How Sticky Are You?

Sticky Man by Tiago

Everyone knows the guy that likes to talk about himself. He drones on and on about his college football years or his recent ingrown toenail removal. For those of us not clever enough to fake a conversation-stopping seizure, social protocol demands we make a polite excuse and edge away slowly. If your business website is dull, it receives no such courtesy. Visitors, bored with your generic ‘About Us’ page and malfunctioning contact form, simply close the tab. You have to be sticky.

Engage Your Visitor and Improve Website Conversion Rates

A good website conversion rate needs—among many other things—a set of pages that grab and engage the viewer. There’s no exact science to this—just a clear understanding of the goals of your website, the audience you’re hoping to reach, and the image you’re trying to convey.

If you haven’t done so already, scratch these down and look at them. Then figure out what it’ll take to keep these potential clients bouncing around on your site until they’re ready to make a purchase, donate to your charity, or subscribe to your publication. This, of course, is the goal of website conversion.

Optimize Landing Pages with a Lot of  Small “Stickies”

One of the best things you can do is offer up a whole lot of small ‘stickies.’ Some of the most under appreciated of these are well-implemented pictures. People like images, trust them, and—best of all—notice them quickly in fields of text.

A quick way to direct a visitor’s eye to a value-producing link is to wrap it in an image that seems offer even more engaging content on the other side. Likewise, videos, flash animations, and other media-rich content can direct your visitor’s attention around the page, boosting website conversion if you manage to push them in the right direction. Decent copy and streamlined organization does not hurt, either.

Use Social Media to Improve Website Conversion Rates

Perhaps more difficult to implement are the long-term stickies. Community sites and social networking are certainly all the rage these days, and it seems everyone has the little cluster of Facebook, Twitter, and RSS icons on their ‘About Us’ page.

These can represent phenomenal ways to establish and develop extended relationships with new and existing clients, but there has to be some follow-up. Draw up your plan for online visitor engagement. Determine early on who in your company will maintain these community accounts and how often they’ll need to post. Set up contests, feedback polls, and other big stickies to keep people checking back.

There’s No Time Like the Present to Get Started

Improving your website conversion rate can be a complicated process, but offering up interesting and engaging content can be a great way to start. For more a more in-depth analysis of how your website can be turned into a value-generating machine, check out the website conversion optimization services we offer.