There is no doubt a huge difference between someone visiting your site once and someone staying, coming back and becoming a regular customer. Sure, you got them to stop by, but how will you keep getting their attention. This is an off-shoot of the idea that the squeaky wheel gets the grease - but in this case, the goal is to be not an annoying squeak, but a helpful reminder squeak. Less of a call from a telemarketer and more of a "ding" from the oven to tell you the cookies are ready.

So, how do you do it? The steps are simple, the execution less so. The bottom line, you have to give something to get something and you must think of your potential customer and not yourself.

The big plan:

1. Have a professional looking website and give information that shows your potential client how you can help them. Make your first visual statement say that you are credible, capable and polished. Also, make your information more about your visitor than yourself.

2. Give something in exchange for contact information. In making a prospect from a surfer, the contact info is the Holy Grail.

3. Promise to treat their information with integrity.

4. Follow up. There is a fine line between pursuit and nuisance, but the point was to allow you to have prospects to convert to buyers.

The rules of execution are simple: Be brief. Position yourself as an expert. Give something useful. Give reasons to return. Be available. The implementation can be a lot more difficult. Please sign up for our knowledge eXchange (at right) to receive the full article on this topic and get more details on this subtle but powerful process. Don't let the "subscribe me" button worry you... we always give you the option to stop your subscription and we don't blast out sales emails that fill your inbox every week. We do, however, write on this topic occasionally and would be glad to share our knowledge with you as new ideas come into our radar.

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