Leverage Your Website to Build Loyal (and Profitable) Customers
By Derek Griffin
Is your website a dynamic business-building tool that motivates customers to keep spending money with YOU - and not your competitor? If not, why?
Consider just how valuable loyal customers can be to your bottom line. These are folks who spread the “good news” about your business, refer other people to do business with you, and put forth strong resistance before switching to a competitor. Loyal customers spend as much as five times more than indifferent customers on periodic maintenance programs, product upgrades and new products. Furthermore, it costs five to six times more to sell to a new customer than it does to an existing client.
And what better tool to cultivate customer loyalty than your Website? Your website works for you, even when you and your employees aren’t working. It can be an incredibly time- and cost-efficient tool for keeping in touch with your customers. Think about it. No printing costs. No postage costs. Automated functions to simplify the process. How do you maximize your web presence to build customer loyalty - and your bottom line? Here are five tools to consider.
1. UPDATE CONTENT REGULARLY WHY COME BACK IF NOTHING HAS CHANGED?
The biggest problem for businesses has been the lack of expertise or the sheer hassle of getting updated information published to the site. Whether your outsourced site management firm puts your changes “on the list” of things to do and doesn’t get to them for weeks on end, or the economy has squeezed your web resources so tightly that you no longer have a tech wizard webmaster on staff, the items that should be updated on your site have grown cold and stale. When people visit a site and see outdated information, the credibility of all information is instantly in question. Keeping your content fresh and up to date is much easier than ever using Content Management tools that are growing in popularity. These tools often resemble Microsoft Word in presentation and ease of use, but are capable of writing all the presentation “code” that makes a website display properly. Some tools are browser based, so that all you need is an internet connection and a web browser to effectively manage your own website.
2. KEEP CUSTOMERS IN THE LOOP WITH BROADCAST EMAILS AND E-NEWSLETTERS. DON’T WAIT FOR VISITORS. MAKE YOUR WEBSITE REACH OUT TO YOUR WEB AUDIENCE.
E-mail spam has become a thorn in the side for most business people today. However, permission-based email communication is a powerful tool that costs virtually nothing and enables you to touch thousands at a time with messages that can be targeted appropriately. Customer newsletters, employee news bulletins, e-commerce specials - just about anything you would communicate within your business or out to customers can be done using email. And you can format these communications so that they come through with all the presentation impact of an existing website.
3. PROVIDE INTERACTIVE TOOLS WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?
Many organizations can increase the value of their website by providing content to specific groups. The need to share targeted information based on different audiences is a common challenge. You need to show certain content to your employees, different content to your customers, and completely separate content to distributors and vendors. The list of potential audiences can become hefty, depending on how an organization does business and distributes information internally and externally. Using a content management tool that allows you to set viewing rights on each item you display is the perfect solution. You give login access to new users and put them in the appropriate group. When they login they see information specific to their needs. This creates a community feeling and a sense of belonging to the website. Other interactive tools such as discussion boards, activity calendars, and photo galleries only increase their likelihood of returning to the website.
4. SIMPLIFY SEARCH FUNCTIONS SO WHERE CAN I FIND WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR ON YOUR WEBSITE?
Keep in mind that, relatively speaking, the internet is still young, and many users are bouncing around from page to page trying to get used to their new toy. You should make sure the navigation of your site has an easy roadmap to follow. Make sure your core site links are in standard and consistent locations throughout the site, and that the sub sections of your site show immediate visibility of all key pages. You’ve invested the time to put the information on your site, so you can at least make that information easy to find.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Despite the benefits, many businesses still drop the ball when it comes to building customer loyalty with their website. This is because business owners and executives often get mired in the day-to-day operations of their companies and simply don’t have the time, nor have they acquired the expertise, to maximize their website’s profit potential. To overcome these obstacles, look for web enabling software that empowers you or your support staff to manage your website in less time, without expensive training or a computer science degree. The easier you make it to manage and update your website, the more likely you’ll be successful in getting customers to keep coming back to you.
