Countless small business web sites make the mistake of wasting their web site visitor’s attention.  After spending ad dollars to get a quality visitor, these web sites will display informative content that helps the reader, but fails to get the reader to take any sort of action that helps the company’s marketing and sales effort.

The solution to this problem is “action points”. An action point is simply the point where you ask your reader to do something on your web site. Some examples might be:

  • Buy Now
  • Subscribe Now
  • Sign Up
  • Join Now
  • Make a Comment
  • Share This
  • Tell a Friend
  • Give Us Your Opinion
  • Ask the Expert
  • Like This
  • Tweet This
  • Pin This

It is in your best interested to always make use of your user’s hard won attention.  If you cannot get a reader to purchase right this moment, ask the reader to subscribe to your e-mail or text list so that you can continuously stay in contact with them and not lose that opportunity after his or her first visit to your web site.

Another often forgotten area to ask user’s to take action is after they have taken your main action.  For example, after someone has purchased a product from an eCommerce web site a “thank you” page is typically displayed and that is it.  An easy to implement tactic to receive more value from your visitors is to ask the user to take another action on the “thank you” page such as filling out a survey, entering a contest, share your web site, etc.