For any business wanting to keep customers returning again and again, an up to date website can be a great platform for promoting new offers, products and services – keeping customers and prospects interested.
Just like high street clothes shops constantly update their shop window displays with the latest clothing lines for the season, and café shops advertise a speciality drink or menu on a chalkboard, you should be using your website as your shop window.
Would you buy summer clothes from a shop that still had their Christmas winter knits in the window? The same applies to your website; you will do your brand no favours if a prospect logs on to your site and sees that you haven’t updated your news stories for the last six months. So, where to begin?
You have probably noticed the recent increase in the use of social media: a great tool for delivering up to date information directly to your customers and prospects. Social media sites can now be linked to your website, offering an easy, low-effort method of keeping your website current. Also a great way to promote events, engage with other companies and take part in industry discussions.
If you would rather keep discussions within your website, or you are yet to tip your toe into the world of social media, then blog and news pages are another great alternative for adding regular, interesting content to your site.
A great layout for your ‘shop front’ is to have large featured stories on your home page, which automatically update when new stories get added. This both helps the customers to see when news has been released, as well as creating a reason for them to keep checking the site, because there is a good chance there will be a new story for them to read on their next visit.
On-site news and blogs also mean that you can evaluate the success of your efforts yourself, and discover what visitors are reading, how long they are on each story for, and whether certain posts result in visitors engaging more or on the other hand, drive them to leave the site.
If you are weary about posting regular content, keep it simple. For example start by thinking about the seasons; is everyone looking forward to the summertime or are they preparing to wrap up for winter? Post relevant content that relates to what people are currently doing and they are sure to take more of an interest.