Why You Still Need a Business Card in 2021

While some might argue that business cards are no longer relevant in our increasingly digital world, the same argument has been made about brochures and print magazines, which continue to be popular amongst consumers and business people. In this article, we look at why business cards remain a valuable tool for marketing and communication.

Here’s a typical scenario—you meet a potential customer at a trade show and agree to exchange contact information. You open your contacts app and ask for their name, mobile number, and email. It’s a noisy hall, and you’re not sure you’ve entered their name correctly. Did you get their email address right? Did you remember to save the contact in your app? The whole exchange is clumsy and time-consuming. Sure, you could share your contact details over Bluetooth, but many people are wary of receiving files on their phone from someone they’ve likely just met.

By contrast, the mutual exchange of business cards takes seconds and guarantees both you and they have the correct contact information in an attractive, wallet-friendly format. When someone presents you with their business card, being able to reciprocate with your own card undoubtedly helps the business relationship get off to the best possible start.

Also, having printed business cards doesn’t mean you can’t embrace digital technology. A QR code printed on the back can be easily scanned (something we’ve all gotten used to over the past year!), directing users to your online profile, company homepage, or e-commerce site.

What a business card says about your business

Business cards help reinforce your brand, displaying your logo, company byline, or tagline. By handing out a professionally designed and printed business card, you demonstrate that your company is established and credible. A memorable slogan on your card can be a real conversation starter too, allowing you to explain your business to a potential customer.

Another undeniable benefit of a printed business card is the opportunity to add extra information on the back, such as an appointment time, a thank you note, or even a quick quote. Business cards can be slipped in with gifts or left as a calling card.

Modern digital printing techniques allow for short print runs, so business cards can be produced in smaller batches and adapted to suit any changes to your business. You may wish to have special cards created for a large event or promotion, complete with a discount code. So your business card not only delivers your company’s information, it has a tangible value that will encourage the receiver to keep the card for longer.

What are the correct business card dimensions?

While business card dimensions are not as critical as they used to be, many people still use Filofax sleeves or desktop Rolodexes to store their important contacts. It’s worth sticking to a standard business card size such as 90 x 55 millimetres or 86 x 55 millimetres.  This new, smaller size fits better into wallets and has become a print standard.

Business card size might be fairly standard, but there are many ways to add impact through good design, quality print materials, and colour choice. Ensure your card design is consistent with your brand by using the same artwork, colour palette and typefaces.

Business cards remain a vital first point of contact with potential customers—this small printed card may be the first exposure they have to your company! So it pays to make a good first impression. Here at Activate Design, we can help you put together a complete brand portfolio, including print and digital assets.

Contact our team to start designing your business cards now!

Every website owner dreams of having a first-page ranking in Google. 

However, good content alone won’t bring you there. With thousands of competitors on the internet, no matter how good your content is, it won’t matter if your target audience can’t find it. 

Therefore, applying Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) practices are essential. Through strategic planning, and proper implementation your website rank will improve over time.

There are SEO writing services you can access online. However, if you’re looking for more ways to improve content yourself and reach that sweet first-page spot, here are a few SEO tips to help you:

Always Remember The FAT rule, to Create Discoverable Content

Keep in mind that not all keywords fit the type of content you want to create. For example, you want to write a food blog article about the history of spaghetti. 

While the keyword “spaghetti” might be well-searched, the first things that will appear on the search engine will most likely be recipes—not informative history blogs. 

From this example, you can see how important it is to write the corresponding content specific keywords demand. This concept is also called search intent. 

To help you get a better grasp of how it works, consider the FAT rule:

• F - Content Format. Commonly used in informational content, knowing the right content format can help you in structuring your article. Some of the common examples include how-to lists, news articles, and opinion pieces. For example, any blog post which aims to rank products will most likely be a listicle with reviews.
• A - Content Angle. The content angle refers to how your content is framed. For example, if you want to make a how-to article about programming, you can tag it as “beginner-friendly” or “introductory.” Considering this can help you zone in your target audience and help them find your work.
• T - Content Type. Content usually falls under five types: product pages, category, blog posts, landing pages, and videos. Before creating content, make sure to look up the keyword first and see what kind of content search engines rank high.
  Overall, knowing what kind of article to make and how to frame it will significantly help you make the right content. Make sure to keep the FAT rule in mind for your next work.

Use the Inverted Pyramid Method

If you’re familiar with journalism or marketing concepts, you’ve most probably heard of the term “inverted pyramid method.” 

The main idea behind this method is to lay down all the principal ideas and information first before the non-essential details. From an SEO perspective, this means giving your reader an immediate answer or a rundown of information the article provides. 

With a well-crafted intro, you can immediately engage with your readers and convince them to stay for the rest of the article, thus increasing ‘dwell’ time. 

To use this method, make sure to mention all the preferred keywords within the first paragraph. Readers often skim over the first few paragraphs, looking for keywords, before ascertaining that they want to read the article entirely. 

Lay down the principal ideas clearly and concisely, then grab their attention by convincing them that your blog, review, or list offers the information they seek. 

Having established all the principal ideas, you can now move on to laying out the details.

Break Down the Information

Structure is a crucial element in creating good content. Oftentimes, when website visitors see a long block of text, they don’t bother reading it. The same goes for writing. 

If your language is not accessible, they just tap the back button and check other sites. To avoid this problem, you need to break down the information you’re offering—both literally and visually. 

Here are some tips to help you achieve that:

Add Content Breaks

The importance of breaks cannot be stressed enough. 

Similar to the act of breathing, your work needs to exhale at some points as well. The main idea behind them is to help and give time for the reader to process the information.

Breaks comes in different forms, including:

• Proper spacing between paragraphs and sections
• Multimedia (i.e. images, videos, GIF)
• Annotations (i.e. quotes, sidenotes)
• Change in structure (i.e. bullet points, numbered items)

All in all, breaks help keep your readers engaged throughout your work. The internet is a fast-paced world. 

To help ensure that your readers stay throughout the whole article or video, give them breaks for a breather.

Avoid Complicated Sentences and Words

Even if your article is properly structured and visually readable, it doesn’t matter if readers can’t understand what you’re trying to say. 

Some of the bad habits writers tend to fall into include:

• Complicated or archaic words
• Wandering train of thought
• Exceedingly long sentences
• Over-explained concepts or ideas

Of course, it also depends on the specific niche you’re targeting. 

Generally, however, people prefer to get the information as quickly as possible. Hence, keep your sentences brief and to-the-point. 

To conclude, there are a lot of things you need to consider when writing content, and perhaps SEO does make it more complicated. However, it is also a rewarding practice. Several websites utilise SEO to improve their rankings, and that is possible with your website as well. 

Utilise these tips and start your website’s journey to the first page.

Pandemic or no pandemic, keeping your digital content curated and relevant remains essential for business success. 

In fact, it can even be argued that it’s even more important to pay attention to what you post online during difficult times. You can’t just “trendjack” for the sake of likes, shares, and comments.

While it can boost your traffic and engagement, it can also harm your long-term credibility. That being said, here are a few suggestions on how to adapt your online content, keeping it sensitive, tasteful, and relevant during the pandemic:

Be Mindful of the Design Elements

Brands with a fun, playful identity might find it difficult to create relevant content using the same vibe. However, it’s not impossible. 

Work with a reputable graphic design company so they can make creative, visually appealing graphics that are still on-brand but socially conscious. Remember: you want to increase engagement but you don’t want to be callous (or be branded as a bandwagoner).

It’s also a good idea to study the materials being released by your competitors and the response to such content. 

Pay special attention to colour schemes, typefaces, and visual elements such as icons. This way, you know what kinds of materials to create in order to get your desired results.

Strike a Balance Between Timeless And Trending

In just a few short months, the pandemic has changed everyone’s lives. Nevertheless, it will still end sometime in the future. 

With regards to the pandemic, people may even feel that they’re “over it” and are already starting to move on. As such, you need to strike a careful balance between pandemic-related content and evergreen ones. 

You can’t talk about COVID-19 on all your posts; it can get tiring, annoying, or even depressing for your followers. In addition, people will become less and less interested in such topics as things slowly get back to normal.

If you don’t have one yet, create a content marketing calendar and allocate a smaller portion of it to pandemic-related posts. The rest should be focused on creating what’s called evergreen content that could be useful and appealing to everyone (even non-followers) at all times. 

Doing this can help convert the interest and concern over COVID-19 into brand growth.

Don’t Force It

Modern consumers are smarter than you think. They can easily tell if you’re simply latching on to trending topics as a way to get more attention and sales. 

Indeed, it can help to exercise empathy and practise careful judgement when creating your content. In addition, be mindful of the way you craft your marketing materials (as discussed in the first point). 

You don’t want to suddenly become viral for all the wrong reasons.

There’s definitely something to be gained from riding the so-called trend waves, but make sure that the connection feels natural. 

Again, modern consumers are smart. Your current and potential customers may be turned off if your content is forced and comes off as insensitive. 

Pick the Aspects That Affect You Directly

Content that’s written from experience tends to offer more emotional resonance and communicate authenticity. After all, you can’t talk about what you don’t truly know. 

This can be critical for audience retention. In addition, it can also help your content stand out from other pandemic-related pieces your customers will undoubtedly see as well.

By writing about how the pandemic has affected your business and its employees, you aren’t just giving them a unique perspective into your business. 

You are also helping create a human connection that is sorely needed in these trying times.

Stay Positive

Sharing fear-based content may get you more impressions, but it can also be unsustainable. While it’s true that the pandemic is an extremely serious matter, remember that the media has been covering it extensively. 

There’s more than enough negativity and worst-case predictions going around. Thus, the interest in this kind of content can quickly dwindle out even before the pandemic ends. 

By keeping things upbeat and factual, you can create positive feelings around your brand even as the worst happens. This kind of emotional pull tends to last longer and may help your content do well beyond the pandemic. 

It will also be easier for you to transition back to positive, non-COVID-related posts if you maintain a more positive tone.

Remember that while content marketing could be heavily influenced by current events, they also aren’t the only factors that affect rankings and social impact. What matters most is that your content is relevant, helpful, and well-crafted. 

Pay attention to the sentiments of your target market and strategise accordingly. You should also keep in mind that major disasters will affect different organisations in different ways. 

Thus, there’s no cookie-cutter method of adapting. Besides, blindly following what other companies are doing can spell trouble for your brand. 

Study the trends and take account the unique position of your business to create your own opportunities.

Many newbies mistakenly think that content writing is as simple as typing up an article from scratch and publishing it immediately. However, effective content writing takes a lot of skill, patience, and determination.

If you’d like to master the art of writing great content, read on to learn some essential steps of the process you should pay extra attention to.

Study Your Target Audience

Writing content without a target audience is like writing a letter without a recipient in mind. Without a deep understanding of who you’re writing for, you’ll likely end up with haphazard and disjointed work that will miss the mark.

Study your ideal reader’s demographics, psychographics, and other characteristics. You can even go one step further and invite some of them for an interview. That way, you’ll be able to ask them directly for their thoughts on your subject matter, as well as any pain points that they may have.

With this, you can craft a content strategy that will appeal to them. This will also let you know what keywords you should incorporate into your content.

Pick the Right Tone

Many experts agree that writing in a friendly, conversational tone works best. By using simple and accessible language, you can make your content less intimidating to consume. This helps readers feel more like they’re talking to a friend rather than getting lectured by a teacher.

However, writing in a style that’s too casual may cause readers to not take you seriously. Certain audiences may also be more receptive to formal writing styles than others.

Trying to sound professional yet approachable can be difficult. But ultimately, the tone you choose will all depend on the type of language your audience uses. For instance, do they use particularly technical terms in their line of work? By using the same words as they do, you’ll instantly bridge the gap between yourself and your readers.

Brainstorm Topic Ideas

Once you know who you’re writing for, it’ll be easier to think of relevant topics. You can start off by using word association exercises such as mind maps to draw from your existing knowledge. This will help you come up with ideas by breaking broader concepts down into narrow topics.

Another effective way to generate ideas is to do some keyword research. This can give you insights on what topics people are interested in and what queries they’re searching for.

If you’re still out of ideas, you can always try repurposing older content that performed well in the past. You can even take it one step further by employing the Skyscraper Technique. This method works by researching existing well-received content and creating a new and improved version of it (making it ‘tower over’ the content it competes against).

Research Your Chosen Topic

Now that you know what to write about, make sure to thoroughly research your topic. This will not only help you build the foundations for your article, but it will also boost the validity of your content. 

Remember: your target audience likely already knows a thing or two about your subject matter. So they’ll immediately be able to tell if you’re making anything up.

That said, the quality of your research also matters. Look at the data, statistics, and other information you gather with a critical eye and determine whether the source is credible or not. That’s because flimsy citations can negatively impact people’s perception of your brand.

Outline Your Article

Have you ever stared at a blank document and struggled to get the words out onto the page?

If so, you’ve experienced writer’s block, wherein you find yourself unable to write for any reason. Often, content writers feel stuck because they aren’t sure how to start their article. Others feel paralyzed by fear that their output won’t be of good quality.

To overcome writer’s block, start by breaking the article down into manageable chunks. You can do this by crafting a simple outline. This will help you organise your thoughts so you can connect one idea to another.

Outlining will also allow you to identify potential gaps in your article that may require further research.

Edit and Proofread

After you’re done drafting your article, don’t publish it just yet as the first draft is often far from perfect. Instead, set the draft aside for some time first. By stepping away from the article, you’ll be able to come back to it later with a fresh and more objective perspective.

When you’re ready to edit, pay close attention to the general structure of your article. See if any sections need to be rearranged for a better flow from one idea to the next. You should also take note of any sentences that are either off-topic or don’t add any valuable information for the reader.

Finally, do a final skim of your article to correct any spelling and grammar mistakes.

These are just some of the most important parts of the content writing process to keep in mind. By taking the time to execute each step, you’ll be one step closer to creating engaging content that can hook your audience in.

Last month we looked at some of the reasons why, despite our best efforts, an internet marketing strategy fails. These include having a fuzzy goal, no research, poor audience targeting or not offering anything of value to your potential customers.

This month, we’ll look at six key internet marketing tactics that are guaranteed to succeed and encourage business growth.

1. Develop Your Own Website.

When developing internet marketing for a small business, control is a vital attribute. You can sell through Facebook, Amazon, eBay or Trade Me, but in doing so, you surrender a lot of control when you should be funnelling customers to your own website.

When building your site, it’s best to avoid website platforms like Wix and Weebly, that lock you into a restrictive CMS system . You need to retain complete control over your content and system, including the ability to easily transfer to another hosting service if required.

2. Use Sales-Oriented Landing Pages

Once you’ve got your website up and running smoothly, it’s time to focus on marketing strategies and tactics that will pull potential customers into your sales funnel. A well-designed sales landing page is a powerful tool that engages the customer and delivers an immediate Call to Action—what more could you want!

3. Be Mobile

Whether it’s your website, online ads or video content—make sure it’s mobile-friendly. You should tune the content to the needs of mobile users. For example, they’re more likely to be looking for easy to read information such as contact details or a location map, rather than blog posts or PDF downloads.

4. Get Personal

Through careful research, you can learn a lot more about your potential customers—who they are, their interests, their age group and other demographic indicators. Using this information, you can create tailored marketing strategies that are more personal and will resonate with your audience. At the same time, you will save money by not spending marketing budget where it has little chance of payback.

5. Be Visual

Videos, pictures, live streams and infographics all have an appeal because they convey instant information. Viewers can see your product or quickly get to grips with a concept. Visual content is much more likely to be shared, and customer-generated video content is highly effective on social media.

6. Be Technical

All these internet marketing tips play a crucial role in attracting customers and growing your business, but to be truly successful requires a technical approach. From web analytics and user testing to SEO strategies—the best way to create success is by studying and understanding your audience, and then creating a content plan for them, with a schedule and a clear set of goals. The best way to measure success is by studying the data that you gather as your campaign progresses. Are you reaching the people you need to reach?

Want to learn more about small business web marketing? Sign up for our free email course and receive actionable tips and strategies straight to your inbox.

Is it time to activate your business? We offer a complete website and digital marketing service for small businesses looking for a professional online presence at a reasonable cost. Contact us today!

Internet marketing techniques offer small businesses a viable means to compete with the big players and get noticed in the online marketplace. Well-designed digital marketing ideas and campaigns can make a massive difference to your company’s turnover, usually for less cost than traditional marketing strategies. But they’re not a guaranteed path to riches and sometimes they just plain...fail.

The internet is awash with sites and blogs promoting marketing tips for small business owners, with the promise of astounding results. In reality, any product marketing strategy requires research, planning and a clear set of goals to be successful. In our experience, there are six key reasons why internet marketing can fail to deliver results:

1. No clear goal

A vague and general goal such as “Driving more traffic to our website” may be achievable, but without clearly defining your target audience and what you want them to do, you could end up with lots of ‘tyre kickers’ and no sales to show for it. A well-defined goal helps you define the scope of your campaign, your audience and a measurable outcome (e.g. 20% more sales from women aged 20-35).

2. No Research/testing

Even with a set goal in mind, internet marketing strategies can fall over without some background research. Sometimes this fact-finding can reveal that your primary goal is flawed, which may seem like a setback, but is actually good news, as you can re-evaluate your strategy before any financial commitment is made. Once you’ve settled on a marketing approach, test it out on a small sample group that represents your audience, and gather their feedback. Use this information to refine your marketing content.

3. Poor audience targeting

Your marketing goal may be to attract more subscribers to your mailing list. An incorrectly targeted campaign could see you gain many subscribers, but very few genuine prospects that will convert into customers. Social media marketing allows you to focus on specific demographics, but you need to do your research beforehand to ensure you are talking to the right audience.

4. No value

For better or worse, most internet users will only click on a link if there is something ‘in it’ for them. A big marketing mistake is not offering something of value to these potential customers. Strategies that rewards users with genuinely helpful information, discounts or special offers are more likely to get traction.

5. Poor website

Many internet marketing campaigns stumble at the last hurdle by directing users to a website that isn’t performing well or fails to capitalise on the traffic. A user who has made an effort to click through to your site should be presented with a seamless experience that meets their expectations and ultimately leads to a sale.

6. Budget

There is a perception that you can do internet marketing for little or no cost, but you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet. Digital marketing is very cost-effective but still requires some investment (in time and dollars) to pay dividends. A common error is not allocating enough budget for your marketing. Companies who create TV commercials must also buy enough media time to ensure it is seen. The same applies to online marketing—whether it's banner ads or paid posts on social media, make sure you allocate enough budget to gain penetration into your chosen market.

If you’d like to discuss internet marketing strategies for your website, contact the team at Activate Design.

The best digital marketing strategies are those that are simple to implement and boost your sales. In this article, we’ll take a look at some proven internet marketing tactics and marketing tips for small business.

Online marketing can be divided up into five main categories:

• Content Marketing
• SEO
• Web Design
• Social Media
• Advertising
• Content Marketing

The internet lives on content, whether its blogs, videos, or social media posts. Content marketing is not hard-sell like advertising. Instead, it aims to inform and educate new and existing customers about your products, services and your company. You want customers that are seeking information to view your site as an authoritative source of that information. One way to do this is by guest appearances—be it a guest blog, video or an audio podcast. This not only extends your reach to new audiences and builds your credibility, but you’ll also get a valuable ‘back-link’ to your website.

SEO

All that lovely content needs to find an audience, and that is where SEO (search engine optimisation) comes in. Using keywords, title tags, backlinks and other SEO techniques, you can raise your profile in search engine results and connect with your target market. For small businesses with mostly local customers, optimising your site for mobile and local search is probably the most effective strategy available.

Web Design

In terms of internet marketing, a well-designed website is one that enables users to quickly find what they need and encourages them to act with subtle visual cues. You need to design your site as an internet marketing platform from the get-go. Too many websites get caught up with ‘showing off’ the company when they should be attending to the needs of their customers.

Social Media

Social media is an excellent outlet for running promotional campaigns, competitions and announcements. It’s also a fast way to get direct interaction with your customer base and gather valuable feedback. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram thrive on live content, so the focus should be on special events such as a new product release. You need to identify the platform most favoured by your target customers—for young, tech-savvy individuals it might be TikTok or Snapchat.

Advertising

Any digital marketing plan needs to include advertising, including some traditional print media advertising if appropriate. Before you spend any money on advertising, you need to establish your target audience and then identify the most suitable medium to reach them. Digital advertising has become something of a science, with the ability to target specific demographics. Pay per click advertising such as Google AdWords can be very effective, but they require some expertise to ensure clicks actually lead to sales.

If you’d like to discuss internet marketing strategies for your website, contact the team at Activate Design.

It’s hard to imagine a time in our life without mobile apps. But now more than ever, mobile apps are where users spend most of their time online. 

And now that you've spent all this time & money to build your app, you can't wait to see the user numbers flood in. Unfortunately, building an app is only half of the battle.

Getting users is usually a much longer and more difficult process. That's why your new app needs a strong marketing strategy to bring users into the app and keep them engaged. 

So here are 10 of our favorite mobile app marketing strategies that are proven to get results.

10 App Promotion & Marketing Strategies 

1. Get creative with social media

Social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok allow you to show off your app to billions of people around the globe.

Run paid ads on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok to show off the best version of your app.

Follow up paid ads with organic content, user-generated content (UGC), and influencer marketing to answer questions, show off additional features, and more. 

2. Build dedicated landing pages

If you're driving traffic to your website, make sure the landing page matches the traffic.

Fill it with catchy headlines & descriptions, videos, customer reviews, and clear calls to action (CTAs).

And with plenty of marketing channels available, there's sure to be one that works for your app. Try social media, Google Ads, organic search traffic, email, and more!

3. Create a video

Videos are the future of content, especially for social channels. Videos have higher engagement rates across almost all platforms compared to images. 

If you really want to get creative, work with an influencer in your niche to make the video. Influencers can then promote it to their audience and ultimately drive more users to your app. 

4. Optimise your App Store or Google Play listing

Think of app stores like search engines. If your app is optimised for the keywords and trends that users are searching for, you improve your visibility in search results.

Determine which keywords potential customers are searching for and incorporate them into the app description, subtitle and more.

Combined with an eye-catching logo, the right optimisation techniques can help you jump to the top of the results page.

5. Make your app social

Creating a community within your app is one of the most effective ways to increase user retention. Give users the power to communicate with each other and watch the magic happen. 

6. Think old-school marketing

It’s not all about digital marketing . Whether it’s on billboards, flyers, or direct mail, traditional marketing strategies are still effective in promoting your new app.

7. Advertise on TV & other streaming platforms

Hundreds of millions of people watch some form of television every day, whether it be cable or through a streaming service.

Though a bit more expensive, these visual advertisements can be very effective for your mobile app.

People tend to watch TV with their devices close at hand, so your app could be downloaded before the ad break finishes!

8. Update your app

Your app isn't perfect. There will be bugs, complaints, and critiques that need to be addressed.

Update your app as needed to generate positive reviews and prevent any negative reviews. 

9. Seek out expert reviews

Every business sector has influencers who hold a lot of sway with your potential customers.

If you’re confident in your app’s quality and effectiveness, an endorsement from these individuals will strengthen your credibility amongst your target audience and bring thousands of new users to your app.

10. Focus on retention

We've talked a lot about user acquisition, but retention is just as important.

The amount of daily active users is a critical ranking factor for apps. Keep users engaged and loyal with a sense of community, gamification, and habit-promoting techniques.

With hundreds of app marketing tactics available, the possibilities are endless. Get started with these 10 strategies, and see what works for you. But before you spend all your time & money on marketing your app, make sure that you have a great app that people will enjoy. 

Activate Design is a design and software development agency. This sets us apart from other companies—we provide a seamless process from design and development, through to completion and delivery of your app. Click here to find out more about mobile apps, or contact us for a free quote.

Getting a new visitor to your site is hard. And with the rising cost of acquisition via paid ads and other major channels, acquiring a new visitor has never been more expensive.

Fortunately, however, you don't always have to focus on new visitors.

Instead, focus on bringing those that have already visited before back to your website.

Why are repeat visitors important?

It is unlikely that a new visitor will make a purchase or complete another type of conversion the first time they visit your website. 

They're still in the first stage of the buyer's journey: awareness.

They're still browsing and comparing different companies, benefits, etc. And unless you have a great reputation or sell low-value, cheap products, consumers aren't likely to convert on their first visit. 

Make no mistake, that first visit is important. Your website has to make a good enough impression for users to remember your brand name, logo, etc. so that they will consider your website when they are ready to buy (hint: consideration is the next part of the buyer's journey).

On the other hand, repeat visitors have already gone through the awareness stage and have likely moved onto the consideration stage. They're more ready  to buy the second or third time around and the chance of them making a purchase is significantly higher. 

And if they're a repeat customer, they're more than ready to buy (they've already done it once) and will be more likely to advocate for your brand by showing off their purchase, leaving positive reviews, interacting on social, and more. 

In short, repeat visitors are important because they are more likely to make a purchase than a first time visitor. 

 So how do you generate repeat visitors and ultimately, repeat customers? Check out these 9 tips to keep users coming back for more. 

9 Ways to Generate Repeat Visitors to Your Website

1. Create a User-Friendly Experience

Imagine you land on a website and it loads slowly and is hard to navigate. Even if it might have what you're looking for, you're probably going to exit within seconds. 

This is common consumer behavior. 

And the metric used to quantify this behavior is what's known as "bounce rate." Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who land on a site and then leave ("bounce") without taking any action. Ideally, you want your site's bounce rate to be as low as possible.

You should aim to keep your bounce rate below 40%, meaning that over 60% of visitors engage with the website. 

And if visitors bounce on their first visit, they're probably not going to visit again. Almost 90% of website visitors are less likely to return after a poor experience. 

So how do you make sure that your website provides a good user experience (UX) to keep visitors coming back?

Make it Fast

Speed is one of the most important UX factors. Research shows that almost 40% of visitors will stop engaging with content if the website or images take too long to load. 

The quickest way to improve page speed is by optimising your images. Image optimisation reduces image size by as much as 80% without sacrificing quality. And with a smaller file size and fewer resources to load, your load time will decrease.

Users are more likely to engage with a faster website, meaning more time spent on-site and lower bounce rates.

Make it Beautiful

It goes without saying, nobody wants to use a boring, colorless website.

Use colour themes, (optimised) images when appropriate, and fonts that are easy to read.

Make it Navigable

A beautiful website is great. A beautiful website that is difficult to read and even harder to navigate, not so much.

Highlight the most important elements in your main menu, use colour contrast to make CTAs stand out, and provide users with a sitemap for further navigation help. 

Make it Useful

A lot of people can design a fast and beautiful website, but they forget to make it useful. 

Your site shouldn’t be about how great you are—its purpose is to solve your customer’s problems or needs.

Users don't care about your brand. They just want to know how you can solve their problems. 

Moreover, visitors who reach your site via a search query (e.g., ‘web design Christchurch’) want to see a site that matches their search intent, otherwise they’ll leave instantly (increasing bounce rate).

2. Offer a Valuable Customer Opt-In

Turn first-time visitors into repeat visitors through opt-ins. Display an email opt-in at the bottom of your website and experiment with pop-ups.

Some users and web designers alike find pop-ups distracting. But combined with a valuable offer, they're one of the best ways to capture customer information and bring visitors back to your site. 

For small businesses, a free offer (10% off their first purchase or access to an upcoming event) in exchange for a user’s email address is a great way to build up your mailing list.

From there, you can use emails to nurture them along the buyer's journey and offer them exclusive discounts to encourage purchases.

3. And Then Reward Them

Generate more repeat customers by rewarding them for their loyalty.

Whether it’s a points scheme, discounts, or free shipping, consumers want to feel as if they’re being rewarded.

And whether you’re using email marketing, SMS marketing, or social media to capture first-time customer information, it’s vital to get these customers returning to your website. 

Encourage them with exclusive offers, early access to new products, exclusive events, and more.

4. Manage Customer Feedback

Whether it’s positive or negative feedback, customer feedback needs to be addressed.

Positive reviews are great, and should be celebrated. But negative reviews are equally as important.

If one of your social media followers comments something positive under a recent post, a simple “Thank you!” reply will have them coming back for more. The same goes for product or service reviews left directly on your website.

In the case of negative feedback, it is important to address not only the issue at hand, but to learn if there are bigger issues within the business as well. The last thing you want is one negative comment to turn into another without being addressed.

To stick with the social media example… if a customer comments something negative under a recent post, politely direct message them to resolve the issue and ask them if there’s anything you can do to ensure a more positive experience in the future.

On your website, having a live chat is a great way to monitor feedback.

It’s important to understand that customers may want to communicate differently as well. Some may prefer to resolve issues via live chat, while others may prefer to speak directly with customer service over the phone, or via social media. 

Regardless, make it easy for your customers to communicate with you, and you with them. Give them options.

5. Update Your Website with New Content

A website that isn’t updated frequently is a turn off for repeat visitors. 

Keep your website up to date with fresh blog or vlog posts and other news related to your company, and promote them to your customers through your marketing channels. 

If you post infrequently, don’t display the date of your post—it’s a dead giveaway for out-of-date content.

6. Build a Social Community

Users don’t just browse; they want to connect, share, comment, and engage with other visitors.

You can generate more leads by growing your website into a community where users can contribute. Allow people to comment on a forum and you can be sure they will return to your site to check for responses.

If you operate an eCommerce website, wish lists allow visitors to interact with your site and offer you a golden opportunity to ‘re-market’ to them when the product becomes available or on sale.

BONUS: Setting up email or SMS triggers for abandoned shopping carts is a great way to bring users back to your website and complete a purchase. 

When adding social media links to your site, the Follow button is more powerful than the Share button for generating repeat visitors. A user may share your web page or product once, but a user who follows you will receive ongoing exposure to your business.

7. But Wait! There’s More!

Page elements such as Related Posts, Recently Viewed, or Recommended Accessories are simple but effective devices for extending visitor browsing time and delivering a more personalised experience to the user. 

8. Retarget Visitors on Google and with Paid Social

When users visit your site but leave without making a purchase or leaving contact details, all is not lost.

Retargeting ads on Google and social media platforms make it easy for your brand to stay front of mind even if they left your website once. 

9. Know Your Audience

Your site needs to cater to both new and returning visitors, two subtly different audiences.

New visitors may not know much about your product or even your industry, so options like a Start Here or a Most Popular section on your site can provide a useful entry point for them.

Returning visitors are likely to be knowledgeable about your site, so you need to keep them engaged with fresh content.

Be the first to post new information relevant to your industry and build this into your mailing list and social media campaigns, to encourage these users to return to your site.

If you’d like to discuss how you can generate more repeat visitors, we're experts. Contact us today!

For consumers, the internet is an incredible resource for product information, reviews and price comparisons. For small businesses struggling to reach their market, this could be a bad thing, but it needn’t be.

Related Read: The Best Advice for Local Businesses from the Top 60 Marketing Experts

Sure, it's hard going trying to compete with big box stores or the multi-national e-tailers, but using some smarter internet marketing strategies tailored to your business—you can cut through to those high-value customers who appreciate the personalised service and quality products you have to offer.

Successful internet marketing for small businesses is all about planning ahead—developing strategies and a schedule that you can roll out through the year. Being prepared in this way helps keep costs down too, as you won’t be making last minute, hasty marketing decisions that might be expensive and ineffective.

Here are some of the technologies and internet marketing tools that will put you ahead of the game in 2017:

Sign up to a weekly Small Business Marketing Master Class to learn more actionable strategies to help your business. Fill up the form below.

1. Mobile, Mobile, Mobile.

We shouldn’t need to remind you that a mobile-optimised presence (website, apps, social media) is almost compulsory these days. Google will pretty much ignore you if your site isn’t mobile-friendly. Mobile overtook desktops in terms of usage way back in 2015, and your customers carry them everywhere, all the time. So make sure your app or mobile website is location aware and can deliver your clients localised information.

What other trends will influence how we market our business on mobile? Expect to see more e-commerce functionality appearing in the apps for social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Google will start to include Apps and Web Apps in their SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages), particularly when that search is instigated on a mobile device. This means even Apps can be SEO-optimised. Single-page, Javascript based apps are relatively easy to create and can serve as mobile sales-oriented landing pages.

2. Video.

Video courtesy of: Take One Business Communication

Whether it be video ads, video podcasts or YouTube How-Tos—video-based content ranks highly in Google’s algorithms and when you provide credible, informative video content, you will get noticed. Video quality is a subjective matter–clear sound and a stable picture are minimum requirements but don’t feel you need to spend a great deal on ‘production values’, your clients may well appreciate something less slick as long as it’s honest, authentic and informative.

3. Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented reality apps are expensive to develop and somewhat out of reach for small enterprises. However, there are marketing opportunities to be gained from staying abreast of this technology. Pokemon Go was a great example of a gaming app that provided unexpected spinoff benefits for businesses; who used it to attract customers to their premises. While Pokemon Go has waned in popularity, it is only the first of many apps in development, and we will see many more business-oriented AR apps in the near future.

4. Live Video Streaming

Platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Periscope have brought simple, low-cost live streaming to everyone and for small businesses with a good following on social media, it's a brilliant way to connect with your customers (and more importantly, see who is connecting with you).

5. Native Advertising

There are differing views on what constitutes native advertising, but for many a good definition is:

“Paid content that matches a publication’s editorial standards while meeting the audience’s expectations.” 

So we’re talking here about sponsored content, written and designed to fit in with the rest of the publication or website. For a small business, this could entail writing a guest blog post for a third-party website related to your industry. The secret is to provide genuinely useful information, tips or advice. You need to be upfront about your company—don’t try to disguise the content as pure editorial, as readers will see right through that ploy. You can offer a discount or a special offer as a call to action, but generally it’s best to be low-key and not 'hard-sell', as you may create a negative impression.

Joline Buscemi has an excellent blog post on the good (and evil) of native advertising. Her advice? Don’t try to trick the audience, just give them useful information and, if appropriate, make it entertaining.

6. Be Immersive

This may not suit all small businesses but if you’ve got something great to show your customers, why not go total immersion? Using 360-degree video, virtual reality or even live webinars, you can create a memorable experience that creates a buzz and is likely to be shared widely. Live webinars provide an excellent opportunity to personalise your marketing to suit a particular audience and also garner valuable feedback from your clients. The networking company Cisco make a good point on their blog regarding live webinars: make sure you record them. 300% to 500% more people watch a recorded webinar than attend a live one.

7. Partnering

Recently I went to a local glazing company to buy a sheet of glass. After some discussion, it was clear that a sheet of perspex was going to suit my needs better. This company immediately gave me the business card of a nearby plastics supplier. These cards were displayed prominently in their reception. This is a good example of the benefits of partnering with a complementary business. Similar arrangements can be made in the online space—everything from simple cross-links, guest blogs, even agreements to sell each other’s products. Vend have a great blog post that outlines what you need to consider when partnering with other businesses.

Above all, successful internet marketing for a small business means you need to Be Different (it worked for Apple!). Try something different, whether it's a new technology or creating truly original and useful content for your customers. Make sure your online brand is unique, recognisable and nothing like your competitors.

Sign up to a weekly Small Business Marketing Master Class to learn more actionable strategies to help your business. Fill up the form below.