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Ho Ho Hmmmm
Using Events to Drive Web Traffic Increase Conversions

I have a friend and occasional client who is somewhat of an accomplished poet ... he writes the kind of verse that resonates with people and leaves you feeling good. I doubt he'll ever win the Pulitzer Prize for literature but he often wins the "feel good award" of the day.

Nowhere is his literary talent more on display than during the Christmas season. Each year my friend labors mightily to capture the meaning of the season and the thankfulness he feels for friends and family at this special time. Once completed, he produces a postcard with poem and holiday portrait of his family combined and happily sends it out to family, friends and valued customers. Over the 10 years he's fostered this tradition, the arrival of this card has become a much-anticipated event.

(Note to readers: the shameless e-commerce division will now take over this holiday tale...)

My friend, this year, started a new card distribution 'tradition'; he created a PDF version of the card on his website and created a link back to it from his December ezine. The results? Click-throughs from his ezine to the 'card' soared. His click-through rate went up 330%. In fact, he generated more click-throughs from this 'event' then he had for the last 3+ issues of his ezine combined. The benefit to his customers? Priceless as hundreds came away with a renewed sense of the wonder and magic of the Yuletide season. The benefit to his business? Who knows, very little perhaps? Not that this was the point (I know that my friend would argue that it wasn't nor should it have been) but...

My friend - who makes his living communicating with people - passed up a wonderful opportunity to let a whole lot more people know what a powerful and insightful communicator he is (as well as just a darned nice human being).

Making the Most of Your Events
What could he have done differently to make this 'event' more meaningful for his business? A couple of things...

• The document he created was delivered as a straight link to a rather large PDF file. There was no navigation into or out of the link from his web site. This assumes people have the PDF reader plug-in and, for the bandwidth challenged, the patience to wait for such a large file to download.
• A better strategy would have been to create a landing page with the poem and picture delivered in bandwidth-friendlier html with an option to download the PDF version. In addition, this page would have provided entry into the rest of his site for those who had never visited or were curious to see what had changed.
• Because of the lack of a landing page to house the card, my friend missed an opportunity to engage people further by inviting those who might have been referred there by friends or colleagues to subscribe to future editions of his ezine or even to browse through back issues.

An effective strategy would have been to provide...

1. a simple ezine sign-up form (along with an assurance that he follows a strong privacy policy) and,
2. with a heart warmer, like this a Forward-to-a-Friend link is a natural. This would have allowed visitors who were moved by my friend's 'gift' to easily offer it to their friends as well.

Without seeming too crass there are other opportunities that this kind of event afforded, for instance, he might have offered holiday discounts and savings on the goods and services he provides as a way to boost year end sales while giving his visitors a nice seasonal price break.

The Bottom-line
My friend, perhaps inadvertently, created an event. Events can be a powerful tool in driving traffic and business on the web, just like in the bricks and mortar world. Read the newspaper for any day of the week and count the number of 'events' being held around your neighborhood and your town - why so many? Because they create excitement and buzz and a break from the 'same old' routine. So ask yourself this question, "What kind of 'events' can I create that will drive customers to my web site from my ezine or other web-focused channels in order to generate positive buzz, increased traffic, more subscribers and, of course, new business?

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