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Did you know that most of your visitors probably never go beyond your
homepage? And a lot of them leave within ten seconds of hitting your
homepage, NEVER to return again?
Joe Zerpa, Joseph Zerpa, Ben Gomez
These are wasted visitors, and you must do everything possible to reduce
the waste, or you'll simply miss out on a great amount of profits.
Luckily, there are a couple of effective tactics you can employ to prevent
visitors turning their backs on your site. I've outlined ten of them in
this article.
The basic strategy is two-fold:
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Trying to keep people on your site
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Getting them to subscribe to your mailing list.
Cleo and Nacho
Here we go:
1. Make it a priority to collect opt-in email addresses
Your number one marketing priority on the Web should be to build your
opt-in mailing list. This is where most of your customers will come from.
And the best thing is, once they're on your list you can sell to them over
and over. Include a subscription form for your e-Mailing List on EVERY
page of your Web site (check out my own site for an example of this - pay
attention to the left hand margin).
2. Put up testimonials
Put up a couple of shining testimonials right on your homepage. Interject
your homepage copy with a couple of these testimonials. Add the names and
email addresses of the persons who wrote the testimonial to boost
credibility (ask them first though). Remember: NEVER fake a testimonial!
Not only is it unethical, but it'll show through. And if I'm not mistaken,
it is also an illegal practice.
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3. Don't link out on your homepage
Keep ALL links on your homepage internal. In other words, don't give
visitors a way out so they wont leave as soon as they arrive.
4. Make your headline stand out
Your homepage headline should be in large font type, and very attention
grabbing, while at the same time hype-free. Study some great sales letters
you've come across on the Web. You'll soon realize that one of the things
they all have in common is a headline that just makes you WANT to know
more about whatever product/service is being offered.
5. Work on your copy
The most powerful selling tool at your disposal are WORDS. You need to get
your copy perfectly tight (especially the homepage). This is not an
overnight process. It takes several weeks (and even longer) of trial and
error to get it right. Check your log files after each change to find out
how many people leave your site via your homepage. Make it your mission to
reduce this number, until you've hit such "tightness" that you can't get
it any better. Take some free online copy writing courses to learn how to
improve your copy (I've listed a couple on my site). Whatever you do,
write for your TARGET audience!
6. Don't overwhelm with too many links
Keep links to a minimum on your navigation bar - at most nine. In fact,
keep links to a minimum all across your site. Don't overwhelm your visitor
with too many choices ... gently, but firmly guide them towards your
"action pages" (order page, newsletter subscription page, etc.).
7. Remove banners (from homepage at least)
I've removed all banner ads from my Web site. In my opinion they just take
up space, make pages load slower, and look rather ugly... without doing
any good. You might feel that eliminating banners might be too drastic a
move for yourself, but let me ask you this: how often do YOU click on
banner ads?
Note: Definitely remove banners from your homepage. The job of your
homepage is to get visitors interested in your site and explore deeper,
not to display banner ads which take visitors away.
8. Ask for a bookmark
Put up a simple attentive graphic that asks people to bookmark your site.
You'd be surprised how many people will listen.
9. Open external links in a new window
In your <A HREF> tag, simply put TARGET="new". This will open the link in
a new window. When your visitors are done and close that window, they'll
return back to your site. The full HTML looks like this:
HTML Sample Code
<a href="http://www.cleo-and-nacho.com" target="new">click here</a>
(Note: the contents within TARGET can be anything - doesn't have to be
"new").
10. Use pop-ups on exit
This is a technique I've used with great success on my own site. Set up
some JavaScript code that opens a pop-up window when a visitor LEAVES your
homepage, where you offer a subscription to your e-Mail List. This won't
annoy them as an on-entry pop-up would, and will reclaim a lot of visitors
that would have just drifted away had it not been for the pop-up.
Ben Gomez, Zerpa
I really recommend you use a cookie to prevent the pop-up window loading
for repeat visitors. Go to any JavaScript resource site and you'll find
cut-and-paste code you can use on your own site.
Advertising Tips Page No. 2
joseph zerpa, is our webmaster. Jose zerpa
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