4 Tips for Making Social Visitors Regular Users

One of the biggest problems with social media is that there’s just so much of it. So many people with so many posts. So much content.

The result is that you often feel overwhelmed. Instead of clicking on anything and going anywhere, you just scroll and scroll. That may be great if you’re a user, but what if you’re a business or site owner? It’s nice to get brand awareness, but it’s even better to get a click that converts into a sale or subscriber or whatever your campaign goal is.

So, how do you go about doing that? Consider these four strategies aimed at boosting traffic and conversion rates.

1. Identify high-quality links that can create sustainable traffic.

Targeted traffic is key for improving your social visitor-to-website-user conversion rate. It all comes down to your links and whether people are clicking on them or not.

That last point is what you want to think about the most. For instance, posting on your home-page feed is fine if you have hundreds of eager followers and friends just waiting to hear what you have to say. If your page or profile doesn’t reflect that enviable scenario, however, you need to rethink your strategy. One way is to seek high-quality links.

Links on social media are often considered higher-quality links, because social sites have a high web authority from the get-go. Even if your Facebook page is new, for example, it’s likely to rank highly.

Why is this? The reason is that social media sites have a higher trust factor than other link sources. This still begs the question: What are higher-quality links, and how can you go about getting them?

The answer is to use tools such as BuzzSumo to identify who the influencers are in your field and what they’re talking about, then connect with them and encourage them to mention you so you can get a link and traffic.

2. Remember that people will stay on social media unless you give them a reason to click.

One of the most frustrating things I see on a daily basis is great social media posts that fail to convince me. What am I talking about?

I mean those awesome posts that are doing everything right on-site but don’t make the sale on social media. They don’t tell me to buy, or click or whatever it is the web owner wants. We’re talking about the lack of a “call to action.”

Twitter is one social network that’s tried to address this problem. More and more, you see tweets like this:

We all know that using images on your social media posts will boost click-through rates and engagement: “Photos average a 35 percent boost in Retweets,” Media Blog reported last year. Still, is that enough? I don’t think so, and the above Tweet is a great example. It doesn’t do enough to make me want to click or share.

So, how do you get people interested enough to click through to your site? Not giving a lot away is one way to do that; try to keep an element of surprise to your posts. This Marketing Land tweet is a good example:

There’s a fine line between sharing too little and sharing too much, and you want to find it.

Graphs are another good way to tease those following you on social media. SEMrush did that well with this tweet:

3. Honing headlines to create desire in users

One of the best ways to ensure that social visitors become regular users of your site is to have high-quality content. I've mentioned before that the most important reason to produce high-quality content is that that is what Google wants you to do. We know from a Shareaholic study that Google snags 31 percent of Internet traffic, so giving Google what it wants is critical.

What constitutes high quality, and how can you go about creating it? Here's the secret: Most content that’s out there today is high-quality.The problem is that there’s so much of it that it’s hard for anyone to stand out from the pack, let alone grab people’s attention. That’s what titles and headlines are for.

Adding a few words behind your post’s title can really narrow down who you want to target. Here’s an example: "10 Ways to Build Traffic Quickly" vs. "10 Ways Content Marketers Can Build Traffic to Their Landing Page." That’s a pretty simple example, but it gives you an idea of how to target more viewers, something that can lead to the high-quality links you want. That high-quality content will lead to higher traffic, as social visitors turn into regular users.

4. Remarketing to snag lost users

In February 2014 we had an article on Kissmetrics that discussed turning online visitors into customers without their even knowing it. The post discussed quite a few things, including "remarketing."

The whole idea behind remarketing is getting those old users back, because we all know that some users drop off after a while. Maybe they get bored with your content or style or tone. Sometimes they move on in life, get a new job or experience other changes that make your site less important to them

That’s fine; it happens, but what also happens are that people in your niche move on because they think you lack value. Remarketing reminds them of what made you great in the first place, and that just might be enough to get back on to their bookmark bar.

That February post used sidebar advertising as an example, a good strategy to follow. We’ve come a long way since then, however, and there are plenty of more options:

Targeted advertising that focuses on the key demographics in your audience.
Offers of discounts to entice lost users back to your site or email list
Promotional ebooks or a blog series to draw attention and prolong it over a period of time

One of the tricks with attracting those lost users back is staying consistent and in view. We know from a recent HubSpot post that consistent blogs are 13 times more likely to get a positive ROI.

Conclusion

Engagement is key on social media today, and the more you can get, the more likely it is that you’ll turn casual visitors into regular users. This is why high-quality links come about when you offer great content with actionable headlines and calls to action. By honing these aspects of your social media posts, you’ll create more engagement -- something that will boost your relevance in the eyes of the social networks.

Since social networks are much more relevant to Google and other search engines these days, your site’s reputation will increase in those users' eyes. That’s great, because engagement will mean more traffic and, hopefully, more conversions. More than that, engagement will create loyalty and trust.

Engagement, content, calls to action: These are the hallmarks of successful brands, and when you build these things into your marketing efforts, you’ll see your audience grow steadily.

So, use these tips to turn more social visitors into regular users. Can you afford not to give them a try?