Are You Treating Your Visitors Like A Dumb Herd?...You should!

byEddySalomon

49.2K followers

Updated 10 years ago

Recently I was talking to a fellow member about their blog. The conversation was sparked because of my last blog post: Why is my blog being ignored? She wanted my opinion on how to improve her writing. I shared my thoughts and after giving her some feedback on her website, she said something very interesting.

She stated, she assumed "people would take action on her product on their own". Here's the thing, the link to her product was in her menu and that's it. I damn near missed it & only found it because I was trying to help her improve her blog. Otherwise I would have left and searched for the product on Google.

Sadly she figured if people wanted the product they would eventually happen on the link on her site! Not surprisingly her conversions suffered and why she had contacted me in the first place. Honestly this is not her fault. It's a mistake I see a lot of folks make and I'll show you how to fix it. Ready for it?

Treat People Like Sheep!

Now this isn't meant to be disrespectful. But when it comes to your website visitors, you have to treat them like the sheep or cattle they are. (GASP!) Now before you start sending hate my way, hear me out. Sheep on their own will usually just roam about aimlessly. Eventually some will get lost.

Well your website visitors are the same! If you're not being a good shepherd, people will leave your site. Or they won't click on links or take action on what you want. So you want to be very clear on what you want people to do within your content.

How To Do It!

There are two approaches to herding sheep.

1. You can have a herding dog that runs around barking at the sheep and leading them in one direction.

This is the in your face, click on this link and buy now approach. I'm not a big fan of it. However it does work which is why some pushy marketers do it. And it's definitely better than doing nothing at all or assuming people will do what you want.

2. Then there's the shepherd approach where you gently guide your sheep to where you want them to go.

You can do this by prodding them with your long staff. (Woa, that sounded inappropriate. lol) Or you can use vocal commands. I like this approach because it's more passive agressive but still leads people to an action. Some examples of this would be.

• Feel free to check out this X if you want. It may be helpful to you. But if not, that's fine.

• I'm sure you have more questions or concerns. So you can find more information on x here.

Both are subtle ways of getting people to click on links that benefit me. But it's not like I'm hitting you over the head with it. But most importantly, you are being told what to do.

In marketing we call this call to actions (CTA)! When you write anything there should always be some type of call to action. It doesn't have to be a product. It could be to encourage folks to subscribe to your list, comment below, visit your Facebook Fan Page, etc. But if you have someone's attention, you damn sure better have them take an action that will benefit you and hopefully them.

Your Take Away

Ultimately, don't assume a damn thing about your visitor's actions! Well let me rephrase that, assume that your visitors won't do what you want unless you tell them! How you choose to do that is your own business. I ain't your daddy so I won't tell you how to do it. But you better tell them to do something! If you don't you're leaving money on the table.

So go back to your articles and check that you do have a call to action, if you don't you need to reword some section so you do. Or just make sure certain words are links back to something you want folks to do.

In any event, what do you guys think of this article? Did it resonate with you? Are you guilty of not using CTAs? Let me know what you think down below! (See, I follow my own advice too. lol)

Eddy

WorkAtHomeNoScams.com