Getting Your Web Site Users to Return

The biggest and most important social media challenge to you as a TV station is to use your platforms to increase ratings by getting new viewers to sample newscasts, and –  even more critically – getting current viewers to watch you more often. If they watched you once a week and now watch you three times a week, that’s great growth.

The same applies to digital. Imagine what it would do to your metrics if you could repeatedly bring back your users throughout the week.

Here’s a hypothetical situation.  Let’s say yesterday a news consumer read a story on your web site that interested her. Today, she wants to know if there are any updates.  How does she find out?

She could go back to your site and search, but that can be frustrating. She’ll look at a few pages, but chances are she won’t find it.  You just might have actually posted an update, but it’s not easy to find. So next, the user tries a Google search, and she’s bounced to another news site to find what she was counting on you to deliver.  To stop that cycle, here’s a new tool you might want to look at.

It’s called Alertme. (Disclosure: We have no connection to AlertMe.)

Here’s how it works.  At the bottom of a story there is an opportunity for the reader to sign up for updates; they are notified via a push alert when a story is posted that offers new information on the story they’re interested in. (They use a series of algorithms and AI to determine if the story is of interest to the user).

Here’ an example from a story on KCRA.com:

We thought this was an interesting tool you might want to consider.  It’s simple. It’s logical and easy for the reader to use. Most importantly, it keeps your readers where you want them – on YOUR site, relying on you for the information they’re looking for.

Growing your user-base isn’t just about attracting more customers.  Your efforts should also focus on generating repeat traffic and loyalty.  CJ&N has found there are many strategies in the digital world for how to go about it.  Contact me and we can talk more about ways to build traffic on your site.