It’s hard to separate any business idea from the need for an online presence these days. We’ve discussed turning app ideas into a reality before, and the truth is whether your business idea starts with an app or not, it will probably need one eventually, in addition to a functioning website and a strong social media presence. These internet features provide direct channels through which customers and users can interact with your products, services, and/or content, whatever they may be.
In the early going, any kind of online and/or mobile presence you develop will be only as big as your existing audience is. It’s not as if simply releasing an app or designing a website automatically brings in traffic (unless you have a really strategic domain!). And what follows is not necessarily a list of ways to gain traffic – that’s a whole different online marketing discussion that can fill volumes. However, these are some helpful suggestions for how to keep whatever traffic you have engaged, and keep your online tools from growing stale or unnecessary.
1. Use Push Notifications
If you have a deep-rooted belief that push notifications are annoying, you can be forgiven. They absolutely are annoying when used too frequently or when they’re related to apps or websites you aren’t actually interested in. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful when used correctly. Indeed, according to one analysis conducted over a 90-day span, push notifications could drive retention rates by as much as 180 percent, which is a fairly astounding number! That’s something you should be taking advantage of via your website, app, or both. Just make sure you don’t send them out so regularly as to become a nuisance. Make sure your push notifications offer real value, and that they are only occasional, and they might just keep people using your online tools interested and coming back for more.
2. Focus On Navigation
Unless you’re involved in the actual design of your business website or app, this might be a foreign concept to you. It’s a simple concept though. Navigation essentially refers to how (and how easily) visitors can navigate on a given platform, and it can actually have a lot to do with whether or not users are retained. By focusing on sleek, intuitive navigation you can make your website or app appealing for a visitor, and create a logical pathway that drives either further interest, a sale, or both.
3. Provide Polls & Bets
This is a less common idea, but it’s something that gives you a fun, regular, playful way to engage with users. Think for instance about the recent buzz about the U.S. legalizing sports betting. The excitement isn’t just about betting. A U.S. platform covering all of the news in this regard just recently wrote about the potential for political turnover in the UK as it relates to betting markets, and in some cases people will bet about TV shows, Academy Awards, or whatever else. The lesson here is that people like to speculate about anything that interests them, and they like to see results. So, we’re not suggesting “bets” in the sense of money being on the line. But by polling your users on questions related to your business or industry (say you’re in mobile entertainment – post a poll like, “Will Fortnite be the most popular mobile game at the end of
August?), you can keep people engaged and having fun.
4. Offer Incentives
Reward and incentive programs are nothing new, but they’ve been around so long because they’re effective. And now they’re easier than ever to implement! Of course, the specifics do depend to an extent on the nature of your business, but you can always come up with something. If you’re providing premium content of some kind, you can offer a trial period before a subscription is due; if you’re offering a service, you can offer a future discount after an initial purpose; and if you’re selling products, you can implement a basic reward structure whereby a given item is free after a certain number of purchases. These kinds of incentives are easy to offer and then keep track of for your users online, such that it’s all automated and likely very effective.
5. Offer Content
We’ll wrap up with perhaps the most basic idea on this list, which is to provide content! That could mean just about anything, but we’re referring specifically to written or recorded content, relevant to your business but meant for quick, easy consumption. Think of it this way: if you just offer an online store, there’s no reason for even devoted users to visit your platform every day. If you also include a blog or occasional videos or audio recordings related to your products or industry though, you have something to tweet out, or to tempt daily visitation with. It requires some work, if not a whole creative team if you have a bigger company, but it can certainly increase engagement.
