It’s been some time good reader, so happy end of January. We’re one month closer to summer.

I realize times are tough right now – budgets are cut shorter than Barack Obama’s hair, company headcount is shrinking faster than Nortel’s stock and general uncertainty is causing big-time havoc on anyone looking at long term planning. See, I’ve caught up with my news and current events (see my last blog to fully understand…).

In e-Commerce, we talk a lot about first time visitors – the big unknown. There’s a huge focus on this segment and while no one has completely cracked the code, there are dozens of best practices out there with proven and repeatable results. Jim Cain, Sitebrand’s resident super analyst wrote a great whitepaper on this very subject last year.

So, cool. First time visitors are the elusive catch, the big seg (sounded cooler than segment). And so it should be – generally it makes up about 70 per cent of total traffic or more. But today, I wanted to look a little closer at return visitors. That’s approximately the other 30 per cent of your traffic and while significantly smaller than first time visitors, it’s still an important segment and could act as a more profitable one long term. All repeat visitors were once first time visitors, right? I know what you’re thinking: “How profound of you, Kevin”. Thanks for the feedback.

But think about it. You’ve already invested in driving these visitors to your site once. Maybe they bought something. Maybe they saved their cart. Maybe they looked around on your site for twice the regular average. Who knows, but for some reason, they are back. Which brings the question: what are you doing for these visitors and how do your marketing strategies look for returning visitors?

From a search marketing standpoint, you’ve done your job. They are back and on your site – again! Are you messaging targeted content to return visitors? Are you segmenting your return visitors based on if they purchased anything during their last visit? Are you A/Bing content to this segment? Do you want to create a unique customer experience? Are you able to create real-time campaigns based on click-path navigations and behaviors during that specific session?

You could be.

Enter plug: This Wednesday afternoon, I’ll be hosting a webinar geared towards this exact topic with 5 best practices to boot. Here’s the skinny: 29 minute webinar with me (rad Sitebrand Sales Engineer), on return visitors and how you could be improving conversions. And it’s free. Register now.

I can plug my own webinar on our official blog, right? Like, that’s not a faux pas, is it? I hope not. But more so, I hope to see you there – 2pm EST sharp.