What do you want people to do when they visit your webpage?
No, seriously. Think about that for a minute. Get a clear answer in your mind before you read on.
I’ll wait…..
Do you want them to buy something?
Sign up for your newsletter?
Click on ads?
Visit an affiliate product you’re promoting?
Subscribe to your RSS feed?
Now I’m going to ask another question – what is in the way of your website visitors doing exactly what you want them to do?
For example – let’s imagine you want people to buy something from your website (a CD, an ebook, whatever). How many other “things” are distracting them from doing so?
Do you have a bio, informative articles, ads for other products, newsletter signup, etc?
Any and all of these things are distracting your visitors from your *primary* goal – to sell them something.
There’s a term in marketing called a “sales funnel.”
What you want to do is take visitors and lead them through this funnel – gently, but you must lead them. Tell your visitors what you want them to do. Leave them few, if any, other options.
That same funnel principle can be used if you want your visitors to click an affiliate link or adsense ads, of sign up for your newsletter. Lead them to it. Provide no other options.
Many times, people visit a website, click around, read a few things, but seldom are they told exactly what to do – and people absolutely respond to gentle direction.
How can you rearrange your site to help your visitors reach your intended goal?
It might be as simple as moving your subscription box to a more prominent position throughout your website, or eliminating some sections that move readers away from your primary goal.
It’s tough as a website owner to look beyond your own familiarity of your site and really *see* what a brand new visitor sees, so I don’t recommend trusting your own analysis.
Here’s a tip – ask a friend who’s never been to your site to your site to visit, and then ask them to tell you what they think people are supposed to do there.
If their answer doesn’t align with your intention (i.e., they think the primary target is to watch a video when in fact it’s to purchase a CD set) you know you’ve got to do some re-working.
If you’re clear on your goals for your site, you can make it much clearer to your website visitors how you want them to act.
To learn more about the sales funnel concept and how it applies to marketing multiple products, you can find a superb sales funnel video course here:
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Well said, we should guide them to do what we want. I always ask to my wife when I finished something (a sales page, article,,,)
Hmmm… nice and interesting post.
MIchelle, this is a great post–I wish more people would take a look at their sites and determine what exactly they want their sites to do.
It’s easy for ecommerce sites to figure out their sales funnel: it’s ultimately people going from another site to their site and then to the product page and on to the cart and then to the actual sale.
But, for other sites, there are (or can be) mutiple goals, such as the rss feed signup or even the completion of a contact form on the site.
If you can figure out what your site’s goal before you even put up the site then that is ideal.
Lovely post …….the aim should always be kept in mind
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