1.09 Why attract existing clients?

The first question to ask is not how to attract your existing clients - but why. Why do you want them to visit, what benefits do you expect for your practice and what do you expect your clients to take away from from a visit to your site?

All very new
First, look at what you already provide for your existing clients which will translate into content on your web site. If you already produce a practice newsletter or regularly send information to clients then your web site will enable you to enhance their effectiveness – and possibly reduce your production costs. If you don't provide these, or similar services like regular newspaper articles, then you should consider carefully whether or not you need to develop your web site to attract existing clients. It isn't essential to do so.

Why do you want them to visit?
You need to define the benefits you expect to come from clients visiting your web site. These may be purely commercial – increasing sales of products and uptake of services. At the other end of the spectrum altruistic - promoting responsible animal ownership within the community you serve. In practice you will probably find a balance.

What do your clients take away from a visit?
Information in some form. The challenge is to define which information. The Internet is an enormous information resource, your practice web site a mere drop in its ocean. What information can you provide your clients which will uniquely answer their needs.

Regularity
Attracting your clients to visit your web site the once isn't going to keep them up to date with the latest products, introduce them to your new services or find a home for that unwanted mongrel. You need them to visit regularly, the more often the better. The information you provide must both answer their needs and attract them to visit your site again - and again – and again.

Regular visits
It isn't too difficult to convince people to visit your web site once. If you include your web address everywhere you can - on letterheads, invoices, business cards, advertisements and posters in the waiting room – and add a call to “Visit our web site today” – then your clients are quite likely to visit out of curiosity – once.

Once or twice
Put yourself in a position similar to one of your clients. Let's suppose that you spot a web address that interests you. You visit the site. You find interesting articles and a promise to remain current, to add new content, to stay up to date. You bookmark the site.
Later, you return to the site, if you find that the content has been updated as promised then you are likely to visit again. You may become a regular visitor. You are more likely to purchase items from their catalogue.
On the other hand, if the content is unchanged, the promises unfulfilled, then the likelihood of your third visit diminishes. A third visit to an unchanged site will, almost certainly, be your last.

Updating content?
How often do you need to update the information on your site? It's a balancing act. You want to spend the minimum amount of time creating new material. Your clients want to see new articles relevant to their interests every time they visit. You want them to remember your site and visit it regularly. They will stop visiting if you update your site too slowly.

How often?
Another little exercise. If you find and bookmark a web site that covers a subject that you are interested in and which promises regularly updated content - how long would you wait before visiting for a second time and how many visits would you make before assuming that the promise was false and that the site wasn't going to be updated.
Assuming that the site was updated regularly, how often would this have to happen for you to continue to remember to visit?

All or nothing
If you decide that there are good reasons to attract regular repeat visits from your existing clients then you need to make a full commitment. A regular flow of new information is essential to keep them coming back. There is no point in doing it halfheartedly. Better to create a very good site designed to only serve the needs of your potential clients than to promise a site with regular updates to interest your existing client base and then fail to deliver on your promise.

Lets consider what kind of content you need to create.

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