How can a business be successful without sales? How can you sell without asking me to buy? This is simple, yet, many people forget this easy basic element of selling. You have a great product, its packaged brilliantly and its in your office waiting for me to buy. I may, by chance, get to see it, but I may think its there to adorn your desk. If you want me to buy it, you need to tell me you are selling it! How does this translate to internet marketing?
We spend a lot of time and effort creating great web design but we forget that the most important element is what’s makes things happen… “a call to action”. The concept is simple, you have a product and its shown in your website all over the place. It looks pretty, it has a price, but most people won´t take action unless the required action is obvious. If you want a visitor to fill a form, state it clearly with text and design, make it obvious. If you want a visitor to buy, show the “buy now” button clearly.
Most users are extremely busy and we can’t expect them to waste time trying to figure out what is the next step. Let me know exactly how to buy from you or what is it that you want me to do? My time is limited and if your competitor has a more intuitive website, odds are I’ll be buying from there.
Look at your website, can you see your “calls to action”? They should be very clear and obvious. The visitor has to be able to easily recognize what can be done in your website. Draw a picture, make a map, do what you need, but the visitor has to be able to find a way to buy fast and easy or you will loose a client.
As simple as this sounds, it is quite the specialty and very few people really understand it. What works in one industry may not work in another… so, modify, test, gather results and modify again.
For example, if I am promoting an employee engagement company I would have a call to action like: “Get information about Employee Engagement” or a form offering a free employee engagement ebook.
Or if I were to promote counselling in Guelph, I would add to the website a free 30 minute counselling session request form. This would attract people who may be hesitant to try counselling as there would be no cost associated with trying it.
Calls to action are vital to online marketing, without them you run the risk of letting people wander around your website without knowing exactly what to do.