Defining Your Website’s Goals Part 2

Prioritizing Your Website Goals (Without Overthinking It!)

Your website is a powerful tool that can do a lot for your business or brand. Let’s give it the focus it needs to maximize its potential. 

If you have not gone through the first part, take a few minutes to review and complete the exercises in Part 1: How to Set Website Goals That Actually Help Your Business Grow

I want you to take the list of goals that you identified as your website's job in Part 1 and next we are going to prioritize them. If you only have one primary goal, don’t worry, this post will help you identify any additional goals your website needs to make a big impact. 

Why prioritizing your goals is important:

• A website can’t do everything at once (and you don’t want it to)

• Focus your website so it works smarter, not harder

• Have a guideline of what elements, design and layouts should be included in your website

• Lay the foundation so your website visitors know exactly what steps to take to achieve the result you want

Step 1: Understanding Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Goals

Let’s take a quick minute to understand how to prioritize your goals. Here’s a hierarchy to get you thinking about how this applies to your own company.

Primary Goal = Top Priority

This is the main thing your website must do for your small business or brand. 

Secondary Goals = Important, but Supportive

These goals are the ones that help your primary goal succeed. You can have multiple Secondary Goals, but it’s good to keep these to 1-3 different goals. 

Tertiary Goals = Nice to Have

These goals are helpful, but they aren’t deal breakers if you don’t get to them right now. I’m sure you have many goals that can fit here, but let’s just identify 1-3 that would support your primary goal. 

Example:

A career coach that sells online courses through their new website. This company’s goals might look like:

Primary Goal: Sell online courses through their website. (Sales & Conversion, Bottom of the funnel)

Secondary Goals: Build and email list of potential clients. (Lead Generation, Mid funnel)

Tertiary Goals: Build credibility through online reviews and a blog. (Trust, Mid funnel)

Example: 

An existing eCommerce company that sells pet care products. This company might have the following goals:

Primary Goal: Sell pet care products through their website. (Sales & Conversion, Bottom of the funnel)

Secondary Goals:

Build and email list of current customers to introduce new products and online promotions. (Lead Generation, Mid funnel)

Feature new products to entice repeat business. (Customer loyalty and repeat business, mid to bottom funnel)

Tertiary Goals: Build customer loyalty through growing Instagram and TikTok channels. (Customer loyalty, Mid funnel)

Focus on your must-have goals that support your business’ current needs. It’s very possible your goals will change over time. When they do, you will have the knowledge of how to adjust your website, and your other marketing elements, in order to meet those new goals in the future. 

So let’s organize your website goals to meet your current, most urgent company needs.

Step 2: Rank Your Own Website Goals

Grab your priority goal list that you identified before (we’ll use the measurable goal list in a later article). 

Try this now: Sort the items on this list into the following categories: Primary Goal, Secondary Goal(s), Tertiary Goal(s).

How Not To Overthink It

I understand it is hard to break away from the mindset of - I want my website to do everything for everyone. I’m sure you are thinking: The more information, content, product highlights, text, pictures, all the things that I put on here, the more people will understand that my product is for them and they will make that purchase or conversion. 

Your Dose of Reality: When given too much information or too many choices, people actually turn away from making a purchase or taking an action. 

Think of the last few times you made a purchase, especially for something that was new to you (not a repeat purchase). How clear was the messaging? Was the content focused? I bet that you saw a product or service and it had clear messaging that:

1. Made you feel good about the product

2. Had communication that was clear and concise of how it could solve a problem for you

3. Didn’t overwhelm you.

Real Life Example

I’ll give you my most recent example when writing this. I wanted to find an all natural soap to use. I have very sensitive skin and have been trying to find alternatives to my current, chemically rich, products. 

I was at my local (and highly trendy) farmers market, and they have a natural soap company. Their signs are very simple: Name of the company and a tagline that messages All Natural Soap. This message aligned with my interests as a consumer, so I approached the booth. 

When I talked to the owner, he did not bombard me with every fact about the soap. Instead he welcomed me. He explained the primary benefit of the product - all natural soap, and told me what the ingredients were (olive oil, goats milk and the essential oils tied to the scents on the signs next to each bar). I asked the question about if this was good for sensitive skin, he gave a simple answer of yes, and tied it back to the main ingredients he just mentioned. So I looked at the different scents. 

Then he asked if I used a natural bar already or what kind of soap. I let him know I used Dove. He then tailored the conversation to let me know what to expect the first week when switching to the natural bar. I then made the purchase. 

While this transaction happened mainly in person, it has the exact focus of what you want your website experience to be:

• Primary Goal: Sell soap - I was looking for a new soap so this aligned with my interests.

• Secondary Goals: Gain New Customers - The company had a very welcoming and esthetically pleasing booth at a prominent farmers market. It had clear communication of what they sell - All Natural Soap.

• Tertiary Goals: Educate and Build Credibility with New and Existing Customers - The owner was passionate about his product, and tailored the messaging to my interests and needs in order to make a connection and ensure I was engaged with what he was saying. 

The soap company owner didn’t overload me with all the facts about his soap and all the benefits of it right away. If he did, I would have probably been too intimidated and walked away. Instead he had a very focused and tailored experience for me as a customer, and it worked to get the sale. (He does very well at the farmers market). This is the experience that we want to build for your website visitors. 

In case you were wondering, I will go back to buy more soap.

What’s Next 

Now that we have a list of prioritized goals, let’s turn those into action and identify actual website features to build a site that gives you your desired results.

When you are ready let’s dive into Part 3 of this series: Turning Website Goals Into Action (What Goes on Your Website?)