Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Information About Calls to Action

By Walker L. Percy


On a website, the call to action (CTA) is a crucial conversion process aspect. This is an element that will communicate with your potential customer and try to lightly push them to purchase a product or service, while browsing your page. Higher conversion rates are a benefit of having a call to action that is properly implemented.

What is a description of a website call to action?

The call to action is your opportunity to drive traffic to your website, get people to subscribe to your newsletter, convince people to click on your advertisement, grow your following on social networks, get people to join your team, sell a product or service, or move someone to do anything that helps accomplish your business goals.

It helps to guide your page visitor toward the next level in your conversion process, and it is one of a few things, a link, form, or banner. When a new prospect ends up on your webpage, an ebook or whitepaper could be offered for example, something that is very simple for them to get. Someone who has already obtained one of those "top-of-the-funnel" offerings might have a more advanced call to action presented to them, such as product specs or a special invitation that requires a bit more personal information to be obtained in exchange.

The offer must be something that the consumer is actually interested in. Free trials are a good choice for this, discounts, items packaged in a bundle, success or guarantees on the product or service. Knowing your clientele is important in designing an effective call to action, so be sure to do some research into what they would be interested in. You may want to put the hint to the offer somewhere earlier in the page, to soften them up to the idea. Your potential buyer should see this offer as something they are interested in, and find valuable.

The content in your call to action must be synchronized. Someone who is looking at a highly specialized part of your page may receive a prompt for a demonstration, and someone who is just looking at the front page could be prompted to sign up for email updates. And the call to action should visually stand out from the surrounding copy. Graphics, such as arrows or handwriting fonts, can be helpful for this purpose. This should still be in sync with the rest of your webpage, including color and brand design elements. The goal is to draw the prospect's eye without being annoying or distracting. Your site has it's own style, be sure the navigation of the CTA matches this.

You have a very limited amount of time to capture a person's attention. It should be short and concise, but still give them the valuable content you want to deliver. People are generally in a hurry and may ignore your offer if it will take them too long to read or act upon.

When a form needs to be completed, use this same thinking. When you want them to sign on to your newsletter for instance, a short form is best. The important information is all you need. People are less likely to fill out a long, complicated form. Prospects don't want to have to work hard to purchase your product. You will be more successful when you keep the process of buying the service or product simple. Keeping your calls to action simple and making them easy to complete will dramatically increase your conversion rate.




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