Nieman Journalism Lab
Megan Garber reports that Canada’s National Post is using “welcome mats” to target new Web visitors with messages designed to pique their interest and encourage return visits.
Garber points to a recent use of the technique when Fark.com picked up a story:
“The Post uses the real-time analytics tool Chartbeat — an addiction for many a digital newsie — and so noticed both the spike and its source. So its Web production team updated the school story to include a specialized greeting to the new visitors (“Welcome, Fark readers!”), as well as some hand-curated links that it figured might interest members of the Fark community.”
As Garber notes, this approach is not unique to the National Post, but it is surprising how little it is used by news sites. When implemented effectively, it addresses a key challenge for media organizations: converting first-time visitors into future loyal readers.
Chris Boutet, a senior producer for digital media, tells Garber the strategy serves two main audiences: “nomads” and “natives.” Using welcome mats to feature stories of interest to new readers — the nomads — increases the possibility they will return in the future. And since only a small segment of the audience sees the messages, most loyal visitors — the natives — are not distracted from their routines.
In a post about how to lower your site’s bounce rate, Poynter’s Mallary Jean Tenore noted how Forbes.com uses a similar overlay for referrals from Google:
“When people end up on Forbes.com after searching for something on Google, they see a ‘Welcome Google User’ overlay at the top of the Forbes.com article page. The box contains links to two Forbes.com stories that are related to the terms the person searched for, as well as a link to ‘all related stories.’ “
