What Is a Call to Action?
A Call to Action is a clear direction that encourages the visitor to take action. The most common example is a button or link telling visitors to “Buy Now”, “Call For a Free Analysis” or simply “Contact Us”.
Why Use the Call to Action?
A website is primarily informational. It usually contains information about your company or product and lists various features or benefits. It should explain who you are and what your company does, why visitors should do business with you, etc.
All this information is great, but it leaves the visitor free to wander around the site with no direction from you. That’s great, but you are trying to get sales! Or at least trying to get leads from your website.
In order to get sales you need to exert some control on the visitors going to your website. A Call to Action is a great way to do this.
Think of a Call to Action as a way of guiding your visitors to the next step they need to take and exerting some control over them to get them to take that next step.
For instance, most companies dealing in high end services or products need to talk to their prospects on the phone before they make the sale. The details of what they are offering are usually too complex to put on the website.
In this case you would put enough information on your website to interest visitors, convince them that you are a good company to do business with and get them interested in getting a quote, or getting an analysis of their needs. You could then feature a button on every page that said “Free Consultation” or “Find out more information” “Talk to a specialist now”, etc.
This button would send them directly to an online chat or email form so that a salesperson could get in touch with them right away. This way you turn your informational website into a lead and sales generation machine which is working for you 24/7 instead of just an online magazine for people to browse and then forget about.
Conclusion
The call to action is a way to direct focus and give the visitor a clear route to the next step they need to take on your sales process.
When using call to action buttons, consider what you want the visitor to do: what your primary aim is, and how this fits in with your sales steps. It might be to sign them up for a free trial, complete a survey, ask them to contact you or get a quote.
Whatever it is, make sure you have a Call to Action featured prominently on your website to ensure your visitors know the next step they need to take and that they take it.
Don’t leave your visitors uncontrolled.
Tell them what the next step is, exert some control on them and start increasing your sales!