This activity is intended to highlight methods of on-site promotion which may cause people to visit a web site, stay for longer than one click and then return. For each of the following techniques, discuss:

1 how the incentives should be used;

2 why these incentives will increase the length of site visits and the likelihood of return to the site;

3 the type of company for which these techniques might work best.

Techniques

Sponsorship of an event, team or sports personality.

A treasure hunt on different pages of the site, with a prize.

A screensaver.

A site-related quiz.

Monthly product discount on an e-commerce site.

Regularly updated information indicated by the current date or the date new content is added.

Note that as well as ‘up-front’ incentives there are some simple techniques that make a site

‘fresh’, which can be used to generate repeat visits. These include:

daily or weekly update of pages with a date on the web site to highlight that it is updated regularly;

regular publication of industry- or product-specific news;

the use of e-mails to existing customers to highlight new promotions.