Most of the posts that you read online are about how to increase your traffic and number of visitors, or how to get more clients. But despite the fact that this is a valid strategy, it shouldn’t be the only one. Converting new visitors into returning ones is as important as such, and, more than that, it is usually cheaper than the first option.
It is also necessary to highlight that new visitors hardly are those who will buy anything from you. They just came across your website or blog and might need a second visit so to decide to take their credit cards out of their wallets. So maintaining a relationship with your audience might be just what you need so to increase your sales and turn your leads into profit.
Offer them an incentive
Sometimes, all that takes is to give them a little incentive. Offering discounts or promo codes to your returning visitors might be just enough so they can feel special and more likely to buy your product or service.
But you don’t want that your promotion ends up creating jealousy among your new customers, so you need to make sure that only your returning ones will have access to it. And one of the ways to do it is by using AddThis Audience Targeting tool, which allows you to deliver specific messages to each visitor type.
Ask them to join your email newsletter
A proven way to convert new visitors into returning ones is by asking them to join your email newsletter. They will get to know when you have new content and click to find out more about it considering that they were interested in it in the first place. And it will do wonders to your marketing strategy.
Here again, you can create specific newsletters to your returning visitors based on the content that they have searched for in their previous visits. It will also allow you to nurture your inner entrepreneur by keeping in touch with them so you can generate leads that you will convert into sales in the future.
Try a retargeting campaign
A Retargeting Campaign is one that only target people who have already been to your website or blog. They already know your brand, your product or service, leaving you with the impression that they are likely to be happy to hear from you again. This kind of campaign works by cookies that allows your retargeting system to identify your returning visitors when they connect to the networks where you are displaying ads on. This way your ads are shown to them and to them only.
In other words, instead of wasting money aimlessly spreading ads over the internet to a broad audience, retargeting marketing provides you with reliable data that will narrow and optimise your targets. And considering the fact that you decided to deal only with people who has already visited your website, you are more likely to make money out of your campaign.
Create a challenge or contest
People love a challenge, a contest, an incomplete puzzle. They feel compelled to join in for the fun of it and for the possibility to test themselves. So creating something around it is a good way to convert new visitors into returning ones. They will come back to post their answers, or whatever you have asked them to do, to check what their competitors have done so far, and to find out the results.
On the meantime, you can take the opportunity to offer new content, introduce your products or services and to get to know more about them. You will also have access to valuable data that they won’t usually share with you. It is a win-win scenario for everybody.
Make it all about the content
Except if you are running an online shop, your new visitors probably haven’t come across your website due to your products or services. They were looking for some kind of information and found your business as an answer to their needs.
So if instead of getting that answer, they find lots of ads trying to push them to buy whatever is it that you sell, they will run away from your website and never come back. Meaning that you should never try to hard-sell anything online (and possibly not even offline) if you want to increase the number of your returning visitors.
The bottom line
If you want to convert more and more new visitors into returning ones, you will be happy to know that it will cost you much less time and money than attracting more clients. All that you will need is to invest in tools that will give the data and the resources that you need so you can talk directly and exclusively to them.
You also should be prepared to give them a good reason to come back and to establish a reliable and convenient way to communicate regularly with you (and you with them). This way, the engagement between your target audience and your business will become stronger and you will see the benefits in your conversion metrics very soon.
