“What’s new, what’s next, what’s up,” is the arena that you need to tap into.

Website “stickiness” can be described as the ability to engage the visitor with original and exciting content that keeps them coming back.  The latest news, breakthroughs, ideas, and interesting tips just to name a few.

There are many ways websites can meet the demands of insatiable customers.

1. User Contributions: Encourage your customers to provide feedback about their experience with your products, your company, and your service. Provide a way for them to rate products, preferably with a simple one-click rating mechanism.  Industries that do this quite well are the following: Cell Phones, Books, Movies, Restaurants, and Software
2. Periodic Updates: To maintain the relationship with existing customers and to encourage new relationships, include: company news, corporate events, executive hires, conferences, speaking engagements and industry news (like technological breakthroughs, or even tax and regulatory changes, to cite a few examples).
3. Video: Video on your site increases engagement with your customers. WebProNews stated, “Nearly 70% of Internet users view online video during the day and night with similar spikes occurring both at home and at work. People across all demographics are watching online videos consistently. 28% visited an advertised brand or product’s website after viewing a high engagement video versus only 10% for low engagement video.” Besides being a source of information and hopefully entertaining, the video should have a call to action.
4. 4. Audio/Visual Presentations and Interviews: Many companies have presentations about their products, their industry, speaking engagements, overview of the industry, trade shows, etc. If they are not company secrets share them with your readers. The more information populating your pages the better the world will know about your company. Someone might even quote the material and provide a link back to the website if they find the information interesting. It’s a helpful way to share information, and greatly improves your SEO score with search engines to boot!
5. 5. Customer Surveys: The popular blogger, Chris Brogen, did a successful job turning his book launch into a customer survey. His book is about running your business like life and creating invaluable relationships along the way. Here’s what he wrote to me. “I believe that lots of situations in business feel a lot like relationships, and vice versa. What do you think about that? Does that make sense to you? I had a few thoughts about how to run one’s business like a life, and vice versa, and I want your feedback. Just reply to this email, and we’ll talk about it. Good?” This is personal, engaging, and I am confident that when I reply he will get invaluable information on how to sell better to his target market, while making his readers feel good that their opinion is important. Excellent.

Readers have a natural curiosity to check “what’s up” so let your website satisfy them with interesting, relevant, dynamic information.  Think about it as if you are building a community and servicing it.

Esther Ohayon is Director of Business Development at Gavoah Marketing, a web marketing company that specializes in assisting entrepreneurs assert themselves as leaders in their field. She guides her clients to bring their vision to life by creating and optimizing their online presence with search engine optimization strategies, social media tactics and viral marketing initiatives Spending most of her career helping companies and non-profits succeed in sharing their unique message with their target markets, both online and off, Esther zeros in on new trends, building brands and creating strategic partnerships. An expert communicator, both written and oral. www.gavoah.com