You might also be able to embed more than one. If you are at a loss, then you can always reach out to a web designer for help – if you have the budget to do so. This helps to ensure that your website always has fresh content. Your consumers are also able to interact with your social media posts from your website, which can help to get them to stick around longer than they otherwise would.

The Bottom Line

Before you implement any of the ideas listed above, you need to establish a baseline. How long do users spend on your site usually? You can then come up with a few different customer engagement strategies; try not to launch all of them at once. You don’t want to overwhelm users. It also makes sense to analyze the data after each launch to see what works and what doesn’t. Improving customer engagement tends to be an ongoing process, so be sure to keep this in mind.