Internet Marketing Tip of The Day, Do You Have a Call to Action!

Make sure you are using an effective call to action (CTA) on your website, landing page and social media to get visitors and potential customers to take action!

In the world of internet marketing, your CTA is what you would like your target audience to take while they are in front of your advertising medium. Advertising mediums on the internet can include;
• Your Website
• Social Media
• PPC Campaigns
The most common example of a CTA is the “Buy now!” others are “Call Now!” and “Contact Us Now!” and you’ll usually see them as (hot Buttons). call to action button
While it might seem straight-forward that a business would have a CTA, many pages I come across either don’t have a CTA, the CTA is in the wrong spot or they have one that doesn’t fit the style of their page. Whether you’re a Veteran owned business, a Veteran that likes to blog (vlog) or a Veteran support services website you still need a call to action.

A Good Call to Action Draws People to Your Landing Page

The reason why your CTA is important is because it needs to entice your visitor to take the next step along the flow line which is to go to your landing page. Your landing page is where you can provide more details about the specific product or service you have to offer and it’s your opportunity to make your sales pitch about a certain item, I’ll talk more about landing pages in a future article.
The main types of “action” are
• click through to the landing page
• call a number to speak to someone
• online chat, we have all seen those online pop up support chats show up on certain websites. Companies can now hire operators to provide messaging services.

Some Things to Remember for Your Call to Action

1. Use a strong verb to highlight your call to action
Since you don’t have a lot of space for a CTA
It’s all about being clear and concise with your CTA. You don’t have a ton of space in your ad to get your point across, we call them “Hot Buttons” on a website and if you are running a PPC campaign to only get 32-35 characters per line so be direct.

• If you are trying to sell something, begin your CTA with words like “buy,” “order” or “shop”
• If Want someone to request more information? “call now” or “fill out our form”
• Growing a blog or newsletter? Begin your CTA with words like “check out,” “sign-up,” “join now” or “subscribe”
If you’re promoting your latest blog post, you want to be sure to that your audience understands exactly how to access that post. If your CTA read something like “Our latest blog post is available” you may not get a great click-through rate, as folks might not be sure where or when they can expect to get their hands on it. A call-to-action such as “Check out our post today!” is much more direct and informative, which should help improve CTR.

2. Give your audience a reason why they should act
what’s in it for the visitor? Will it help them save money, lose weight, or save time? A good example of this would be something like “call today to save 50%!” Not only have you stated the action you want the user to take (call today), but you have also provided them with a reason why they should take that action (save 50%).

3. Take Advantage of the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
Fear of missing out, otherwise known as FOMO, is an extremely effective motivator. When people think they might lose out on a sale or opportunity that might not come around again, they’ll be more likely to act.
One of the best ways to use FOMO is through the “limited time offers!” “one day only sale” or “act now while supplies last!”
It’s tough to ignore a time-sensitive prompt especially during the holidays (e.g. the Christmas season).

4. All calls to action aren’t created equal
The type of call to action you create will be based on your type of audience and the type of devices they use. There is an old newspaper term called “above the fold” which refers to any headline appearing at the top of the newspaper when its folded. Internet marketers keep this in mind when creating something like a CTA because you want it to be above the fold on your audiences device, but above the fold is different based on the device (laptop, desktop, tablet, mobile) so its important to know where your audience is searching from. If you remember in a previous article, Internet Marketing Tip of the Day, Set Up Your Analytics I discussed setting up your analytics this is where you can easily find out where your traffic is coming from.
Google considers desktop and tablet as the same device, as the screen sizes are roughly the same. However, mobile devices tend to have different user behavior and internet marketing tip Call to action search intent than desktop/tablets, making it important to tailor your CTA based on device. Users searching for something on their mobile phone are often looking for “instant gratification” or fast results and can now dial many responsive websites simply by hitting the number link on the website.
Google even lets you set your PPC ads for mobile to take calls directly so a CTA of “call now to get started” or “call us today for more information,” can be targeted.

Find your Own Call to Action

Regardless of where your audience is coming from, the easiest thing that you can do as a business owner is click on your website or social media and see what comes up on your screen. Do you see your CTA? Do you have a CTA, but you can’t see it on your screen then that is a matter of page location and you can work with your developer on moving it.

If you haven’t come up with a CTA yet, then give yourself one, be creative something that will fit with your personality.
TYFYS
DMC