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How to Keep Customers on Your Site and Boost Sales

Chris Christoff
Chris Christoff

You don't have to spend a lot of money to keep customers engaged on your website.

Keeping customers on your website is essential for several reasons. The longer users engage with your content, the more likely they are to invest in your brand and move down the sales funnel. They can't turn into paying customers until they trust your business and believe it has something valuable to offer. 

Your business can't expand without customer loyalty, and, as such, it's crucial to create a smooth and efficient user experience on your website. Disruptions, lags, and confusing navigation are the easiest ways to skyrocket your bounce rate and lose conversions. If customers don't enjoy their time on your website, why would they come back?

We're going to look at six ways to keep customers engaged on your website:

  1. Using popup opt-ins to grab their attention and collect their information
  2. Increasing site speed to improve the user experience (UX)
  3. Improving customer support through live chat
  4. Incorporating social proof to gain new visitors' trust
  5. Adding video content to prolong engagement
  6. Reducing friction on your website 

Let's dive in.

1. Use popup opt-ins.

It's especially hard to convince new visitors to join your email list and engage with your content longer. It's crucial to do everything you can to pique visitors' interest and keep in contact to further your marketing efforts. 

Popup 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 popup 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 popups 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 boost your website conversions by 53%, a popup is worth considering to capture leads and reduce cart abandonment.

2. Increase site speed.

We've all had the unfortunate experience of eagerly visiting a website only for it to take ages to load. Many people abandon the webpage. Attention spans are getting shorter, and for mobile users especially, it's important that content loads quickly. Any more than three seconds and users will exit your website, increasing your bounce rate and decreasing conversions. 

To enhance the user experience, improve your website speed. Compress big image files so they load alongside other content on your webpages. Tons of resources let you test your website's speed and tell you what you can do so it loads faster.

3. Improve customer support. 

Far too many websites make it difficult not only to reach the business but to receive customer support. Recent studies show that 79% 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, why 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: The Best Chat Software of 2019]

4. Incorporate social proof.

When visitors browse your website for the first time, they're looking 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. 

It also helps that 92% of customers trust recommendations from people they're familiar with, so positive talk about your brand goes a long way. Consumers today are less trusting about native advertising and what businesses themselves have to say. They'd rather hear from customers, clients and brands who 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 webpage 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, since 64% of consumers buy a product after they watch a video about it. 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, 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 LTVPlus, around 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is just as important as its products and services, 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 better. Update your product descriptions to be clear, detailed and informative. Create a FAQs 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% of users abandon a form after they start it. 

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?

Image Credit: Craft24/Getty Images
Chris Christoff
Chris Christoff
business.com Member
Co-Founder of MonsterInsights, the leading WordPress plugin for Google Analytics.