Keep Your Website Visitors from Surfing On By

Today’s internet is a wild, wide-open ocean full of possibilities, with an infinite number of sites, blogs and cute cat videos seeking the increasingly-short attention spans of web surfing consumers.

OK, the numbers may not be quite to infinity yet, but according to Internet Live Stats in September 2014 the tally hit one billion websites worldwide. (Click to Tweet!) 

The question then, is how do you compete for attention and achieve your business’s internet goals: capture leads and generate sales.

Calls-to-Action

One key component to turning your website or blog into an effective tool for generating leads and engaging visitors is the call-to-action (CTA).

What is a call-to-action? The name really says it all: a call-to-action is how you summon your website visitors to do something, to take action. You may want them to “watch,” “try,” “subscribe,” “join,” or “download.”

Calls-to-action require two things: an offer and an action. 

The offer is what you are going to give the reader. We are going to focus not on sales and products in this discussion, but on the free offers that appeal to visitors at the top of the sales funnel who aren’t yet ready to buy.

Alongside its CTA for a paid subscription to the magazine, The Smithsonian offers a subscription to a free newsletter.

Netflix offers a free month of their movies and televisions shows.

Pillsbury offers a membership that provides coupons, recipes, free samples "and more."

On the website www.financial-planning.com, J.P. Morgan is offering a free college planning workbook, while Prudential offers a video to watch.

What other valuable content or services can you offer? Brainstorm to decide what best fits your company and industry. Our Content Planning Funnel may provide additional ideas for various stages of the buying cycle.

The action is how a website visitor accesses the offer. It starts with a simple click on the CTA, which should always be written with an active verb telling the reader what to do. Just saying “We have a newsletter” isn’t nearly as compelling as “Subscribe now to get our newsletter each week.”

Or take it up another notch, as Shutterfly does, when they invite you to “Discover The Power Of Shutterfly.”

It is the top-of-the-sales funnel version of asking for the sale.

Why You Need CTAs

What is it that makes calls-to-action vital to the success of your website or blog in driving lead generation and sales?

Remember those first numbers we mentioned? Your CTA is what cuts through the 1-billion-websites clutter. We all, as internet consumers, have times when we wander aimlessly from site to site, never really DOING anything. 

Your CTA tells distracted readers precisely what to do: CLICK HERE! And in doing so, guides them deeper into your site and content, and keeps them on your website longer. Without CTAs, visitors may never be aware of all you have available. By calling them to move through your site, to access offers such as free trials or newsletter subscriptions, you keep their attention long enough to make a lasting impression.

CTAs also set into motion the mechanisms for capturing information and generating leads. In order to access an offer, visitors provide contact information, which can be used to place them into a lead nurturing campaign.

If you continue to do it right and you have a solution your visitors are looking for, your calls-to-action are the first step in converting them from simple visitors and readers into valued customers.  Keep your website visitors from surfing on by.

Ready to design calls-to-action for your website or blog? Find detailed steps and best practices in our Comprehensive Guide to Designing and Executing Calls-to-Action. Download the free ebook here.