Tag Archives: call to action

Online Sales Leads

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ENGAGE VISITORS, RESPECT THEIR ABILITY TO CHOOSE
 

So you now know that you have to engage the visitors to your site with a call to action: Ask visitors to do something. Better yet, invite them to do something or they will leave. Now as an expert in SEO I have seen a lot of websites that ask visitors to do too may things. Some websites are like driving down a highway with multiple billboards shouting for your attention. You don’t know where to look. After all as a visitor, it’s likely that you’re looking for something and hope to find it quickly. So don’t offer too much. In fact maybe making one main offer is enough. And of course this is the theory behind “landing pages”. We will cover that later. For now let’s look at the power of providing a call to action and an incentive for that action.

A CALL TO ACTION IS NOT A SALES PITCH

When I ask you to do something on my home page it is tied to my keyword which led you to  find my site in the first place. A call to action is not, “buy my product because it is the best”. Why not? Because web citizens want to make up their own minds and they want to buy from someone they trust. So a call to action is really an attempt to start a relationship and build trust. In the case of a company selling a product, a typical call might be to “download our white paper which explains 10 ways to use our product”. This is better than an online sales pitch for 2 reasons: First, because you are setting up a relationship with your visitor. You offer an invitation and your potential client responds by downloading your incentive. If the information provided is well written, it will build trust and start a relationship. And this is the critical point, by accepting your white paper, you visitor is also giving something back in the form of his email. The first exchange has happened. You and your visitor are no longer strangers. And as I mentioned, if your white paper has solid content, a sense of trust will follow. This exchange will warm the relationship and make the visitor more likely to explore more of your site and be more receptive to your next email. The romance of transforming a stranger into a customer has begun.

FROM FREE GIFT TO RELATIONSHIP TO SALES

Once this relation has started you need to respect it and guard it and make sure to continue to follow your initial offer with more offers that point to a sale and ultimately a satisfied sale that will cause your client to share about her experience on Twitter or Facebook. If this seem difficult to understand, I will be discussing it in more detail next time when we talk about landing pages.

Website Freebies

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Website Strategy Part 1.5

As I finished part one of this series it occurred to me that readers might be having trouble thinking of a freebie, an incentive to offer in return for a visitors email. It’s important to give this some thought, however, not too much thought. Here’s why. The longer you postpone providing an actionable offer, the longer it will take to make your new site sticky. But let’s look at some possible freebies.

If you have a retail or product site it’s pretty easy. Here’s some suggestions:

  1. A sample of the product
  2. A reduced, time-limited price. Or a sale price.
  3. A list of upcoming sales events or product demonstration events
  4. A video that demonstrates the product, or provides unique uses of the product
  5. A white paper that provides detailed instructions, and unique uses and even product accessories.
  6. A password to a forum that consists of power users.
  7. A list of dealers that carry or distribute the product.
  8. A contest to win the product

By now you get the idea. But what if you are strictly a business to business service company; or even worse a doctor or a lawyer? B2B companies can offer:

  1. Limited time price reductions or introductory prices
  2. Online help or phone support
  3. Price reductions based on subscriptions
  4. Video support
  5. Extended service contracts
  6. A white paper on the best way to take advantage of the service
  7. An exclusive club or forum area of the website
  8. Phone time with senior executives

OK what about doctors and lawyers? These are touchy professions and require a little more thought. What would a clinic or a doctor want a visitor to do? I can imagine a few things:

  1. Download white papers on preventative health or best practices for how to prepare for an emergency
  2. Admission to lectures or webinars on appropriate subjects
  3. For both doctors and lawyers downloading a schedule of community service events
  4. Downloading healthy recipes
  5. A white paper on topical legal issues such as Super Pacs

If I haven’t covered something that triggers your particular business or issue, let me know in a reply below. Also, please let me know incentives that worked for your company’s website. I spend a lot of time with clients helping them formulate incentives and calls to action. It’s what keeps visitors coming back.