Improve Your Marketing in 2014: Calls to Action

Calls to Action are the Secret Sauce: Create a Great Recipe

Let’s be clear: building a website is not enough. Asking someone to do something to give you his or her email is not enough. Having a Facebook page is not enough. Sending out a direct mail piece is not enough. 

No matter what you do online (or offline), you must include a solid call to action that gets a new visitor to take action and respond. Without this key component, it makes no difference if your website has bazillions of visits a day if no one is converting into a lead for you. (Bazillions is a technical term...)

Unfortunately, on most sites, the call to action is usually limited to something like Click Now to See/Get/Read xxx. Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. If he has just arrived at your page from Facebook, Twitter, an ad or direct mail piece, how will you compel him to either contact you or at least opt-in for further nurture marketing? Generating quality online leads must start with the end strategy in mind: what do I want the visitor to do –  and if not that, what is the next best thing for my business?

Keep these things in mind as you develop a call to action more likely to gain you quality online leads:

• Write your call to action so that the copy focuses on the visitor and does not focus on you. This is pretty standard stuff, yet most copy fails miserably. If you are trying to build your monthly or weekly email nurture marketing list, this usually starts with a verb or a strong subject: “Peek into the toolbox of our service techs and see how we deliver reliable cars.” No one wants to hear something like: “Our technicians are the best ever. Call us to today to find out why.”
• Consider including an emotionally inspiring benefit in your call to action. Your visitors need to know the value of your product and you help them figure it out. For example: "Read on to learn how you can create an outdoor oasis for your family to enjoy together." Or maybe, “Download this landscape maintenance checklist to ensure all of your questions are answered.”
• Provide proof with real statistics that you can back up. We have enough clutter in our lives, so don’t make your calls to action clutter, too. For example: “Find out why over 92% of our customers return to us for xyz.”  Or: “87% of the people who work with Professional Mojo increase their sales by at least 20%. What would that mean to you?"
• Create a feeling and emotion with your product or service. You’ll notice in the CTA (call to action) above, we not only used a number but coupled it with a feeling and desire. It’s a powerful thing.

In summary, one of the very first things to do is to assess your CTAs and determine if they are clear and compelling, offering the visitor real value and a reason to contact you – beyond just asking them to self-serve by looking at your inventory.

Want more? Professional Mojo is a full service marketing company that focuses on your success - from trailer wraps and tent designs to direct mail, WordPress sites and full service social media strategy. Let us know how we can help. It's your story. Irresistibly told.