Online marketing: Four hotspots for a call to action
Posted: Thu 6th Sep 2012
A call to action is defined as "Words that urge the reader, listener, or viewer of a sales promotion message to take an immediate action," writes Jessica Sanders of ResourceNation. While the idea itself makes sense, too many businesses overlook its importance in their overall online marketing.
Instead of relying on your customers' wandering eyes, telling them what you want them to do, or what they should do, gives them direction. So, where are the best places to optimise with a call to action?
1. A landing page
Landing pages (pages that you've linked to from somewhere other than your website, such as marketing materials and social media profiles) are great locations for calls to action because they act as a doorway to your website for many visitors. So it's important to think about what your biggest goal is for the people who are coming to that page. Do you want to highlight your new ecommerce platform, for example, or get people to sign up to your newsletter? If it is a subscription signup, use fun imagery to aid your "Subscribe to our newsletter" call to make it more effective.
2. Twitter description
Facebook is great and people are starting to take more notice of Google+. But there is no doubt that Twitter is the most used platform for small business. Figures highlighted by SocialMediaExaminer.com found that 51 per cent of Facebook users were likely to buy from a brand they follow compared with 64 per cent of Twitter users. To make the most of your Twitter page, be sure to include a call to action in the description you include in your profile.
3. Google+ banner
While there is scepticism about whether Google+ is getting traction or not, there is no doubt that Google itself is very valuable to businesses as a means for getting traffic, looking authoritative and being found. So, when your page does show up in searches thanks to keyword use and +1's, you want customers to convert. One way to encourage this is to put your call to action in the branded banner you create for your Google+ profile.
4. At the end of a blog post
Though your business blog may be a means to gain site traffic and improve your search engine ranking (search engines love fresh content), it's also a great place to encourage community between your customers and engage with them on a different level. In order to create community, you must urge your readers to become involved. At the end of each post consider asking a question, or suggesting readers share their ideas in the comment section. You can also suggest sharing the article or reading a similar one elswhere on your site. A simple shorcut may be to install a plug-in on your blog that highlights similar posts basedon tags and/or keywords. Jessica Sanders is an avid small business writer touching on topics that range from social media to web design and internet service providers. She is a professional blogger and web content writer for ResourceNation.com.
Where do you put your calls to action? Let us know.
Having a call to action is integral for your online marketing efforts. Subtly giving your customers direction can lead to more site traffic and, most importantly, greater conversion rates. Jessica's highlighted just four good places to put a call to action, but there are others, too!How do you incorporate calls to action in your online marketing? Let us - and other readers - know in the comments area below.
Read more about online marketing on Enterprise Nation
Photo credit: Ed Kohler
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