Tourism Internet Marketing U

Web Site Elements That Ensure Return Visits

If you want visitors to your tourism web site to return, and return often, then you have to make it easy for them. There are a number of ways to do that, but I recommend five tools to help you keep your tourism web site in front of the eyes of your target customer and make sure that they return to it again and again. Those five tools are:

• A newsletter
• A “Bookmark This” icon
• A blog
• A community forum
• Some interactive element

There are other ways, of course, but these are some of the most basic elements of web site development. Most of them have been around awhile and successful online marketers use them to promote their businesses – so why shouldn’t you?

Your tourism company newsletter does not need to be anything elaborate. It can be monthly or weekly, but I do not recommend that it be any less than monthly or people will forget about you. Most newsletters work fine as a weekly. To implement this marketing tactic, put a sign up box in a visible location on your tourism web site – preferably “above the fold” – along with a call to action to get your web site visitors to sign up. Make sure you send out your newsletter on time every week.

A “Bookmark This” icon is very simple and unobtrusive. It can be near the top of the page (recommended) or at the bottom, but it does need to be there on every page. That way, your web site visitors can add your web site, or an individual page, to their bookmarks at the click of a button.

A company blog is an almost necessity these days. Relatively new as an Internet marketing tool, it has really caught on. With a blog you can add fresh content to your web site daily and add a competitive edge to your tourism business.

Community forums are very effective in getting people to return to a web site. By creating a community where people can go to meet others, connect with local people, ask questions in a safe environment, and have fun will do a lot to keep them returning again and again.

Interactive elements come in all shapes and sizes. It can be something as simple as a survey or as flashy as a video. Whatever you decide to do, you need to get your visitors to interact with your web site in some way. By getting your visitors to interact, you ensure that your tourism web site is memorable and that your site visitors want to return so they can interact again.

That’s it in a nutshell. Your tourism web site is the door to your online business. If you want to see your business soar, do all that you can to keep people returning to your web site over and over again.

For more information, please take a look at my Generating Repeat Traffic webinar!

-Written by Susan Sweeney