Have you completed your 2011 census form?

Did you complete it online? It would seem that many people did.  Based on statistics by Experian Hitwise, Robin Goad (Research Director, Hitwise UK) confirmed that on 27th March (one day prior to the UK 2011 Census deadline) the site ranked 32nd in the most popular sites in the UK, with a 208% spike in daily visits.

Let’s take this observation and apply it to everyday website content.

Ok, so we can’t all threaten prosecution, a criminal record and a fine of up to £1000 as a means of driving visitors to our site, but a strong call to action with a deadline in place, is an excellent means of increasing visitor activity.  Generally, this will mean promoting your website through alternative forms of communication.

Here are some examples where you could apply a call to action with a deadline, driving visitors to your site now:

• Send out an email requesting that customers/potential customers complete a survey on your site.  Offer an incentive for all surveys completed by the stated date.

• Run a competition (with an entry deadline) in the local press, email newsletter or social media, directing visitors to your site to enter.

• Offer samples of a product with a cut off date or ‘until stocks last’.  This is an excellent means of encouraging potential customers to sign up to a company Facebook fan page (use a targeted Facebook advert and social media tools), or email database.

• Launch a new product which is available on your site with an introductory price until a specified date.  Promote this using offline advertising, leaflets or Google Adwords.

• Run a promotion on a product which is only available when purchased through your website for a specified period.  Announce this to your existing customers or target customer database as well as promoting through traditional forms of advertising to the general public.  You could make this an regular product ‘promotion of the month’, simliar to our own printing.com offers and let your customers know about it at the beginning of each calendar month.

• Offer coupon codes (10% off online purchases from your site) with expiry dates and promote this through offline advertising, contact with your database, partner sites, Adwords, your company blog and social media.

• Direct visitors to an online resource section of your site, where useful/exclusive information, slide shows or video tutorials will be available within a specified time frame.  This is especially useful if your company has recently presented at a seminar or exhibition.

The above list is not exhaustive by any means, but it is possible to see just how applying a deadline to a strong call to action can help boost visits to your website.

We’d be happy to bounce more ideas around as to how you could apply deadline driven call to actions to your own business website.  Do contact us if you’re interested.

Social Media - Dont Ignore It

This is a question that I am asked on a more and more consistent basis. In the week that saw Facebook announce they now have 350 million registered users, it seemed appropriate time to discuss it on the DV8 blog. Indeed, the Facebook user list is quite staggering, even if we were to assume (and we should never do that. ed.) half of all accounts are inactive. It took radio almost 40 years to reach 50 million users and TV almost 30 years to reach the same figure, Facebook have achieved their current goal in a considerably smaller time frame.
So, with Facebook as just one example, it is clear that ignoring social media is a blinkered head in the sand approach, when we consider the audiences involved. Where social media is key for me, is creating very well targeted links to resources and information. Inbound links are one of the biggest factors taken into consideration by Google’s ranking algorithm, the more presence the provider of the inbound link has, the more weight it carries with Google. In the past website owners have always looked to maintain reciprocal links with other website owners, in the interest of boosting their appeal. Social media opens up the gates and provides endless possibilities for well targetted inbound links to your web pages from user generated content in blogs, profiles and other articles. Every time your web page is linked to, someone is saying “this is a good resource, I found what I need and I recommend it”. By carefully targeting your audience and ensuring your site contains up to date relevant content, your chances of these kinds of “votes of confidence” increases considerably.

This is just one identifiable way of taking a pro active approach to social media, we would love to hear how you use it within your own business or personal life.