Content Marketing 101: What is a Call-To-Action?

 

You want to prompt your website visitors to take some sort of action. That’s the main point of having a website, to ultimately influence users to do something. The something that they do—whether it be signing up for a newsletter, signing up for a free trial, or buying a product—is called a call to action (CTA).  A strong call to action is essential to the success of any website, whether or not you’re using it to sell products and services. Some examples of calls to action include:

Download our free ebook or industry report

Sign up for a free trial

Register for our free webinar

View a demo

Sign up to receive a free coupon

Order now and get a discount

There are three main reasons for having a strong CTA on your website:

Provides direction to your users. If ever your users are unsure of what to do with the information you provide them, a call to action gives them a clear step to take next.

Measuring the success of your site. You can tell how your website is doing with the public from the number of visitors you have vs. the number of people who accept your CTA (otherwise known as a conversion rate).

Adds an objective to your website. Your call to action leaves no doubt as to what your website is about. For example, if you visit the Adobe Photoshop download page, you know immediately that they want you to download a free trial.

 Creating an effective CTA requires some marketing knowledge, but it’s nothing you can’t pick up quickly. Here are some tricks to use in creating one that will catch eyes.

Use actionable language. This might seem obvious, given the “action” in “call-to-action,” yet the internet is still full of vague language and information. Be clear about what you want your prospect to do. Use exact language. “You can register for our newsletter here” isn’t as strong as “Sign up for our newsletter.”

Point out benefits. A CTA should be brief, but you can still express benefits in just a few words. State that the report they’re downloading is industry award winning, or that it will teach them profitable secrets to increasing their sales. Point out that the free trial is for 30 days and comes with 24/7 email support. Basically, give your customer a reason to respond to your call.

Offer an incentive. A report published by Small Business Trends found that of the 200 small business websites they surveyed, 96% of them didn’t offer any sort of industry report, white paper, or otherwise helpful incentive. People like “insider” information, and offering it in the form of a free download makes it even more appealing.

Keep it simple. You don’t want to overwhelm or confuse your visitors, so limit the number of CTAs you have on your website. For instance, Hubspot has three CTAs on the bottom of their homepage: Call us, request a demo, or start a free trial.

 You also want to keep the amount of information you collect from your visitors to a minimum. The marketer in you might be tempted to collect lots of juicy demographics, but a CTA form isn’t the place to do that. Studies have found that the more fields a response form has, the smaller the website’s conversion rate. Keep it simple, and you won’t overwhelm your visitors.

Make it stand out. Your call to action should stand out from the rest of the page, and be in a place where users can easily locate it. Choose a contrasting background color, and place it above the fold where people can see it immediately. Some internet marketers would argue that a call to action need not always be above the fold. Just keep in mind that you want it to stand out to your audience and prompt them to take immediate action.

Have it on every page. The same Small Business Trends report found that 72% of the surveyed websites didn’t have a CTA on any of their internal pages. The chances of a conversion increase when the site visitor always has access to the CTA, so make sure you include it in the same spot on all of your pages.

Having a strong call to action is an overlooked yet fundamental part of optimizing your website for conversions. Whether building a prospect list, rallying activists, or getting your name out there as a blogger, CTAs add needed direction for both the website itself and your visitors. Now that you know the importance of it, there’s no reason not to have one!

Create beginner's Guide to stellar original content for your website

 The phrase "Content is King" has been repeated ad nauseum over the Internet Bill Gates the concept for the first time in 1996 established. It is repeated so often that the set has lost its importance almost. Sure, sites must have content, but how much content on the Web is useful or original? Perhaps to Mr. Gates: "Good content is King." Good content attracts readers, and they are prompted to share it with friends. Fortunately you must be no genius writers that write interesting content. Just follow the below recommendations.

This may seem obvious, but site owners too often fall into the trap of creating content about what they think she should address. You think about it, what their target audience really wants or needs. Think of the typical person who reads your content. What are your pain points? What problems can help you solve? What information can you make, that would make her life easier?

If ever stumped, how to answer these questions, do you you some research. You can do this in a number of ways, including:

Their readers, asking what they want to see more

Sign up for Google trends to see what people are about buzz

Visit Q & A sites like Yahoo answers to see what the people are talking about in particular categories

Visit of relevant online forums, to see which topics are the most popular

Conduct a search with a tool like SEMrush to see what related of keywords most popular

It is important that a running list of blog post ideas. Keep a notebook or mobile phone at hand so that you can record ideas, when strikes lighting and add all these ideas in a text document on your computer. Not too picky about is what you add to the list. Write everything you, even if it is imperfect. Often ideas need some time to the marinate, before they become something that you can use.

Most blog post and article ideas well suited for multiple pieces of content. Have an article about why saturated fat is bad for you? Why not write it from a different angle, such as what sources of saturated fat to avoid, or how to cut saturated fat from your kids diet? You can write also a look at the topic from a seemingly opposite stance on fats, which help you to lose weight. You have a ' list-style ' article about top super foods, select any super food in own separate blog post. When you get an idea for a new topic, you spend some time brainstorming angles.

It is understandable that you want to publish the genius blog post now. But consider the implication not take properly craft a blog post your time: in a hurry, Miss some grammar and spelling mistakes, don't start the spelling checker. You make some good points, that you was not rush had reminded would have. You realize that you could have used better decisions in the word. You forget, a source attribute, contain a link, search for an image or add as many small details that had been polished more your blog post. Yes, but not so fast, moving the Web at a rapid pace, that you have to sacrifice, to maintain the quality of your content.

This is a great way to intensive on a subject without the creation of content that is too long. Erin McNeany never ending journey released, for example, a popular three-part blog series titled, How to sell everything you own. This is a theme that certain categories of persons (travelers) often seek. The series is so popular that it counts still high in the SERPs, although it was released in the year 2010. You think of a huge problem, could you help with your readers and create serial content that would solve the problem.

No blog is an island for itself, so the others in your area to post in your blog feel free to invite. An additional advantage is that the guest bloggers will bring traffic with them, if they are well known enough.

Writing is a skill that can always be strengthened. You invest time in your writing skills with resources like the Purdue OWL and grammar girl's quick and Dirty Tipsto improve. Above all, exercise, exercise, exercise. This is important not only from a technical perspective. The more you write, the more you create your personal voice.

Anyone can create content, but not everyone can create good or even great content. If you can implement these policies into action, then you are on the way to create interesting content that will ultimately appreciate your website visitors.