Imagine you've got a physical office. Now assuming you want potential customers to come in, what do you want them to do once they are in the door? While that example may be very intuitive, now think of your website. Imagine a potential customer that has just come into your site. What do you want them to do next?
The website target action is THE most important action that a user of your website needs to eventually take. In other words, you have a visitor at your site, now what is the single most important thing that you would you like him to eventually do? To contact you via the contact form? To pick up the phone and call your office? To register for your online newsletter? To fill out that order form with his/her credit card details? To join your forum? To merely write a feedback about a new topic? Whatever that MOST IMPORTANT action may be, it is THE website target action.
For a given target audience, the target action of your web site is one and one only. It is THE most important action that needs to be taken by that target user and if there are more than one action that you want your users to take, please decide which one is eventually the most important one. Furthermore, the target action needs to be simple (if it's not then you're losing customers). Last, the target action may change according to season, company's growth stage, new opportunities, external changes, etc. But, at a given point and time it should be clear to you and to everyone who is working on your website, what is the target action of your web site.
As an example, let's say that you want your users to:
1) Give you a ring at your office.
AND
2) Sign up for your monthly newsletter.
What you should do first is decide which of the above actions is more important the other. Now which one is it? Let's say that you've decided that having a user pick up the phone and call you is more important since s/he is now ready and willing to become a customer and you want to make sure that you can complete the process of transforming him/her into one.
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So, now that you've decided what the target action of your website is - having visitors call your office - you've got your operational priorities straight! This means that you as well as everyone else working on your website can make better decisions. In addition, your work becomes more effective for the bottom line (assuming you've made the right decision about what THE target actions is). For instance, are you using your homepage to invite a visitor to call you? Is your phone number up there? Are you giving visitors a compelling reason to call you? Does your copywriter know about your priorities? Is s/he using her/his skills in order to create efficent copies that will convince the visitors to pick up the phone and call you?
Ready to implement this theory in real life? After reading this article, define what is the target action of your website. Next, visit your website and focus on the 1st paragraph on your homepage. Now focus on the last paragraph of the homepage. Then, honestly ask yourself - are your visitors really being guided, through these paragraphs, to take the target action that you want them to take? When you think about that, note that most users ARE impatient and will exit your homepage if they don't like or don't understand your messages. Furthermore, most Internet users have a short attention span so you better tell them what you want in a clear way. That is your call for action and it better be a killer one! By the way, If you don't have any text on your homepage (something I would strongly recommend nearly all website owners of NOT doing) but rather images or annimations, you can still ask yourself how those graphical elements are helping you take your users hand-in-hand untill s/he takes the action you want them to.
Last, if you already have visitors coming to your site and would like to make some changes with the intention to improve your call for action (e.g. by improving the first paragraph appearing on your homepage), you could measure the effectiveness of these changes. How? There are several ways but the major one is using website traffic analysis.
So, go ahead - decide what your website target action is and improve your call for action! You'll be amazed this can improve your website's success!
Read the next essential article in this series of articles:
(1) Define YOUR Internet Success.
(2) Target Action of a Website.
(3) Market Research and Analysis.
(4) Build a Website.
(5) Website Quality Control.
(6) Managing Your Online Advertisement Channels.
(7) Online Customer Service.
(8) Stay Updated & Innovate Online.