Part of the Starting at Square One Series
At any point while a visitor is on your website, they should have a clear understanding of what it is you want them to do. This is done through a Call to Action. Whether this is purchasing a product, filling out a request form, or calling you directly, this needs to be communicated clearly and effectively.
Even the most sophisticated of websites can fall victim to the lack of clear direction. When dealing with numerous pages, a statement that tells the visitor what to do can be overlooked or seemingly implied which assumes that that visitor will take the time to figure out the next steps you’d like them to take.
Now this is not as easy as having a Contact button in your site navigation or in the header. You only have a visitor’s attention for an average of 10-20 seconds. Your value proposition along with providing your visitors a clear understanding of how to get this value should be front and center.
Keep it Simple
Don’t muddy your message with big words and unnecessary content. While content on any given web page is important, so is usability. So, keep your message concise and easy to understand. Provide opportunities to read more on particular topics through linking to other articles, graphics, or videos, but stay on subject with the topic at hand. Make your call to action clearly visible and easy to understand. Web page layout should make it easy to read text, and highlight important information.
Tell Them Why
Your call to action should not only tell visitors to your page what to do, but should also tell them why they should contact you using the support of the other content on the page. This should be a simple statement that encompasses your unique value proposition with information on next steps to complete the transaction (purchase, form submission, etc.) that is highly visible and easy to read. The content on the page will support the statement.
Keep it Clean
Pages with the best conversion rates are usually simple in layout, and have a clear path to the action you want the visitor to take. The call to action on the page should be easy to identify and the content on the page should talk about the benefits of the product or service and why the user should purchase.
Test It
To find the most effective call to action, you need to test, test, test… By doing A/B testing, you can try out different versions of your call to action to see which performs better and help you to improve your conversion rate.
It’s never too late to create an effective landing page and call to action. Take a few moments to evaluate your current pages and call to actions to see how they can be improved. Begin doing some A/B testing to make sure your page is optimized for maximum conversions. This simple exercise can make a big impact on your bottom line.
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+Elissa Mitchell
@ezmitchell
