How to Keep Customers on Your Site and Boost Sales

How to keep customers engaged on your website

1. Use pop-up opt-ins.

It’s hard to convince new visitors to join your email list and engage with your content longer, which is why designing your website is so important. It’s crucial to do everything you can to pique visitors’ interest and keep in contact to further your marketing efforts.

Pop-up opt-ins are a great way to get their attention and convince them to subscribe to your email list. When users spend a certain amount of time on your website or scroll to a point on your webpage, they’re hit with a pop-up opt-in asking them for their information.

If you ever wondered how to capture the information of users who are about to abandon your website and skyrocket your bounce rate, exit intent pop-ups are the way to go. When your site senses a visitor is about to exit your website, it triggers the opt-in to display. From there, users can decide if they want to hand over their information or continue on their way. Since it can potentially boost your website conversions by about 42 percent, according to OptiMonk, a pop-up is worth considering to capture leads and reduce cart abandonment.

2. Increase website engagement. 

Measuring website engagement metrics is crucial in understanding your customers’ actions and improving their experience on a site, in addition to boosting your sales. High engagement can lead to increased sales conversions, customer satisfaction and average duration on the website. Customers who find your website’s content valuable and engaging are likely to take key actions, leading to higher conversion rates and better search engine optimization (SEO). 

A high level of engagement can also improve SEO ranking by indicating the user’s search intent was met, which can increase the site’s visibility on search engine results pages. Additionally, engagement can lead to higher revenue by encouraging users to visit the site multiple times and ultimately make a purchase. Therefore, as a business owner, you should measure the right website metrics to evaluate how engaging your website is and reap the benefits of high user engagement.

3. Improve customer support.

Far too many websites make it difficult not only to reach the business, but also to receive customer support. A recent study from Verint shows that 64 percent of consumers would take their business to a competitor within a week because of poor customer service. You could have the best products on the market, but if you don’t care about consumers’ needs or solve their pain points, it doesn’t matter.

Customer service must be a core part of your business strategy. Without it, you have no way of collecting feedback and improving your brand’s operations. If it’s difficult for customers to receive support, it’s time to implement stellar customer service practices that convince them to stay on your website.

Use live chat to provide 24/7 accessibility to visitors. If you have an in-house customer service team, they can’t tend to customers around the clock, which is why live chat is so useful. Live chat uses artificial intelligence technology to have conversations with visitors, answer their questions and provide instant assistance.

Because it offers convenience and helps users quickly, live chat support increases conversions as well as user engagement. You can track recurring issues and ask visitors how your business can improve so your business continues to grow. [Read related article: How to Differentiate Chatbots From Practical AI]

4. Incorporate social proof.

When visitors browse your website for the first time, they look for cues that tell them your business is trustworthy. With so many e-commerce options, brands must work extra hard to convince new customers they’re worth spending their dollars on. By incorporating social proof on your website, visitors can see that others love and trust your brand, so they should too. [Read related article: 5 Cringey Brand Fails on Social Media]

Positive talk about your brand goes a long way. Consumers today are less trusting of native advertising and what businesses themselves have to say. They’d rather hear from customers, clients and brands that have done business with you.

You can use the following types of social proof on your website to keep visitors engaged:

• Customer reviews
• Client testimonials
• Brand logos
• Influencer or celebrity endorsements
• Real-time activity
• User-generated content

5. Add video.

It’s no secret that users love video content. The human brain processes visuals approximately 60,000 times faster than text, making it easier to consume and understand. Visual content breaks the monotony and gives users something interesting to look at, improving engagement and encouraging them to stay on your website longer.

Incorporate video marketing into your conversion strategy. Grab users’ attention by adding video content to your homepage, the most visited page on your site. If you can engage visitors the second they land on your homepage, you’re guaranteed to keep them on your website where they can continue to explore.

Consider how video can help you boost sales. Instead of using static images to display your products, use video demonstrations. More than 50 percent of consumers watch online shopping videos, according to Statista. Potential customers can get a clearer look at your products and make an informed purchasing decision when they have videos to guide them.

6. Reduce friction.

If your website is difficult to navigate, you can bet your bounce rate will increase. When there are points of friction in your website’s UX (user experience), it causes irritation and annoyance. Friction is anything that disrupts a user from having a smooth experience on your website and causes them to bounce. According to a report by Epsilon, around 80 percent of customers say the personalized experience a company provides is important, so it’s crucial to pay attention to this aspect of your website.

Shorten the steps it takes for visitors to go from discovery to purchase. The fewer actions they have to take, the more they will feel valued. Update your product descriptions to be clear, detailed and informative. Create a FAQ page that answers visitors’ most common questions so they don’t have to contact you or search the internet for answers.

Make your website mobile-friendly so those on mobile and tablet devices can easily scour your content. Simplify the checkout process so it doesn’t feel like a task to purchase products. Avoid asking customers to fill out more information than necessary, since 81 percent of users abandon a form after they start it, according to The Manifest.

Over to you

Getting customers to your website is one thing, but keeping them there is another story. You need to make sure your site answers their questions, leads them through the sales funnel and provides support. Otherwise, you’ll see an increased bounce rate and a reduction in sales. How will you keep customers engaged on your website?

Lauren Kubiak contributed to this article.