“Now what?” The fine art of incorporating calls to action in your advertising

When many people hear the phrase, “call to action,” images of salespeople on televisions annoying their viewers with commands to, “Call or click today and double your order for the low price of $19.95!” may come to mind. However, in the world of e-Commerce, the concept of a call to action goes well beyond the stereotypical TV salesperson, and is an essential component of acquiring new customers. If you’ve been hesitant to embrace a call-to-action strategy for your online advertising, consider the following myths and realities of using calls to actions online.

Myth: no one likes having their television scream at them to buy something or call someone, much less their computer doing the same.

Reality:  While it’s true that few people like seeing salespeople on TV scream at them to purchase things, calls to action online rarely take this form. Instead of thinking of online calls to action as screaming salespeople, think of them more as directional signs you would see on a highway. A blue-and-white guide sign for a fast food restaurant in two miles doesn’t scream at you to buy a hamburger, but if you happen to be hungry, thirsty, or are in need of a bathroom, it might tempt you to make a short stop. The same can be said of advertising on the Internet. People search the Internet because they want something. If you have what they want, and you let them know how to find you with a simple “buy now” or “sign up now,” chances are they’ll take you up on your offer.

Myth: calls to action only apply to those irritating pop-up ads you see when visiting other websites.

Reality: Every piece of writing on your website should be written with calls to action in mind. After all, getting people to look at your website is one thing; getting them to go where you want them to go once they’re on your home page is another thing entirely. If you have a lot of pages comprising your website, it can be easy for users to not know where to go to find what they’re looking for. Simple informative calls to action such as, “view more items of this type,” or “view details on this service” help users learn all the information they want to know about your products or services without having to hunt through dozens of pages.

Myth: people won’t actually commit to anything on the Internet, so calls to action are a waste of time and money.

Reality: While it is true that some people only use the Internet to compare product features and prices, and prefer to make actual purchases in brick-and-mortar stores, that doesn’t mean having a good call to action strategy won’t help entice those people to choose your product or service over your competitor’s when they are done comparing their choices. They likely won’t respond well to calls to action telling them to “buy now,” but they likely will respond favorably to calls to action offering them the opportunity to download a free report, catalog, or printable coupon. Also, there are plenty of people shopping on the Internet who will commit to purchases online, so don’t alienate them for the sake of those who won’t.

Myth: people will respond more favorably if you use “click here” instead of something like “buy now” because “click here” sounds less pushy.

Reality: “click here” is one of the worst calls to action you could possibly use, both in terms of search engine optimization and scaring people away from making a purchase. Because the phrase “click here” says nothing about where clicking here will lead you to, people will be more hesitant to click and search engines will have a harder time finding the page to which your call to action links. “Click here” is also a staple of e-mail virus distribution, whereby clicking unleashes a virus onto the unsuspecting user’s computer, so tech-savvy Internet users will likely be wary of any ambiguous links in e-mail or Internet advertisements.

Choosing the right call to action phrase for your product or service is tricky, and the effectiveness of one technique in an e-mail campaign may be completely ineffective on your website’s homepage. It all depends on who you are trying to attract and where you want them to go. That’s why Niche Marketing PR offers copywriting services as an add-on service for any website, e-mail campaign, or Internet advertising campaign. 

Now go download a FREE copy of this fact sheet on calls to action in PDF form.

Website Optimization > Calls to Action