Using Calls to Action Effectively
Have you ever wondered how I’ve built a loyal audience for myself and for my clients?
“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic.” ~ Seth Godin
I think Seth Godin was the first person to coin the term Permission Marketing along with Inbound Marketing which basically is, according to Wikipedia, “Promoting a company through blogs, podcasts, video, eBooks, enewsletters, whitepapers, SEO, social media marketing, and other forms of content marketing which serve to attract customers”. Then came the term Influence Marketing with the massive growth of social media that provides an amazing networking outreach.
That’s my sweet spot – Coaching, implementing and digging into influence and permission which is marketing as we now know it – yummy!
The story begins with understanding WHO is your target market, and WHAT keeps them awake at night? If you know those two things and can help them with a solution, then the next step is positioning yourself and your products as the solution. Getting your target market right (branding) and what you have to offer them comes before logos, web development and social media marketing. As a part of that grouping, having a Call to Action that speaks to your audience it critical.
You can have loyal fans and followers, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned that is of enormous value since working online, it’s about getting your CTA (Call to Action) right.
If you miss something, could be color, design, placement, wording or the text/influence that surrounds this – it will be ignored. The words and design of your CTA should match your content.
It’s also about how you use influence in your marketing all day, every day and how you can start working and thinking like the experts – so using the mindset always thinking about what your audience is asking WIIFM (what’s in it for me) not as you, wanting to sell your product and services. This may seem a small point, but it is huge and often missed.
Website owners must also understand the psychology of website browsers – most of the time they are in a trance and do not ‘see’ your website the way you do. It’s your job to guide them effectively to take action.
What is a Call to Action?
A call to action is literally what it appears to be – an instruction calling for you to take a specific action. It’s purpose is to ensure your visitor move to a next step – preferably without ‘thinking’ too much about it.
The call to action is asking you to do something and is usually part of a ‘conversation’ you are having with your visitor. Done right:
1 – They will become engaged with your content.
2 – You will then instruct them what to do next – this will usually involve telling them what they gain after they take this step.
The goal of your Call to Action is to drive traffic to where YOU want your prospects to go. There is a pathway that leads from the ‘landing page’ where your visitors arrive to the conversion opportunities you place in their path. The more calls to action you place across your web pages, the more chances you have of conversion (meaning more leads).
So You Need To Ask Yourself…
What Is The Main Call-To-Action Of My Page or Website?
How Can I Implement it?
Once you know what your main call to action is, then it comes down to colors, placement on your website, and how it will be implemented – by a web developer or yourself.
Testing and Tweaking
As your visitors take click on your CTA’s, you can begin to develop a way to optimize them to know which ones work and which ones need tweaking (or eliminating). Using Google Analytics to track the progress of your visitors as they land on your site you become a website spy and learn exactly what they did next.
The more you understand your prospects…the more you can optimize & improve.
Recently I found a tool that I had to purchase – It looked too good to be true at the price point. But it delivers ten-fold!
Take a look for yourself: CTA Bar
Leadpages, which I love and recommend, is in the hundreds of dollars range and this option is currently a fraction of that – $19 to be exact.
I purchased the Developer package so if you like what you see, but want help, let me know.
We can use our license and set it up for you as well.
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