9 Smart and Sticky Website Tips (Part 6)

In the last post, we talked about having stickiness in your website.  This means you have some attractive offer that compels a visitor to want to give you their name and email address for the offer.  Before we talk about the 4th and final ingredient of a successful website, let's talk about other ways to make sure people want to stay at our website.

Did you know that you have approximately 7 seconds to capture a visitor's interest once they get to your website?  This means you have to IMMEDIATELY grab them.  How do you do this?

First, you want to make sure your website is tuned into the WIIFM.  Yes, What's In It For Me!  This means you are talking about what you can do for your target market and how you can help them.  If you are talking about how long you have been in business and how many awards you have won, no one cares.  Did you notice that I also said "what you can do for your TARGET MARKET" not any and everyone? 

Tip#7 Go back and review your content.  Can you easily tell who your target market is?  Make it easy to understand who you help and how you help them.  Be specific. 

Second, look at your pictures.  Do they tell a great story?  Pictures are literally worth a thousand words online.  I went to a site where I saw a bunch of dogs.  Figured the site could be about dog grooming, dog adoption, dog walking, etc.  If the website owner would have put a picture of a dog digging up a yard and the owner standing next to the dog with an awful face with a label, "before" and then put a picture of the owner holding up his hand (like a stop signal) and the dog sitting in front of the owner with a label, "after".  I could instantly see this was about dog training or dog obedience. 

Tip #8 Don't use pictures for the sake of using pictures.  Use them to tell a story.  Go through your website and see how you can integrate pictures that tell your target market a great story.

Third, every page should have a clear call to action.  Meaning, you are inviting your visitors to take the next step with you.  This might be "Call today for your no obligation review" or "Email us now to find out how you can qualify for a $300 evaluation for FREE"

Finally, less is more.  This means, find the least amount of words to say what you want to say.  A website is NOT a blog.  You should not be writing novels.  A good rule of thumb - content should not take more than a minute to read.  The idea of a website is to tease a visitor enough so that they want to say "Yes....tell me more" or "Yes...I can see how you might be able to help me, let's talk.

By taking a closer look at what you are saying and who you are saying it to, will help you create clarity with your website.  The more targeted the message, the more results you will get. 

The idea is to "keep 'em coming back again and again" so they eventually buy from you.  If you information overload them right from the beginning, you may lose them forever.  Any online marketing should be done in Sound Bites (Bytes).  Meaning, short and to the point.

In the next post we will talk about how to maximize all the tips so far and you will be given the last tip.  What challenges are you having with your website?  What challenges have you had with other websites?