Good Calls to Action

To get users to take action from your site, you first need to be very clear WHAT action you want them to take. Do you want to generate more calls? Or does your sales team get too many calls from people that aren’t good prospects and you would actually like to filter the number of people who call you? Do you want to generate email list sign-ups, webinar registrations or more ecommerce sales? Most sites want some combination of the above. While you can have multiple calls to action (CTAs), having more than two CTAs can just lead to confusion. Therefore you need to prioritize…

It might seem like the priority should be on motivating people to buy your product or service in as quick and direct a fashion as possible. However, many customers aren’t ready to buy the first time they encounter your product or service. Every business has a buying cycle which usually starts with the customer having a need and then becoming aware of your product or service. It may then extend into steps such as understanding what you sell, comparing it to others, getting a quote or pricing, trying it in some way and eventually, making a purchase. You need to understand what each of the steps in your buying cycle are and then develop CTAs at key steps. For example, our buying cycle includes the following steps:

1. Prospect decides they need the services of a web developer
2. Prospect becomes aware of our services
3. Prospect makes an inquiry
4. We have a phone conversation with them to qualify them for our service
5. If it looks like we might be able to help them, we schedule a meeting
6. After the meeting, we provide a quote
7. Prospect accepts the quote and we begin work

All the steps are critical but in terms of our website, step #3 is one of the most critical. This is the one where we get the customer to make contact in some way. If we can’t get them to that stage, we have no hope of closing a deal. So, the CTAs on our site have to do with motivating and inspiring prospects to provide an email address or call us. CTAs can be in the form of large buttons, like “SIGN UP FOR A FREE TRIAL” or “CALL NOW” or they can be embedded in the copy of your website, like “For more information or to get a quote, give us a call at 805-962-8565.” General sales psychology advises that CTAs be in the form of a command, like the ones above. Next up… Measuring Conversion Rates.