Stickiness is back. Let’s hope it doesn’t get messy!

At a recent BtoB NetMarketing Breakfast, the word of the morning was stickiness. Messy as it sounds, we are once again using the term as we had “back in the day.” Although now it has bigger meaning; now it’s about building relationships, not holding viewers hostage on your site. Or is it?

Building relationships with your viewers helps to increase customer confidence, as well as build your brand. However it’s a fine line we walk. As marketers, the ever-increasing information and noise out there makes it harder for us to be heard. Websites alone made it difficult to capture, let alone retain, a viewer’s attention. Now we have blogs, podcasts and even vodcasts to offer - and compete with. So how do we stand above all the “noise?” And will our efforts to make our sites sticky simply turn them into more noise themselves?

Not necessarily. The way you compete with noise is by providing more sound value (excuse the pun). Providing real answers to problems in the form of information, services or products will provide that value they need. It’s not about pretty pictures, or processes that trap you into subscribing or staying at the site - it’s about providing real solutions, real value, consistently and with clarity.

I like to think about how we train our 2 Labs, Murphy and Chester, age 9 months and 6 months respectively. While the training process seems to be one of dominance, it’s more about leadership. You provide clear and consistent commands for them to follow and they will make the choice to do so. As soon as you start throwing out things they don’t understand or add words that don’t make sense, they choose to stop following. And it really is a choice they make.

Good leadership is what your viewers really need. While retaining viewers is wildly important, how we get there is what needs to be focused on. The value of the content you are providing - the consistency and the clarity - is what will keep them around longer and returning for more.

PS: Kudos to BtoB and the panelists at the BtoB NetMarketing event on September 20th in New York. BtoB always puts together a great group with timely and evocative topics.

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