Despite what you might first think, stickiness is one of the new Internet words that’s perfectly acceptable to use at the dinner table.
In fact, use it at your next social event and your friends will be seriously impressed.
So what does it mean? Stickiness is the degree to which customers stay on your site, either in terms of one long session or frequent shorter visits.
Sticky sites keep customers, whereas an unsticky site means they leave quickly and generally don’t return. Put simply, stickiness is the difference between success and failure. Because developing and maintaining a Web site requires significant investment both in terms of finances and manpower, you need to ensure the end justifies the means.
The worst possible scenario is to have spent time and money developing a site, only to discover that no-one visits it.
Customers tend to view Web sites in a rather black and white way, mentally assigning them to one of three main categories.
Favourites is where you really want to be. It’s a personalised list of sites that customers bookmark, visit regularly and communicate openly with. Outside this area, customers will have a good look around at other Web sites to see what’s available and will categorise into worth visiting again and not worth visiting again. Your objective is try and get your Web site on your customer’s favourites list.
The key question is what makes something sticky? Which features should be adopted and which avoided?
If I had a magic formula for stickiness, I’d be living on a yacht in the Caribbean by now.
Although I can give you some guidelines (see below), the truth is that there’s no tried and tested process, especially as different techniques work for different customer types and product categories.
I think that ultimately as the industry matures, some general rules will evolve as they have done for off-line marketing but at the moment, it’s just a case of testing, developing and enhancing your product.
Above all, I would strongly urge you to spend quite a lot of time looking at other sites, both in terms of other travel and non-travel sites in the UK and overseas.
Have a good look at what they do and how they do it. You’ll soon get some good ideas about what works and what doesn’t and when you find yourself spending a lot of time at a particular site, try and work out what it is that’s keeping you there.
It’s important however, to try and distance yourself from what you like personally from what your customers will like. There is usually a difference.
I would also recommend that you give your e-mail address at some sites and become a registered user, sign up for updates, request information and maybe even buy some goods on-line.
Experiencing it first hand is extremely useful and you’ll view your own situation with very different eyes once you’ve actually been through this process.
Sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference. Try to book something refundable or failing that, check with your company on what’s OK, and what’s not, before committing any expenditure. Just don’t try and put that three week trip to the Maldives on expenses!
While I believe that looking at other Web sites is very useful indeed, you need to adapt any ideas you have to your own business situation.
People who have really sticky sites create their own unique Web identity that is as unique and differentiated as their company’s goods and services.
They work hard to constantly improve and update their site so it never looks tired and always seems fresh.
And finally, be sure to take full advantage of your Web reporting tools which measure activity on your site.
If you don’t know what these are, where yours are or how to interpret the data, find out now.
Your reporting tools will analyse traffic to your site, show the flow of traffic to your site and calculate the average time people stayed there.
The reason this information is so important is because it’s only by understanding and using this data that you’ll really know what’s working and what’s not.
So when it comes to fine tuning your product, improving your Web site and maximising your stickiness, knowledge truly is power.
n Be inspiring: make sure the information on your site, its presentation and delivery, is interesting and inspiring for your customers.
n Be different: don’t be a sheep. Think about who your company is and who your customers are at an individual level and do your own thing rather than copying what someone else does. One fast route to stickiness is to have innovative content that only you provide.
n Be focused: don’t treat your customers like sheep. Segment your audience according to relevant criteria such as age, product, geographic region, spend etc and let this reflect what you say and how you say it.
n Be fresh: ensure the information on your Web site is updated frequently. Information that’s past its sell by date is inexcusable.
n be simple: check that the information, and route through your site, is clear and simple. Anything that’s too complex becomes counter-productive and switches people off.
n Be brave: if you’ve got some ideas that you’re not sure about, why not test them. Look at site traffic and any other measures you have and judge the effect for yourself.
n Be funny: think about using humour in your communications, if appropriate. Used carefully, it can sometimes help forge relationships and break down barriers.