To establish customer loyalty, successful businesses must not overlook the importance of website engagement. It’s not good enough to have a dynamic, professional presence on the internet if your customers don’t enjoy interacting with it. This interaction can make all the difference in lead generation, as well as purchases and brand loyalty.
Most customers go directly to a company’s website when considering a purchase and looking for more information. So the appeal, navigation ability, safety and security, and mobile-friendliness of your site are crucial to drawing and keeping a customer base.
But more than just these, there are other vital factors in providing an engaging site for your customers. Here we will discuss the best practices for making your customers’ journey through your site pleasant and profitable.
Why Is Engagement Important?
You may ask yourself why engagement is so critical. Before we look at that, let’s first define website engagement.
Website engagement is the trackable, measurable way to know how your users enjoy and find your site of value to them. Engagement includes viewing what actions users take on your site and whether their visit converts into a sale.
Engagement can be quantified as:
- The number of visits to your website
- The actions taken by your visitors
- How frequently specific actions are taken, like opting in to an email list or buying products
- How long your visitors stay on the site and on specific pages
These engagement metrics will help you to analyze how well your marketing and sales strategies are working.
A well-designed site will attract more visitors and keep them longer, clicking all over the site, and eventually becoming subscribers, followers, and paying customers. Conversely, when visitors don’t engage with your site, they leave sooner, don’t follow or subscribe, and don’t buy. So clearly, if your website doesn’t support a high level of engagement, it won’t be helpful to your business.
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Tips for Engaging With Your Website Visitors
Now that you get the importance of website engagement, here are some tips for getting more engagement with your website visitors.
Study Your Target Market
If you study your target market, you can ensure that your site contains the information and other content that is appealing to them. You can do this by using short surveys, brief questionnaires, and analyzing the behavior of users on your site. Soliciting feedback will help you improve your site.
Get to know your target market:
- Look at your recorded chats from the site and recorded (and video) voice customer service calls. You can identify any issues and create content they need.
- Conduct other qualitative research like interviews with your target audience for analysis.
Make Sure Your Site is Mobile Responsive
Research shows that up to 56% of website traffic is on mobile devices. So sites that aren’t mobile responsive will lose out on that share of traffic. Users won’t remain on a site that is difficult to navigate or unfriendly to mobile devices.
Here are a few ways to make sure your site is mobile-friendly, as well as desktop users:
- Mobile-responsive means that your site has all of the same information and content available for mobile users.
- Your site should be easy to navigate no matter what device is being used.
- It should be easy for users to switch from their mobile device to a desktop view.
- Buttons have to be an appropriate size when used on mobile devices – not too small or close together for touching.
- Text size and font should be large enough to read easily on mobile devices.
Use AI Bots for Automation
Chatbots are becoming a popular and well-accepted way for customers to engage with company websites. Unlike most customer service teams, chatbots are available 24/7 for questions or reporting issues. They provide simple answers to queries and reduce the number of support tickets for some companies. Research shows that up to 35% of customers would love to see more sites with chatbots.
Chatbots are engagement tools because:
- They provide personalized support by checking out a customer’s account or report history.
- They provide immediate responses to questions that enhance your user’s experience.
- They handle FAQs by giving instant answers to customers’ questions.
- They are scalable for busy times without needing additional company resources.
Optimize Your Site’s Loading Time
One of the biggest detractors of a website is slow loading pages. Today, users won’t stand for their time to be wasted, especially when good content may be found on other sites. Pages should instantly load if you expect users to remain on the site for any length of time and enjoy their experience. Even a one-second delay can reduce your conversion rates by 7%.
If your site is slow, Google Analytics offers tips to get your site back up to speed. There are also other online tools.
Add Offers & Discounts
Another way to encourage engagement is to intensify it. Offering your visitors deals, coupons, and discounts is an excellent way of establishing customer loyalty, with 61% of customers saying they take advantage of these incentives.
Coupons boost sales and generate positive energy around the product and site. A part of that positive energy is when people use the coupons and then tell their friends and family about it. This attracts more paying customers and more brand awareness in general.
Final Thoughts
A profitable business must have an online presence in the form of a well-designed website. But that website won’t convert if your customers don’t find visiting it a helpful and pleasant experience. Know and understand your target audience and provide what they want and need. Your site must be mobile responsive, fast loading, and easy to navigate to reap all the fantastic benefits.
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