Is Your Website a One-Hit Wonder?
Few businesses strive for a website that's the equivalent of a one-hit wonder.
If visitors are coming to your site and engaging — possibly even converting
— and then leaving, never to return again, you're probably wondering
why this happens (and if it matters, particularly if overall pageviews or conversion numbers are solid).
Why Marketers Need to Master Page Flow
We're talking to marketers as a part of our
Metrics That Matter
series, and asking them about the importance of visitor retention as
well as the extent they pay attention to recency and frequency of
visits. Below are a few suggestions for analyzing this particular
metric, as well as insight into why it's worth taking a look at these traffic trends.
Not All Visitors Are Created Equal
As we've touched on in earlier articles in this series,
not all visitors who come to your site hold the same value for your
business or your bottom line. Perhaps a one-time visitor heard about an
article on your site from a friend, and wants to casually peruse (but
with no intention of purchasing your product or signing up for your
newsletter). On the other hand, perhaps an ad campaign is resonating
particularly well with targeted Facebook users — and it's resulting in
more high-value traffic and return visitors for your blog.
Jon Gibs, vice president of analytics at
Huge,
points out that, for some businesses, levels of return visitation may
actually be more important than the number of raw visitors.
"If
you assume there is a cost to acquire any given customer, having a high
level of return visitation allows you to amortize your acquisition cost
across multiple visits,
"If
you assume there is a cost to acquire any given customer, having a high
level of return visitation allows you to amortize your acquisition cost
across multiple visits, or more specifically, the revenue that any given user drives," says Gibs.
The amount of emphasis to place on this metric (as well as how you'll
interpret it) varies from business to business. For a mobile app, for
example, frequency of use is hugely important, and a good indicator of
the app's overall success. As
Cezary Pietrzak, former head of marketing at
Appboy
says: "In mobile, the equivalent [to visitor frequency and recency] is
number of sessions and sessions in last X days. These are good
benchmarks for engagement and retention, or the lifeblood of the app.
Installs these days mean nothing. Building a successful business means
you have a steady flow of users who engage with your app on a regular
basis."
But a low rate of visit per visitor isn't necessarily devastating
news for certain types of businesses — the metric is relative. A
quarterly publication may see a spike in web traffic after publishing
its latest issue; meanwhile, a daily deals site may wince at traffic
that recurs only four times a year. Discounting one-time visitors isn't
black and white, either; perhaps the visitor who just wanted to check
out your site's content once might pass the word along to friends who
actually
will purchase or convert.
Navneet Virk, vice president of optimization at
Roundarch Isobar,
points out the differences between a banking site, which may have
significantly high numbers of visits per visitor (since users are
continuously checking their balances), and a retail site, where purchase
may be a one-time occurrence. For a luxury retail brand, a high rate of
conversion
may be more indicative of effective marketing than the percentage of
repeat visitors (who may simply be deciding whether or not to buy — or
showing all their friends the $1,200 jacket they wish they could
afford).
The trick is to tailor your metrics analysis efforts to your specific business, needs and objectives.
Serena Satyasai, global marketing lead at
CloudFlare, Inc. suggests that the definition of "active users" should be applied to an individual company's goals.
Frequency and Recency Help Establish Trends
Keeping track of your return visitors and noting their behavior — if
and when they convert or purchase, for example — can be a helpful
indicator that something you're doing on the marketing front is working
(or not).
One of the initial steps in the analytical process should be breaking
your website traffic into different groups or cohorts, based upon their
behavior on your site.
"First
time visitor, second time visitor, loyal visitor — each visitor is not
the same, and determining their frequency of visits/purchases is the
simplest way of segmenting your audience,"
"First
time visitor, second time visitor, loyal visitor — each visitor is not
the same, and determining their frequency of visits/purchases is the
simplest way of segmenting your audience," says
Hugo Smoter, director of marketing for
Spreadshirt.
Once you've completed this grouping process, you can experiment with
different tactics (email marketing, mobile ads, etc.) to appeal to each
segment on an individual basis.
"If you’ve found that people only buy from you after two or five or
10 visits, you need to be paying attention to how you’re attracting
people back," says
Tyler Young, principal consultant for
Conversion Insights.
He adds, however, that — once again — this analysis depends upon the
company and its goals. "I've worked with companies in which 90% of sales
happen the first day a person visits," he says.
Why Traffic Is Digital Marketing's Foundational Metric
Blogs, online dating sites, news sites and service-based platforms
may want to pay closer attention to the metric. If users are signing up
and then jumping ship shortly thereafter, it may be time to address the
efficacy of your site, content or marketing campaigns.
Kellee Khalil, founder and CEO of wedding-planning website
Loverly,
says that the company monitors visitor retention closely. "We know that
once a user creates a free account and bundles images (i.e. creates and
saves a digital folder like gowns or shoes), upon her second bundle,
she is hooked and becomes a 'power user.' She visits many more times a
day and really engages with our content to actively plan her wedding,"
says Khalil.
Page Views Don't Necessarily Equate Sales
While visitor traffic is important information from a marketing,
targeting and messaging perspective, it's important to note that this
data may not automatically correlate with increased leads or sales, says
Jason Squardo, executive vice president of optimization at
ZOG Digital.
He suggests that attribution modeling and tools such as tagged
advertisements or unique landing pages may help identify visitors who
are not only engaged, but also more likely to buy.
Christopher Penn, vice president of marketing technology at
SHIFT Communications,
suggests that companies focus on the big picture. "As a marketer, you
don't really care what the proportion of new to returning visitors is.
You care that both audiences are growing. You want more new visitors,
and you want more returning visitors. It's much better to measure each
separately rather than the blend or mix of both," says Penn.
Content Is Key
There's a reason that content marketing
— both as a buzzword and in practice — is on the rise. If your visitors
are confused, unimpressed or bored, it's unlikely that you'll remain on
their radar.
To encourage visitor retention — as well as entice new visitors — a solid content strategy is a must.
"Getting
people to an online destination is hard enough, and getting them to
return is even harder. That's where the content comes in,"
"Getting
people to an online destination is hard enough, and getting them to
return is even harder. That's where the content comes in," says
Rob Longert, co-founder at an independent PR and strategy firm. "To get
people to come back, the content has to be engaging, fresh and
compelling on a regular basis." Longert says that leveraging fans and
followers on social channels is another way to engage with your brand or
product's pre-existing audience, as well as encourage visitor
retention.
In addition, a successful content strategy can build strong brand affinity and loyalty, says
Stephanie Fried, VPof digital insights and marketing for
Discovery Communications.
"Ideally, we want to create a habit of visitation among our users so
that visiting our sites is part of their regular routine," she says.
Thoughtful, high-quality content is one way to reign in visitors and keep them coming back.
Alexis Anderson, director of marketing and partnerships for
PureWow,
stresses the importance of quality edit: "You can't fake good content.
No marketing trick in the world can make up for subpar content,
especially in front of a very discerning reader."
How does your business measure visitor retention? Is it an important metric for your site? Tell us in the comments.
Christmas season is in full swing, which can only mean one thing: You're
already sick of hearing "All I Want From Christmas Is You" and a slew
of other holiday medleys. 
