Let’s say you’ve done everything right and you have an awesome web design that’s optimized for search engines—you have all of your tags, titles, and descriptions filled out for every page, and you’re even posting a 500-word (or more!) blog article twice a week. However, you don’t seem to be getting conversions from those who visit the website. Why could this be? Well, do you have a “call to action” for your website visitors?
Here at Big Red SEO, a leading website optimization company, we know how important it is to have a “call to action” on your website as well as in your blogs. However, the question is this: do you know why it’s important to have one? Your call to action, whether it’s a button telling visitors “Click Here to Buy!,” or a contact form for them to fill out for a free ebook, is the main reason you have a business website in the first place.
In short, there’s something you want visitors to your website to do to become customers, and with a call to action you tell them exactly what you want and how to go about doing it. It sounds easy enough, but a good call to action has to do a lot of work to persuade visitors that they should buy what you’re selling.
If this sounds really complicated now, don’t fret! Even if you haven’t put any thought into your calls to action yet, they can be pretty simple to create. Follow along with our website optimization specialists as we discuss how to create an effective call to action for your website that turns visitors into customers!
Communicate the Benefits of Your Services or Product
What is a “call to action?” It’s a “Read this,” “Click here,” “View more,” “Add to cart,” or “Checkout.” But before you can tell your users to fill out a contact form or buy this or that, you have to tell them why. What’s the problem they have that you have the solution to?
For example, a user is searching on the internet for custom dog food flavors. The problem being “all the dog food flavors are the same.” He types in the keyword, “custom dog food flavors” and your website pops up with a solution! Scanning the home page, he immediately decides that he wants your product. Good news, right? Not so fast. He looks around, can’t find a phone number or a “Buy Now” button and, disappointed, he has no other choice but to look elsewhere.
If you’d had a call to action to guide him through the action you wanted him to take, he could have bought dog food for 6 months at $50 a bag. Unfortunately, you just lost $300.
Offer Incentives to Keep Your User Interested
Sometimes when you offer a little something extra, the user might be more inclined to buy your product. Using the above example, imagine a user comes across your dog food site and likes the product, but they don’t like the price of shipping. The user remembers seeing another site that offers free shipping and thinks about going back there. Then, they see you’re offering 2 free dog food bags for every 6 bags bought. The user begins to think this deal might be better after all! That’s the power of incentives.
What Exactly Does a “Call to Action” Look Like?
A “call to action” is usually located below the sales pitch, in a color that draws attention, and can come in a number a forms—using action words like call, buy, donate, subscribe, or register. Whatever action you want users to take, use that word first. Then create a sense of urgency like: “order now and receive a gift” or “offer expires at the end of July.” Again, for your dog food business, you’d want to say something like, “Call us to purchase today, order 6 dog food bags now and you’ll receive 2 free for a limited time!” These few short statements give users a reason to call now and not wait until the offer has expired. Now, all you have to do is answer the phone when they call!
Note: Make sure if you set an expiration date that you update the area on your website after the date has passed. Our website optimization team recommends having a call to action on every page. At a minimum, a phone number in the top right of a page should be on every page (if you’re after sales/support via phone).
Contact a Website Optimization Company, Big Red SEO
Here at Big Red SEO, we understand it can be a lot of work to own a business. That’s why our website optimization team is here to help your website get noticed by potential customers. Call us today at (402) 522-6468 or fill out our online contact form—see what we did there?