Rich Tehrani forwarded an email to me "Nobody Likes a Wild Goose Chase". It's from Chad White's Retail Email Blog but its point is important to all bloggers and social media marketers.
This blog entry is based on a retail sales email that lands on a discount confirmation page and then clicks through to the main store where the shopper then has to search for and click through to the summer sale. Undoubtedly this multiple clicking process will lose many potential buyers who don't have time or patience to search for what was being promoted. As White points out the link should have directed these potential buyers directly to the summer sale page.
This blog entry is based on a retail sales email that lands on a discount confirmation page and then clicks through to the main store where the shopper then has to search for and click through to the summer sale. Undoubtedly this multiple clicking process will lose many potential buyers who don't have time or patience to search for what was being promoted. As White points out the link should have directed these potential buyers directly to the summer sale page.
The same principle applies to any other service, social media platforms, email, articles, etc. It's imperative to not just provide a link but provide a link that helps the reader navigate to the appropriate material they are interested in. Provide links that direct readers straight to the topic at hand. If your discussion includes a comment based on a specific blog entry, link directly to that entry, not to the main home page. Go one step further and provide both links. Case in point, I've included the link to the blog entry above, "...Goose Chase", as well as to the main blog page.
Jan Pierret
