Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [116]
For content-rich sites, there must be enough related information and topics of interest within visual proximity to make the visitor click to more pages. Usually, side topics or related topics are sidebars or callouts within the article itself. Many times, one can find lists of related articles and topics at the end of an article. My preference is to work these into the sight lines of the visitor through the sidebar or in the content. The primary reason is that if the article on that page is not the information they are seeking, the related content will help a visitor quickly get to the next page. Although I do like to see related content at the bottom of the page, I know that many readers are too impatient to scroll down to the end of an article simply to see what might be there, especially if the article isn’t relevant.
The Wall Street Journal uses this effectively in the articles on its website (Figure 11-3). The right sidebar is full of additional options intended to attract the reader’s attention in a variety of content groupings.
For business-to-business (B2B) sites, the lead form should be handy at all times, and if a visitor is not quite ready to fill it out, related information and additional sales content need to be readily available. Plan an intended information path, and continually interlink pages to show important concepts. Both the conversion point and the related information are critical for those who need more information and those who have enough to make the decision.
Figure 11-3: Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) information links
Visitors who might not commit to a contact form may subscribe to an email newsletter. This is where defining and measuring your secondary conversion points can help you understand the visitor trends on your website. If they won’t subscribe to the newsletter, maybe they will sign up for a webinar. If they don’t sign up for a webinar, then maybe they will register to download a free white paper. Just because a visitor won’t take the bait for the big conversion, that doesn’t mean you have lost them entirely. Provide additional methods for visitors to convert on your website by making it easy for visitors to gain information the way they are most comfortable.
Related products, related articles, white papers, case studies, free downloads—all of these are persuasive content that can keep a visitor on the site and improve the chances of them contacting your company. Customers online are not simply looking to see who is out there in the industry and then call for more information; they won’t take that action. Customers are looking to see who is competent in the industry and will provide answers to what they need. They are looking to be persuaded and have reasons to back up their choice.
This is where tracking visitors to your website is critical. In a study from eMarketer, most social media visitors to a B2B sites went to the About Us page for a company, and that was the final destination. There are many interpretations of this data; my interpretation is that there wasn’t enough interesting information taking them somewhere else. Most B2B companies place very little thought in the About Us page, so there is no wonder that this may be is the final resting place for site visitors.
“Probably Not. I Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”
If there are too many of your visitors that are the one-page wonders (those who visit only one page of your website and then leave), then there may be a problem with your content. Most likely, these types of visits are the result of content that carries meaning across multiple industries or concepts.