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Directing large amounts of traffic to your website is great for spreading information on your company, products, or services. Ideally though, you will interact further with a high proportion of these visitors by encouraging them to complete an action. Depending on your website, this could be sending an email, subscribing to a newsletter, or completing a booking. Essentially, a call-to-action is a request for business made to your customers. However, it also functions as a focus for your site, a way to measure the success of your website, and provides direction to users of your site.
The first step in creating an effective call-to-action is to establish a need. It is important to identify the problem that you are able to solve for visitors, and illustrate the benefits of a positive response. You want visitors to clearly understand why they should do what you are asking. Providing incentives for following the call-to-action is often useful for enhancing the message that you want to project. For example, you may offer a discount or free gift when visitors complete an action.
An effective request for business action will be one that is appropriate for your target audience. Try to understand the experience from their point of view, and ensure that each page offers the type of action that they will be expecting. You can then increase the likelihood of the action being undertaken by using active language and adding a sense of urgency. You may want to include wording such as 'book now', 'call today' or 'register early and receive a free gift'. Just be sure to follow through with any promises to maintain trust.
Don't feel limited to just one of these on your website. Most websites will offer a variety of opportunities for interaction with visitors, and a call-to-action for each one of these can be very useful. Remember that not all visitors will arrive at your site on the home page, so ideally each page of your website will have at least one method of encouraging interaction. These can be different on each page - select the most appropriate action to match the content on the page. For example, on a page that describes your services, you may include a call-to-action for requesting a quote, whereas on your contact page asking customers to call or email may be more appropriate. When using different types of call-to-action on the same page, ensure that each one has a clear focus. If one is more important to you than others, make it more prominent through your use of different colours, font sizes, position on the page, or other design features.
Following these suggestions will get you a long way towards establishing an effective call-to-action. However, there is never only one way to do things, so test different alternatives. If something doesn't seem to be working, don't hesitate to change the wording, the position on the page or some other feature. Google Analytics is an excellent tool that provides a simple way to test the effectiveness of different options.
An effective call-to-action combines elements of site usability, creative design and powerful copywriting, and can be the cornerstone of a successful website. When implemented successfully, they can provide a measurable return on investment and make the difference between success and failure for your business.
Learn more about creating effective calls to action on the Limelight blog.
Click here to contact Chris, PHP Web Developer - SEO Specialist