How to Increase Your Clicking Traffic

Is your website feeling a little lonely lately? Are you like the webmaster who sees how his site is all dressed up for prospects to drop in for a visit … with oh, so much to tell, so much to share… and yet it just sits there hoping someone will enter its awesome URL in the browser field?

Well, there’s certainly more than one way to win customers and influence prospects in the online marketplace. And one of the most effective strategies for getting people to click through to your site is through the use of effective banner ads. (“Effective” being the most important word in that sentence.)

Banner ads should be at the forefront of your marketing strategies in order to match your site with the prospects it deserves – and not as an afterthought that’s thrown together quickly. After all, your goal is not just “Let’s add some banner ads,” but to look for ways of creating highly effective banner ads that will get you clicks. To do so, ask yourself these questions:

Where is your traffic coming from? Assuming you’re already using banner ads but want to make them more effective, study what’s happening with what you’re already doing. Give a close look to your metrics to understand the traffic your ads are currently generating. Where is it coming from and what can you learn from these activities?

Where is your traffic going? You surely want to know not just where your visitors are coming from but where they are going on your site. For example, if your banner ad directs to a lead-capture form, the call to action may be: “request a free estimate now.” Or if you’re leading to an informational online video, your call to action may be, “learn more.” Look for what you can learn from what’s taking place on your site.

How well do your ads communicate value? Though not in these words, effectiveness is determined by a prospect’s ability to answer this basic question: “If I’m your ideal prospect, why should I click on your ad rather than any of your competitors’ ads?” Effective banner ads answer this question sufficiently; ineffective banner ads under perform. Keep your message focused on your prospects, so your website will be lonely no more.

Successful Strategies Preferred

Apparently, not all customer retention strategies are successful. This news came from research released by Acxiom, Loyalty 360 in which 84 percent of companies said that they make customer retention marketing strategies a part of their campaigns.

This was a survey of 129 executives – not exactly the same as surveying the world. Still, they lacked satisfaction. Only about half – 48.8 percent – believe their strategies are effective; 12 percent didn’t believe they worked at all. Reasons determined? Lack of budget and effort. Unfocused strategies.

So what can you do to make sure your customer retention strategies are proven successful? Don’t take the lead of those 129 executives. Instead, point your focus to the areas they were missing: budget and strategy.

Customer retention, if it is to be a “strategy,” must involve: planning, tactics, application, measurement. Planning also involves budgeting. For example, in our current budgeting model for the moderate marketer (invests 6-8 percent of sales in marketing), 11 percent of that should go towards customer retention.

The average business loses 20 percent of its customers each year (for some it’s as high as 80 percent) just because they didn’t tend to the relationships. For contractors, tending to relationships looks something like this: 

·         Thank you cards, calls, emails after service/installation

·         Newsletters with helpful home content

·         Maintenance agreements to keep you “economically” connected

·         Reactivation letters to bring the straying back into the fold

·         Referral requests to bring more in

·         Social media content/interaction to stay connected and in sight

Keep this in mind: A business that retains 80 percent of its customers each year, and adds new customers at a rate of 20%, has no growth. But if it retains 90 percent and adds 20 percent, it has 10 percent growth which, in seven years, doubles their customer base. How’s that sound?

Let a Hudson, Ink Marketing Coach help your business. Email one today at coaches@hudsonink.com.