How To Engage Website Visitors: Top Tips & Ideas To Steal
The ultimate guide on why website engagement matters and how it impacts conversions.
Getting traffic to your website is tough. It takes time (and usually some money) to get your target audience’s attention. And it’s really important you know what to do once you’ve got all eyes on you.
If your business is like most others, you want traffic turned into conversions. And if you want conversions, you need engagement.
Website engagement is the secret sauce of success. It keeps customers coming back. It keeps their attention. And it gets you long-lasting results. Here’s how engagement works:
- Website visitors spend more time with you instead of competitors
- Website visitors are more likely to hang around your website if it’s interesting
- Website visitors share interesting content with colleagues, friends, or family members
Add all this up, and you’ve got a recipe for conversions. If you can engage with website visitors, you can earn trust and build connections. This is what tips everything in your favor when it’s time for visitors to click a CTA button. Or add something to their cart. Or subscribe to your newsletter.
So now that it’s clear why engagement matters, it’s time to discover how to nurture it. Let’s dig in.
Give your visitors “free stuff”
Would you give your phone number away at the drugstore in return for nothing? Probably not. But would you give it away if you got discounts and rewards in return? Almost certainly.
The same applies to your website visitors. If you need something from them, like an email address, you gotta give them something in return. Examples include:
- eBooks
- Exclusive video content
- Free samples
- Limited-time offers or discounts
- Free trial periods
If this ain’t your first rodeo, you know the examples above are often classified as lead magnets.
Lead magnets are a way to attract casual website visitors and get them in a funnel. They give customers a taste of what your brand offers. And they help convert online traffic into loyal customers.
Lead magnet pro tips:
- Make sure whatever you’re giving away for free provides value in some way
- It could be educational, entertaining, or a way to expose visitors to your product
- Invest in your lead magnet because even though it’s free, it could yield you a high ROI
Make suggestions with auto-populated content
Get ready because this is a two-for-one deal and it’s like shooting fish in a barrel if you do it right. First, suggest related resources at the end of landing pages or blogs. Or wherever you feel is most appropriate.
If you can keep your website visitors reading, you can hold their attention for that much longer. Not only does this decrease your bounce rate, but it also increases page views. And the more time they spend on your website, the higher the chances they’ll convert.
Second, embed your social media feed somewhere on your website. Usually, it’s towards the bottom of the homepage. No matter where you put it, visitors should be able to find it easily and interact with it right from your website.
This keeps them engaged, spending time on your website, and bonding with your brand. And as we know, the more you connect with your visitors, the more likely they are to convert.
Social media and related content pro tips:
- Trigger related content popups as users scroll down each page
- Show related content at the bottom of an article. Use your content manager’s tags and categories to automate this
- Use a plugin to show Facebook, Instagram, or other social posts. Make sure the plugin populates content automatically so it’s always current
Publish different types of content
Most of us know by now that content reigns supreme on the internet. It’s necessary for social media. It’s what gets you ranking in the search engines. And it’s something that keeps website visitors engaged.
Most importantly, it’s not limited to articles and blogs. Sure, written content is critical for performance. But it’s important to diversify the content you offer to, you guessed it, keep visitors engaged. Here are some ideas to try:
- Videos
- Gifs
- Infographics and charts
- Tutorials
- How-tos
- Product demos
- Testimonials
- eBooks
- Interactive quizzes and questionnaires
- Webinars and courses
- User-generated content (also known as UGC)
- Downloadable content
Now, it’s not about spicing things up for the sake of it. It’s about presenting valuable information in new and interesting ways. Every piece of content you make should serve some purpose:
- Educate
- Entertain
- Solve a problem
- Answer a question
- Build trust
Content pro tips:
- Not everyone’s a professional graphic designer or writer. And not everyone has the time to create stunning content
- Don’t be afraid to outsource content creation. Or anything else that’s related to your website, for that matter
- Hiring professionals to make content, design your website, or manage your SEO is a great way to create a better experience for your customers
Final thoughts on how to engage website visitors
Even if you’ve got traffic out the wazoo, it doesn’t mean much if you aren’t getting any conversions. This is where engagement comes in — it’s the key to more sales and better analytics. Here’s everything you learned about web conversions and engagement in this guide:
- Offer website visitors something valuable in exchange for their email address
- Leverage your content management system to automatically organize and populate related resources
- Embed social media feeds on your website
- Diversify the kinds of content you publish on your website
- Don’t be afraid to invest in professional help. It’ll save you time and your customers will thank you for it
Excited to get more info about engagement and conversions? Check out our blog here for helpful digital marketing resources. It’s always updated with pro tips, ultimate guides, and more.
