Imagine being a web-entrepreneur and you have created what you feel is the greatest website ever, except for one thing. You aren’t actually conducting business. There is traffic all over the website, your content writers did a great job weaving the story of your business throughout the site, but the statistics show that your return on investment per click is way below the level it should be at. The first thing to check is to ensure that your call to action (CTA) is worthy of the rest of your website.
Sometimes people spend so much time making their website and their products appealing that they forget there should be a next step. The CTA must be present, and it must be obvious so the person visiting the website will know how to make a purchase. The CTA must be clear, engaging, and it must be simple. “For one-click ordering, click here!” The CTA is clear, simple, and if you’re shopping for widgets, you’re probably ready to make a purchase.
There are different kinds of successful CTA’s a business can use to turn that click that brought a person to the website, into another click in which they make a purchase.
- Perhaps the most important kind of CTA is the one in which the visitor is asked to “Buy now.” The visitor is on the website, has read all about the widgets that are for sale. The visitor doesn’t want to search all over to figure out how to order a widget; too much trouble and they’ll move on to another website. A “Click on this button to order” that is colorful, pleasant, and very easily located helps turn that shopper into a buyer.
- Another successful CTA is when a website collects information from visitors; sometimes referred to as capturing the lead. “Thanks for visiting our website. Want to learn more about widgets and be informed about special sales? Just fill in your name and email address and hit submit.” In this case, the widget website not only has a visitor, but they have someone who is interested enough to fill out a form and submit it. This call to action is a way to find next generation leads. This visitor may not buy a widget today, but they might in the future. Or, even better, the customer might buy a widget today, and because they filled out that form, they might be willing to buy a widget in a month.
- Finally, the widget makers will need to establish and then grow a relationship with a potential customer. Perhaps the customer will have a chance to write a comment about widgets at the bottom of the website (after filling out their email address and name, of course), or the customer might be able to click on a link to a blog that explains how to do proper upkeep on their widget, plus five alternative widget uses. Perhaps a link takes the customer to the widget-maker’s YouTube channel where they interactively show some of the uses for a widget.
The appropriate use of a call to action might be the difference between having many visitors to a website and no sales, and having a great number of sales per click. No matter how slick and informative a website is, without a good CTA, a website will not pay off.
Robert S has written for WriterAccess for several years. In his non writing time he is in education and spends time with his wife and three children.
