The soul of the internet is the fact of it being an information superhighway. The number-one reason people surf the net is to gain information, and the number-one reason Google has become a verb is because it provides roadmaps for people, guiding them to the information they seek.

But Google is really nothing more than a sign at a fork in the road, suggesting the left fork if you are looking for a lake and the right fork if your destination is the mountains. The information about what lurks in the lake’s cold waters, or where you might find the denizens of the forest, remain mysteries to be solved at the local level.

So think of your website in the same way, as a level-two search engine. People come to the site from Google and click on links to learn more about products, services, your company, etc. And while you provide some of the information they are looking for, providing in-depth information on all topics of interest would be overwhelming to most visitors if they’re there for a single web session. Perfect, you say; that will make them come back for more! Maybe you’re right, but maybe next time they will want to see what the competition offers.

Now suppose you track the pages on your website that specific visitors spend time reading, and, after they leave the website, provide them with additional information via opt-in email that relates specifically to pages they were viewing. This is called website reengagement, and in essence it changes the website paradigm from a destination to an interactive engagement. This is also called best practices, meeting the needs of your site visitors by understanding what they are looking for and providing it to them in the easiest possible way.

If your company sells furniture and someone visits your website and looks at a specific living room collection, once they leave you can send information about how the furniture is made. If yours is a healthcare site and someone views pages on a specific illness, you send them articles that deal with recent research. Most of the time this is information you already have, and information that in fact might already exist at your website, but it is outside the scope of the session of that particular visitor.

The follow-up emessages provide advantages to the recipient that go beyond specific information. The fact that the information is in writing in an email creates a file that can be saved by the recipient, and viewed whenever the recipient has a few free minutes. The information affirms that the recipient made a good choice in choosing your site as a destination in the first place.

Most importantly, over time, you have repurposed your website. It is no longer just a destination. It is now a source of information both as a destination and as a feed, proactively providing information people are looking for based on specific actions those people have taken, not on surveys or polls or best guesses.

And of course this paradigm is monetized both as people begin to use your site more as a resource than simply a destination, and as the specific information you send provides a level of confidence in your company that leads to purchases made directly from links in the followup email messages.

About the Author:
Neil Rosen is the Founder/CEO of www.ewaydirect.com. He is responsible for setting the company's strategic direction and for the development of new products. This is the third new venture he has founded and guided to success.