What is a Call to Action?
by Dave Maloney
A Call to Action is a message or image button on your webpage that presents something special that you have to offer to your website visitors-hopefully-soon-to-be-customers. Its message should be clear to the customer and the offer needs to be attractive enough to "reel them in" to click the link to learn more.
Your call to action is usually a button of some sort that links to a Landing Page, a page dedicated to enticing the visitor with some kind of offer in return for their contact information - upgrading their status from "website visitor" to "possible sales lead."
You want your call to action button's message to be clear and concise, and your offer has to sound so good they'll be dying to click on it to get to the next step. When you create the message, think about what customers you're trying to temp with your offer and what those customers are actually looking for. Of course you don't want to give all your services away for free, but giving a little sample taste of your expertise may be enough for a shopper to choose your company over your competitor.
You want your Call to Action to "pop" off your page; very attention-getting and attractive, as well as strategically located on the page so it can't be missed. It's also a not a bad idea to try different calls to actions, in various spots on your site.
And it's not "one call to action button fits all."
Not all visitors to your site are exactly the same - try to appeal to various segments of your web traffic. Experiment; keep an eye on what works and what doesn't. If your plan isn't having the effect you had hoped, try some fine tuning: maybe your message needs be reworded to appeal to the right customer, maybe it's as simple as the colors or location of the call to action itself. Keep at it and you'll make it work!