"The most effective way is to offer them an Internet freebie..."

Attract and Keep New Website Customers

Table Of Contents:
1. Remind Your Customers
2. 10 Great Ways To Attract People To Your Web Site!
3. Follow-Up With Freebies
4. 14 Persuasive Ways to get Your Web Site Visitors To Give You Their Email Address!

Remind Your Customers
If you don’t remind your customers that you are still in business they may forget. Repeat customers are the lifeblood of any business. Below are three effective strategies you can use to remind your customers that you are still in business and get them to buy over and over again.
1. Ask your customers to subscribe to your free publication. It could be a print newsletter, e-zine, newspaper, journal etc. You could send out the publication weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, etc. The articles in the publication should be informative and helpful to your readers. You can increase repeat purchases by including advertisements of new products and services that you offer.
2. Ask customers to sign-up to an e-mail update that tells them when you have made changes to your web site. Whenever you update your web site send them an e-mail to remind them to visit again. If you’re using this strategy it’s important to update your web site often. Add new content that would be of interest to your customers. You could also add free stuff to your web site like software, online utilities, ebooks etc.
3. Follow-up with your customers. You could follow-up by e-mail, direct mail or by telephone. It’s always important to get their permission to follow-up ahead of time. You could contact them and ask them if they were happy with their purchase. Send them online or offline greeting cards on holidays and birthdays. You could also follow-up with a free gift letting them know you appreciate their business. You can get repeat business from them if you include another product offer or back end product with each follow-up. In conclusion, any of the three strategies above will increase the number of repeat purchases from your current customers. You can increase their effectiveness by combining all of them into your marketing campaign.

10 Great Ways To Attract People To Your Web Site!
1. Give people a free subscription to your e-zine. Almost everyone is publishing an e-zine nowadays so it’s important to give something extra with the free subscription. You could offer a free gift or advertising when people subscribe.
2. Provide your visitors with free content. Your content will be more attractive to your visitors if it’s up-to-date or original. You could also offer people the option to reprint the content in their e-zine or web site.
3. Offer a free online directory. The directory could be full of interesting ebooks, e-zines, web sites etc. If people find your directory to be a valuable resource they will visit it over and over.
4. Give your visitors a free ebook. You could also include your own ad in the ebook and allow other people to give it away. If you don’t want to take the time to write one, you could ask other writers permission to use their articles.
5. Hold free online classes or seminars. They could be held in your web site’s chat room. The idea of “live” information will definitely entice people to visit your web site. You will become known as an expert on the topic.
6. Give visitors a free entry into your contest or sweepstakes. The prizes should be something of interest or value to your visitors. Most people who enter will continually revisit your web site to get the results.
7. Let visitors download free software. It could be freeware, shareware, demos etc. You could even turn part of your site into a free software directory. If you created the software, include your ad inside and let other people give it away.
8. Offer free online services or utilities from your web site. They could be search engine submitting, copy writing proofreading etc. The service or utility should be helpful to your target audience.
9. Give free consulting to people who visit your web site. You could offer your knowledge via e-mail or by telephone. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive.
10. Give your visitors a free membership to your online club. People want to belong to something, why not your online club. You could also give away a free e-zine for club members only.

Follow-Up With Freebies!
It’s important to follow-up with potential online customers. Following up with them can increase your traffic and sales. The more times people see your ad, the greater chance they will buy your product or service. Before you can follow-up with them you need their e-mail address. You can get their e-mail address by having them subscribe to your e-zine, fill out a web site form, or e-mail your follow-up autoresponder. Most people won’t give you their e-mail address unless they get something in return. The most effective way is to offer them an Internet freebie. Here are some ideas: Free E-Gifts - Free software, guest books, web space, graphics message boards, etc.; Free Internet Services - Free e-consulting, search engine submissions, web design, etc. Free E-Information - Free e-book, e-report, web book, e-course, e-zine, etc. When you follow-up with the freebie, you can include your ad somewhere on the freebie. If it’s a free service, have your ad in the follow-up e-mail. Make sure you always get their permission before you follow-up with them by e-mail.

14 Persuasive Ways to get Your Web Site Visitors To Give You Their Email Address!
1. Ask visitors to subscribe to your e-zine. It’s a good idea to also give them a freebie when they subscribe.
2. Have them sign-up to get access to download a free ebook. The subject of the ebook should be related to your target audience.
3. Give your visitors a free membership inside your member’s only web site. Have them sign-up to receive a user name and password.
4. Hold a free contest or sweepstakes at your web site. Ask them to give you their contact information to enter.
5. Offer your visitors free consulting via e-mail. Have them fill out a web form to e-mail you with their questions.
6. Hold an interactive poll on your web site. Ask your visitors to e-mail you their vote or opinion.
7. Ask your visitors to sign-up for a chance to get a web site award. Have them e-mail you their contact and web site information.
8. Have visitors fill out a survey on your web site. Give them a free gift as an incentive to complete the form.
9. Offer a free online service from your web site. Have visitors fill out their contact information to sign-up to the free service.
10. Ask visitors to sign your guest book. Tell them they will get a free gift in return.
11. Offer a free affiliate program for your visitors. They will have to sign-up in order to receive marketing materials and commissions.
12. Allow visitors to submit a free classified ad on your web site. Require them to give a valid e-mail address in order to post an ad.
13. Give people who visit your web site a free course sent via autoresponder. Just ask them to fill out their contact information to receive the free course.
14. Offer your visitors free software to download. Have them sign-up to get an access code to unlock the software.

SOURCE: Written by Deb Berg
DebB@nytngale.org
The Bee Hive http://www.tech4women.org
Attract Visitors To Your Web Site Made Easy! Revised: July 2, 2000
Deb Berg is owner of Nightingale Enterprises & Associates. Deb provides "information & resources" online at several sites.
General Business Resources & Opportunities: Nytngale's Nest http://www.nytngale.org/
Women's Resources, both Personal & Business: The Bee Hive http://www.tech4women.org/
Sports & Recreation in the Pacific NW: http://www.nwsportsconnection.com/
Women's Pool (Billiard) Tour: http://www.acwtour.com/
This article extracted from the Marketing Seek Archives at: http://www.marketing-seek.com

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