In the agency business we regularly get asked by clients, “What’s wrong with my site?  I did keyword research, I put those keywords into the content, I paid for search engine marketing – so why are visitors leaving?”

If your website isn’t doing a great job at attracting the right visitors or converting them into buyers, try these tips for creating “sticky content” – content that will pull readers into the site,  keep them there longer, and give them a reason to come back.

1 – Make your site interactive.
It’s easy to become blind to the fact that visitors to your website don’t want one-way communication.  After all, you have a great product or service and you can’t imagine why everyone else isn’t as interested in it as you are.  But readers online want to “do” – not just read.  So try making your site more interactive.  Add a slide show, a readers poll . . . anything that will grab visitors’ interest and entice them to spend more time on your site.

2 – Keep it updated with news.
When something new is happening in the world, whether it’s BP’s recent oil spill or Tiger Woods’ fooling around, people are interested.  So if something in the news relates to your field of expertise, put it on your site.  This helps you in a couple of ways: 1) it lets your readers know that they can visit your site frequently for up-to-date information, and 2) you boost your chances of getting listed higher in search engine results, especially with Google’s “Quality Deserves Freshness” algorithm.

3 – Make sure your headlines are compelling.
Too many people today write headlines to appeal to Google, using keywords instead of solid headline copy in an attempt to influence their position in search results.  But with all the information being thrown at us today, online readers are scanning headlines to decide what to read and what to ignore.  So it’s critical that your headlines grab their attention – and give an accurate idea of what’s to follow.  Just because we live in a world of high-tech communication doesn’t mean you can forget the basic principles of copywriting.  Your readers are human beings – not Googlebots.

4 – Add a resource list.
Resource lists are some of the most popular pieces of information online.  People love lists like “The Top 10 Web Press Plug-ins” or “The Top 10 Most Popular Social Media Sites.”  Do some research and create a resource list that’s appropriate for your site.  Your readers will not only spend more time on the page, they’ll appreciate the helpful information.

5 – Create how-to articles.
People also love how-to information.  Just look at the shelves in Barnes and Noble.  Add how-to articles and tips to your site (obviously, they need to be appropriate for your business), and the helpful information will bring your readers back for more.

Pick one of these at a time to work with, and see if it doesn’t make a difference.  If you want website visitors to stick around, give them something to stick to!

How can you get the most out of social media for your business or organization?  A big question.  While lots of factors are important, here are our top two tips:

1.  Make sure your content is high quality, relevant, and engaging.

2.  Re-purpose your content.  Use it again in different formats and on other platforms, to build a synergy and extend the reach of your message.

These may sound simple, but good content that’s re-purposed appropriately will make a huge impact.

ClearPoint President Brenda Murphree wrote a VIP guest commentary on “Navigating the Changing Landscape of Advertising” for the July-August issue of Builder+Architect.  Here’s an excerpt:

“Advertising used to be pretty straightforward.  In the words of one old-style agency guy,  ‘Advertising is what you do when you can’t go see somebody.’ You have a product or service that people want or need, you put out information about it, and if you’re smart enough, you make a sale.’

‘Advertising, in other words, was how you presented your product in a persuasive, informative way.’

‘Then everything changed.’

‘In the last few years, the increasingly rapid pace of technological innovation has fueled an already growing information explosion and upturned the rules of advertising.’

‘In the first decade of this century the number of websites grew from 24 million to over 206 million worldwide.  Camera phones, first introduced less than 10 years ago, are now practically everywhere, with an estimated 1.9 billion worldwide.  And smartphones, those multi-purpose gadgets with a built-in operating system, are now in the hands of  over 17% of all adults in the U.S. ‘

‘In today’s world, the consumer is the gatekeeper, not the marketer, and the rules of the game have changed from persuasion to engagement.”

You can read the full article in the digital edition of the magazine, which is available online at wnc.builderarchitect.com/digital-editions.  (Scroll down to the bottom for the current issue.)

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Are you amazed that retailers seem to know just when you have special needs and send you a direct mail piece with exactly the right product at precisely the right time?

The way, for example, every baby furniture retailer in the area, every disposable diaper company in the United States, and the marketing department at Parents Magazine, all know to put special offers in your mailbox just as you arrive home with the new baby. How do they do it?  They’re not psychic, they’re just using one or more of the ‘-graphics’ – demographics, psychographics, synchrographics.

All marketers use research to help them target likely customers – our “target audience” – and we sometimes spend a lot of money to identify them.  The way to do this is to group people by similar characteristics so that we can develop marketing programs that will be highly appealing to large groups.  That way we get maximum bang for our marketing bucks – which translates into  more money for the bottom line.

The most common way to target customers is through demographics – grouping people by characteristics such as age, sex, race, income, educational level, home ownership, employment status, or geographic location.  A Mercedes dealer, for example, would be more successful  targeting their 500-Series automobiles to people making incomes of over $100,000 a year than to those making under $40,000.

But what if you could drill down to even more specific information about your target audience?  Wouldn’t that make your marketing efforts even more efficient?  You can, and it does.  This method – called psychographics – breaks down the target group even further to categorize people by attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, lifestyles,  and opinions.  This is what allows that Mercedes dealer to trim its target market to people who are most likely to buy that 500-SL.  They not only go after people  making over $100,000 a year, they also aim for those who live a ‘Mercedes 500-Series’ lifestyle.  After all, there are a lot of people in the $100,000 a year bracket, but their personal values may have them driving a Prius or only American-made cars.  It makes sense not to market to those folks.

What about that last method – synchrographics?   The newest of the three, this one provides data about consumers related to the timing of significant life events.  This is especially useful in direct marketing, because the need or desire for a product can be predicted to happen in conjunction with certain events.  The major life event of having a baby is a perfect example, and businesses take advantage of this very successfully.

But can sychrographics also work for that Mercedes dealer?  You bet.  We know a corporate marketing officer who takes his annual bonus and buys a new car every year.  His local Mercedes dealer knows just when bonus time rolls around and sends the fellow a letter, backed up by a phone call just at the right time, offering him a special deal on a new car.  So every year, he buys a new Mercedes.  If the Lexus dealer in town used synchrographics, maybe they could lure him away.  But until they do, Mercedes will continue to profit.

The bottom line is that the more we know about our customers, the more we can tailor our products and services – and our marketing – to their needs.  So don’t let the cost of research information turn you off.  Sometimes it’s the most profitable thing you can do for your marketing.