Playing with Your Call to Action

See See, my playmate
Come out and play with me
And bring your dollies, three
Climb up my apple tree.
Slide down my rain barrel
Into my cellar door
And we’ll be jolly friends
Forever more, more, more, more, more.

Do you remember that old childhood song? I learned it from my Grandmother. I know the words vary slightly by family, but this is the version I was taught.

Singing it was an invitation for a playmate to join us.

A “Call to Action.”

All web sites should have a Call to Action or a CTA as we like to call it.

Sometimes, finding a CTA that makes people respond is easy, but in most cases, it’s not. The BEST CTA’s are ones in which people are clamoring for information and you are the only one who has it. It’s much easier for industries that are not saturated with competition. I know finding the ideal CTA for a REALTOR is incredibly difficult and often takes trial and error to find the perfect response generator.

People are very protective of their contact information these days because of the number of businesses that have abused it in the past. You often find yourself having to build trust long before knowing the identity of your potential client. The larger the price point, the more competition, the longer the funnel.

When you have a CTA on your web site, it needs to be crystal clear. Visitors should understand that by accessing this call to action their life will be better, easier, _________ (fill in the blank pertinent to your industry).

Try not to convolute the issue with multiple calls to action unless the differences are easy for visitors to discern. You don’t want them becoming confused by the directions and then not responding at all.

Most importantly, you must deliver on what you promise. Add value. Once you’ve got that down, you can start to consider the funnel behind the CTA…. because the CTA is truly just the beginning…. but that’s a discussion for another day!