There was a time in the early days of the “dot-com boom” that companies and brands focused primarily on driving traffic to their website. More visitors meant more traffic, which meant more value to advertisers, buyers of websites, and sellers of products and services.
Today, that old script has flipped on its head. While a high volume of visitors is still essential, it’s not the most important focal point. Instead, brands strive for an engaged audience, even if the total number of visitors is not as large as it once was.
Why is this? Quite simply, because an engaged audience is more likely to result in conversions. Here are a few reasons why this is true.
Engagement Equals Loyalty
Visitors who engage with your brand are more likely to be loyal to you. In business terms, more loyal visitors are more likely to keep coming back for more.
No matter what type of website you have — whether it’s a blog or a company site selling products or services — it’s essential that you have repeat visitors. These loyal customers are the fuel that will drive the success of your website.
Brands focus so much on increasing engagement with their followers because of that fact.
Engagement Equals Recommendations
Everyone knows that word of mouth is extremely valuable. The challenge is that it’s not easy to generate.
Engaged website visitors are more likely to recommend your site to their friends, family, and associates. The best part about this is that they’re likely to recommend you through social media channels.
It’s easy nowadays for people to drop a link to your website or tag your social media accounts in one of their posts, making it even more important to have a robust website and active social media pages.
Engagement Equals Purchases
The more engaged your visitors are, the more likely they are to purchase from you. If you sell a product or service, it’s evident that this is the primary way to measure your success.
You could have a million visitors to your website every day, but if none of those visitors make a purchase, how valuable are they to you? The ultimate goal of any website is to convert a visitor into a customer.
Even if you don’t sell products now, having engaged visitors will allow you to sell products later if you choose to expand your offering.
Engagement Equals Feedback
Engaged visitors are more likely to respond when you ask them. They are more likely to vote in a poll, fill out a survey, and give general feedback about your products, services, or brand.
This feedback can prove crucial to brands. Feedback from loyal, engaged customers can help you improve your website design, your content, your social media channels, and even your products.
Feedback is at its most valuable when it comes from several sources. You can get this varied feedback if you have an active and engaged audience. It would be incredibly difficult to get that from a larger, non-engaged audience.
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