Website Marketing to Encourage Repeat Visits

By Deborah Whitman

There are many website marketing ideas that small businesses can incorporate into their sites to build their brands, to encourage visitors to come back to their websites and to connect with customers. Here are six clever marketing ideas to spice up your website.

Several business websites use contests to get readers involved and to help build their brands. Contests also can be effective marketing tools for building an e-mail database for marketing and for drawing traffic to your website.

Real-time surveys are another way to capture visitors' attention. A fun or clever survey can help convey your company ethos. Just by the questions you ask, you can make some clear statements about your business. You can use the survey to ask demographic and marketing questions about age and level of interest in a product or service. You can include devices like the ability to send the survey to a friend, making it not just a brand-building tool, but also a customer acquisition tool. Make sure its clear that you will not spam those to whom the survey is forwarded.

Another entertaining way to build brand awareness and forge customer involvement with your products is to encourage users to contribute to your site and to feature their stories, photos, artwork, etc. Make sure that the stories are not too painful to read - featuring only the "best" stories or photos is a good strategy. If you are selective about the customer content you show, this can be a great way to add interest to your site and build a community without jeopardizing quality and brand image.

If you have a particular expertise, answer visitors' questions on your website and encourage people to e-mail questions to you. It can be a good way to acquire new customers and to build a reputation as a helpful, caring company, one that you can trust.

A few small businesses are starting to host live chat events or online interviews on their sites as a marketing tactic. It's worth recognizing that though the endeavour may be rewarding when it comes to building your brand, setting up a chat event isn't for the faint of heart and can be tougher to coordinate than you may expect. You'll have to buy chat software, make sure your servers can handle the load, coordinate schedules, sign sponsors to help cover the cost and co-promote the event and have multiple people coordinating the event itself.

These marketing ideas can build repeat traffic, connect with customers and turn your website into an effective brand-building vehicle.