Is your website brazen enough?

This Post is Written in : 14 October 2010, Under Category :

I know it seems counter-intuitive. You want to have the nice, polite website that says please and thank you and sits primly, ankles crossed while sipping tea (pinky raised, of course). Why would you want a bossy website?

Because you want to make sales, and your prim website is the wallflower while your competition’s website is partying on the dance floor. Why does their site get all the attention? Don’t your potential clients recognize class?

In a word, no. Visitors to your website are waiting for you to tell them what to do. For some bizarre reason, people are much more likely to call you if you tell them to call you (especially if you provide the phone number right there without making them hunt all over your website). They’re more likely to fill out a contact form if you say, “Fill out our form for more information today” (especially if you offer them something for giving you that information).

There are lots of discussions about where to put your call to action– top left, center left, top right. But what’s most important is that you put one somewhere on your page. Preferably on more than one page.

What should your call to action say? Here are a few ideas.

1. Call Us Today! 555-555-5555
2. View Demo
3. Register today and receive your free gift.
4. Sign up (with a lead capture form)
5. Request a quote.

See? Easy and painless. Pick one or two and add them to your website. In no time, your wall flower will have a full dance card.

If you need help implementing your call to action or have questions about using a call to action for your website, call us today at 832-497-1610. (See? A call to action!)

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Good point, Sean, about not coming off too "in your face". Again, I think you have to consider your audience. If you have an audience that is online all the time and automatically tunes out calls to action, you may have to shake them up a bit! So, it's pretty much back to basics. 1. Know your target audience. 2. Deliver the message in a way that appeals to that audience. 3. Make it easy for someone to take the actions you want them to take.

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Great reminder Jill! Its a shame that this is a message that needs to be sent, but it does. I see it more often than not. I've often wondered why. I think sites tend to be a lot like resumes. As we create them, we tend to get so close that we have a hard time looking at our "creation" with fresh eyes. We assume people will see our work in the same way that we do. The best creators of both web sites and resumes have the ability to look at them as a reasonable person would see them - dispassionately, with child-like interest and wonder. Merely average designers and internet marketing peeps forget these basics. The flip side of the argument is also often true. We've all seen examples where calls to action are overdone - and bleed over into spamminess. In my opinion, there's a fine line we must not cross, else our calls to action send the wrong signal in the other direction, and come off as too salesy or "in your face". Why do you think calls to action are so often forgotten (or overdone)? Thanks again for this quick, insightful read! Loved it!

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Absolutely! You have to target the "ask" to the client. However, you still need to "ask" at some point. For example, let's look at the Mercedes Benz website: http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/index How many different calls to action are there? I count at least five-- it's like Where's Waldo- can YOU find more :-) However, they're not screaming at you with neon flashing lights. But they also didn't just put up a picture of a Mercedes and trust that the viewer would figure out what to do next. But certainly a different call to action presentation than zhu zhu pets: http://www.zhuniverse.com/

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Thanks for these important reminders. I believe it also depends on your target demographic. For example, I think if you're going for high-ticket sales -- to an older, educated, wealthier client -- then your calls-to-action will need to be different than if you're selling a $8 item to tweens.

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