Did you know that most of your visitors probably never go
beyond your homepage? And a lot of them leave within ten
seconds of hitting your homepage, NEVER to return again?
These are wasted visitors, and you must do everything
possible to reduce the waste, or you'll simply miss out on
a great amount of profits.
Luckily, there are a couple of effective tactics you can
employ to prevent visitors turning their backs on your site.
I've outlined ten of them in this article. The basic strategy
is two-fold: 1) Trying to keep people on your site 2) Getting
them to subscribe to your mailing list.
Here we go:
1. Make it a priority to collect opt-in email addresses
Your number one marketing priority on the Web should be to
build your opt-in mailing list. This is where most of your
customers will come from. And the best thing is, once they're
on your list you can sell to them over and over. Include a
subscription form for your ezine on EVERY page of your Web
site (check out my own site for an example of this - pay
attention to the left hand margin).
2. Put up testimonials
Put up a couple of shining testimonials right on your
homepage. Interject your homepage copy with a couple of these
testimonials. Add the names and email addresses of the
persons who wrote the testimonial to boost credibility (ask
them first though). Remember: NEVER fake a testimonial! Not
only is it unethical, but it'll show through. And if I'm not
mistaken, it is also an illegal practice.
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3. Don't link out on your homepage
Keep ALL links on your homepage internal. In other words,
don't give visitors a way out so they wont leave as soon as
they arrive.
4. Make your headline stand out
Your homepage headline should be in large font type, and very
attention grabbing, while at the same time hype-free. Study
some great sales letters you've come across on the Web.
You'll soon realize that one of the things they all have in
common is a headline that just makes you WANT to know more
about whatever product/service is being offered.
5. Work on your copy
The most powerful selling tool at your disposal are WORDS.
You need to get your copy perfectly tight (especially the
homepage). This is not an overnight process. It takes several
weeks (and even longer) of trial and error to get it right.
Check your log files after each change to find out how many
people leave your site via your homepage. Make it your
mission to reduce this number, until you've hit such
"tightness" that you can't get it any better. Take some free
online copy writing courses to learn how to improve your copy
(I've listed a couple on my site). Whatever you do, write for
your TARGET audience!
6. Don't overwhelm with too many links
Keep links to a minimum on your navigation bar - at most
nine. In fact, keep links to a minimum all across your site.
Don't overwhelm your visitor with too many choices ... gently,
but firmly guide them towards your "action pages" (order
page, newsletter subscription page, etc.).
7. Remove banners (from homepage at least)
I've removed all banner ads from my Web site. In my opinion
they just take up space, make pages load slower, and look
rather ugly... without doing any good. You might feel that
eliminating banners might be too drastic a move for yourself,
but let me ask you this: how often do YOU click on banner
ads?
Note: Definitely remove banners from your homepage. The job
of your homepage is to get visitors interested in your site
and explore deeper, not to display banner ads which take
visitors away.
8. Ask for a bookmark
Put up a simple attentive graphic that asks people to
bookmark your site. You'd be surprised how many people
will listen.
9. Open external links in a new window
In your <A HREF> tag, simply put TARGET="new". This will open
the link in a new window. When your visitors are done and
close that window, they'll return back to your site. The full
HTML looks like this:
<a href="http://www.anysite.com" target="new">click here</a>
(Note: the contents within TARGET can be anything - doesn't
have to be "new").
10. Use pop-ups on exit
This is a technique I've used with great success on my own
site. Set up some JavaScript code that opens a pop-up window
when a visitor LEAVES your homepage, where you offer a
subscription to your ezine. This won't annoy them as an
on-entry pop-up would, and will reclaim a lot of visitors
that would have just drifted away had it not been for the
pop-up. I really recommend you use a cookie to prevent the
pop-up window loading for repeat visitors. Go to any
JavaScript resource site and you'll find cut-and-paste code
you can use on your own site.
