When prospects visit your website, they are typically not ready to strike a relationship right away. However, they are more likely to do so if you can gain their interest and get them to provide you with some personal information.
“A lot of visitors to your website are simply browsing for information,” says Subhas Fagu, an independent web development consultant in Toronto. “Although your web content might be appealing, content alone is not always sufficient to get them to contact you. You must, therefore, have some feature on your website to capture visitors.”
Here are some ways to help you get connected with visitors to your website:
> Provide a freebie
Offer a tangible giveaway — a book, a report, a newsletter, a video or something else that is relevant to your target audience. To receive the giveaway, visitors must be required to submit their name and email address, at a minimum.
To obtain additional personal information, Fagu says, you can also provide the giveaway in hardcopy, which would require prospects to give you their mailing address. “The nature of the giveaway,” Fagu says, “can influence how much personal information someone might be willing to give you.”
> Acknowledge the request
Set up an automated response system to acknowledge each visitor’s request for the giveaway and to thank the visitor.
“You can be innovative in your acknowledgement by offering access to additional information or other giveaways,” Fagu says.
For example, in your standard acknowledgement, you might say: You may also wish to request our free report on [a particular subject area related to the giveaway requested].
Says Heather Holjevac, certified financial planner with TriDelta Financial Partners Inc. in Oakville, Ont.: “The aim is to retain the attention of the prospect.”
> Follow up
To ensure that the giveaway was received and ask whether you can be of further assistance, Holjevac says, be sure to follow up with the prospect. The giveaway should open the door for future contact.
“You have a live contact to work with,” she says. “You should be able to gauge their interest.”
> Put visitors into your pipeline
Add information visitors have provided to your pipeline, or list of prospects. You will then be able to send additional information over time with the expectation that the prospect will at some time become engaged. If a relationship does not develop, the prospect can be removed from the list.
> Monitor web traffic
Track the number and of visitors to your website and their habits. A program such as Google Analytics can calculate statistics about your web traffic such as what visitors are viewing, how often they return and how often they view certain content. The results will help you determine what works and what doesn’t, Fagu says, and help you tailor your offers to “hook” visitors.
> Follow the rules
Always be aware of compliance and privacy rules when dealing with visitors to your website. Unlike unregulated businesses, you are constrained by compliance requirements and securities regulations. To ensure that you are not offside, consult your compliance department.