By , Ann Smarty
Published May 03, 2016
For an ecommerce site there are two positive actions possible by visitors: (1) They buy your product or service or (2) they engage, become part of your community and, if you do everything right, your brand ambassador.
Marketers can argue which of those two actions is more important: While monetary conversions are easy to translate into ROI, repeat visitors mean more reliable web presence and, in the long run, lower marketing budgets (those brand advocates build your brand for you!)
In reality, both actions are important for a business well-being. What's essential is to never overlap the two: You risk confusing the user and see no action at all. Here are three ways to engage your users without ever distracting them from making a purchase:
People engage with people. We want to chat with other human beings, not brands. Search engines also favor recognizable experts behind big brands: The recently released Google rating guidelines mention that human reviewers need to be constantly checking the "About" page of every website they are rating in search results.
A personal brand behind your business is a huge win. And the first step to establishing that personal brand is a thorough "About" page.
There are a few easy-to-follow best practices when it comes to creating your "About page" but the main takeaway is: Make it trustworthy and memorable. Stuffing keywords, marking sure to use every single H1 through H6 tag, and using bad grammar just to fit your pet phrase aren't going to do your page any good. Including valuable, readable and relevant information for your customer is what will help your page rank. Videos, contact information and verified social media information is really what your visitors are looking for, and so is the search engine.
Related: The Strongest Connections Come From Telling Your Story
The world is pretty small when it comes to niche marketing. Look around your industry: I am sure there are just a handful of people you see daily throughout your favorite blogs and social media feeds. You recognize their faces and you subconsciously trust the page you see them on.
That's the essence of influencer marketing: You invite recognized niche experts to contribute to your site and thus accomplish several important tasks:
Influencer marketing works no matter what size your company. And by offering an ROI of 6.5:1, influencer marketing can quickly become a marketer's best friend.
"The whole concept of celebrity is very different than it was just a few years ago,” said Jamie Reardon, CEO of Find Your Influence, a leading influencer marketing platform. "Today's celebrity is a micro celebrity having huge influence on a small but important community that can spread your message further.''
One of my favorite and easiest forms of influencer marketing is doing an expert interview or an expert round-up, which I usually crowd-source using MyBlogU.
Related: The 4 Digital C's Needed for Brand Ambassadors to Thrive
There are tons of possible actions a user can perform on your site, including the most obvious one like signing up for your newsletter, but very few of those actions provide instant feedback.
I am currently experimenting with these two apps to try and engage my readers while still giving them something back right away:
ChatWoo is a free chat software giving your visitors an instant shout box to quickly engage with you or your readers. The best part about this one is that it has no limits and it's currently absolutely free. It also integrates easily in most popular CMS including Wordpress, Joomla, Presta Shop and others.
The app looks useful for:
The other app, Qeryz, is an interesting survey app with a twist (you can test it right on their website).
Related: 3 Critical Principles of Effective Calls to Action
https://www.foxnews.com/us/3-ways-to-engage-your-site-visitors