In this week’s Whiteboard Wednesday, Lenny Ford describes how to create an effective call to action for your website landing pages.

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. I’m Lenny Ford from Links Web Design. We’re going to do a quick presentation today on a call to action. So, let’s jump right in.

• What is it?
• What does it look like?
• Why is it important to your small business website?

What is a call to action?

A call to action is the most important thing you want your website visitors to do. You spent a bunch of time and effort putting together a website for your small business because you need one. You want to get your name out there. There has to be a purpose behind it. You want your visitors to actually do something when they get to your site.

It’s a link or a button that has a strong verb attached to it. It just can’t be “Click Here” or anything like that. We want to say things like “Contact Us,” “Order Now,” “Schedule an Appointment,” or “Learn More.” All of those make good calls to action. They all have a strong verb attached like contact, order, schedule, or learn. It’s the whole reason you have a website.

An informational website is great. You get one. You put it out. It’s awesome. I know that Joe Schmo’s Plumbing exists in my town, but I don’t know what the next step is.

I don’t know…

• How do I get in contact with them?
• Do I need to get an appointment?
• Do I need to schedule an estimate?

That’s where a call to action comes in. You tell them what that next step is. Make it easy for your visitor to know exactly what the next step is with your business.

What does it look like?

It’s big. It’s bold. We don’t want people to miss it. It’s the most important thing. It should be the biggest thing on the page or at least on the screen.

When on that part of the page, it should be the thing that stands out the most. It should clearly indicate an action that they can take. With these we highlighted here, “Contact Us,” I know what I’m going to do when I click that button.

It goes to a contact form or an email address. It opens my email client directly so that I can contact you. “Schedule an Appointment” is the same idea. I know exactly what’s going to happen. I’m getting a phone number or a form so that I can schedule that appointment.

It’s usually paired with a value proposition. A call to action without a reason to take that action is not really all that useful. We can say, “Contact Us Today” or “Schedule Your Appointment.” If we don’t tell you why you should do that, it really devalues that call to action. A lot of times, it looks like this.

We have a value proposition explaining why they should contact you and why you’re better than your competition. Then, the call to action itself, a really big button says, “Contact Us.” This would work great on the homepage. A big image on your homepage and a big value proposition with your call to action button.

Don’t Forget Your Interior Pages

You don’t want to leave out your interior pages. That’s just as important. A lot of times, they come to an interior page directly from Google instead of the homepage. Maybe that looks something more like this one where we have a title, a couple of paragraphs of text, and a sidebar on our interior pages.

In that sidebar is this nice call to action. A little title, value proposition, and the button, “Buy Now,” or take that action. Don’t forget your interior pages. Calls to action are just as important there as they are on your homepage.

Why do you want one?

I touched on it a few times. I hope you get the message here. It is the most important thing on your website. As far as your visitor is concerned, it makes your site easy to use.

They come to your site to learn about your business. They want to know what the next step is. Usually, when people browse the web, they scan. They don’t really read in-depth unless they come specifically for an article.

If I’m just looking for plumbers in my area, I’m not looking to read in-depth articles about how to plumb a house. I want to find out who is in my area. It makes your site easy to use because when they hit the site they know Joe Schmo, the plumber is here.

He wants me to contact him. The next step is to schedule an estimate, not just to have him come out and start doing work. It increases conversions on your site. If you ask for the sale, you might get the sale. If you don’t ask for the sale, you’re not going to get the sale. I hope that makes sense.

Marketing 101

If you have a website and you don’t ask them to take that next step to create that conversion, you’re potentially losing that sale. If I see two sites, one has a really clear call to action and the other doesn’t, I may be confused. I don’t know what to do on the first site.

On the second site with a clear call to action, there’s no guessing. Your visitor gets there. They consume your content and look at pictures. They read some text. You want to make it easy for them to take that next step.

Finally, hand-in-hand with an increase in conversions comes increasing your bottom line. We want you to put a call to action on your website. You can make more money and get more value out of that website that you put a lot of time and effort into.

Just to Recap

A call to action, what is it? It’s a clear, concise link or button with a verb attached to it. It’s big and bold. You don’t want to let your visitors miss it. You want to do it because it increases your bottom line.

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Links Web Design is a Website Design Company in Bangor, Maine.