Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Conversions from call to action buttons are seriously important.
We change ours regularly, why? Because we are always testing to find the ones that improve conversions, engagement and overall ROI.
Here are several tips on call to action buttons to get good results, now testing is what gets you Great Results!
Tip #1: Make it Big! What we have found is that on a web page, size matters!
Around 200px wide and 40px high is a good place to start.
Tip #2: Location, where have you heard that term before? Where it is matters on the page. Why? Because people read, skim and look for things in their own logical order. Absolutely make sure that it is above the fold, and make sure to check it out on different screens / computers. What works on your laptop may not work on an older style CRT desktop. Your target market does have consistency of what they use to surf the web. Find out!
Tip #3: The button color matters. TEST, TEST, TEST. Not every industry responds to Red, so try some things out to find the contrasting color that works with your target market.
Tip #4: Strong call to action. There are many variations that work from the simple 'click here' to 'Get started now' to even 'contact today'. The bottom line is that you need enough traffic to test appropriately (1500/month minimum).
Did I mention to test and test some more. The data doesn't lie, it shows you where there growth opportunities, we have seen a 37% increase in conversions from making some of these changes and testing. This leads up to some serious dollars over time.
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Online search marketing for Small business owners has been tough.
For years now, companies have bought into the external vices of PPC, pay per click and other forms of getting traffic to their site.
There is a problem with this methodology. If you don’t have a website capable of handling different types of buyers in different stages of buying, you’re asking them to accept less comfort with your website.
Please note: Casting a wide net cause’s traffic outside your target market, this in turn increases your click thru rate costs. And that turns opportunity costs to soar.
Three areas to put your 2011 energy / dollars:
1) Dedicated landing pages: Sending everyone to your home page is asking them to find what they are looking for. Every click (paid or organic search) needs to go in the direction that the search is intended. If you do not send them to their area of need, they will be gone in milliseconds. People want what they expect, give it to them.
2) Create clear calls to action -
CTA: Remember, the visitor is coming to you for something (based on where they are in the buying process). Provide distinct value, keep it simple, give them what they want / came for. Make it easy for them to engage with you, build credibility, and want more. Use and test call to action button vs. linked text to see which converts higher.
3) Strategic follow-up: Most efforts fail here, no personalized effort and they will be feeling like the auto-mated message is a slap in the face. If you have sales people that will be following up, use them, their personality in the e-mail(s). I have witnessed first-hand the research that backs up contacting a lead 5 minutes after they have filled out the form increases success 100x’s vs. waiting 30 minutes.
The Bottom Line: Time is precious for all of us, People search to find quality people, solutions, and companies to trust & rely on.
Give your highly targeted visitors what they want, when they want it. It is work, and it pays off if done well!
flickr photo By gomattolson
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
What is the best SEO strategy? Connection with people, that's #1.
What is most prevalent in Minneapolis internet marketing is what each and every business / person has to say to their intended audience. Content. Content is the cornerstone to engagement, get it right, they will connect / engage with you. Get it wrong, and they will go elsewhere to find the web pages / people who understand them.
A Call to action (CTA) is only as good as the content that backs it up.
It is the content that must be connected to two very important pieces:
Buyer Roles:
Buying Stages:
These two components are the foundation for writing content. Again, give the visitor what they want, when they want it. Lead nurturing is about conversation with prospects. Start it early, and connect with them throughout ‘their’ stages of buying.
The way you focus on your prospects via your web pages is how one develops the connections to move the prospect closer to, and more comfortable with your products and services.
Having this go-between from visitor to human interface is where companies are making huge gains in loyalty, purchases, and word of mouth endorsements. Now, who doesn’t want that?
Why focus on both buyer role, and buying stages?
• Prospects know that they can look beyond your web pages for what they want. Targeted content is much more valuable to a visitor than generic content (one size fits all).
>80% of prospects say content targeted to their specific industry is more valuable to them.
>65% say content targeted to their specific job responsibility is more valuable.
• Prospects also demand that the content they are looking for (answers, solutions) is relevant to the buying process as they move through it.
Make your content engaging to the targeted audience, if you are being criticized by someone who isn’t your target market for content, while the targeted group is hungry for more, consider that a ‘Win’.
Search engines rule the internet world, stay ahead with the right tools, and people to maximize connections with your target market, that is why Tru-Market is GPS For Business
data from MarketingSherpa study 2009
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Lead Generation And Nurturing
definition: An act where the main objective is for one person to get to know more about your company and what benefits it can offer, leading up to earning a customer. After a visitor fills out a form (CTA) requesting information is where permission based nurturing usually begins.
Please note: Seth Godin, creator of this concept of permission marketing believes permission is creating a perceptible need or even hunger for your communication.
This is different than presumed or legal permission. ‘Just because you somehow get my email, doesn’t mean you have my permission.’ If you want to do your visitors right, than never cross this line. Do you like it when you get junk mail? There is a reason its call Spam.
Contacting prospects is all about content, and timing. Get it right and you have earned their trust and a shot at earning the business. Get it wrong, and they won’t be coming back.
Here are some tips on developing a timely campaign for nurturing leads:
Consider the Sales cycle or length of the buying process: This will determine the timeframe of ‘touches’ you want to make and the time in-between (this allows prospect to feel unpressured, educated, and comfortable).
Is the process more educational than sales? Or sales than educational? This determines the content, will it be whitepapers, studies, webinars, tips on services, etc.
For example: If your sales process is 3-4 months, the path you might want to take may look like this:
Day 2: follow-up with e-mail introducing yourself / company, etc.
Day 10: e-mail offering new relevant content related to the first form they filled out, plus website activity.
Day 15: Personal e-mail from sales representative / contact reinforcing the communication.
Day 30: E-mail best practices whitepaper
Day 45: Call from sales to check in.
Day 60: E-mail promoting educational program (webinar, ppt, etc.)
Day 75: Personal e-mail offering demonstration, fact finding, etc.)
Day 85: Call to schedule face to face meeting.
Day 90: face to face meeting
Day 92: E-mail sales proposal
While this here shows one path, it does not work for all. Every e-mail sent out should include another call to action (CTA). Testing needs to be done to determine success rates, remember the real answers lie in what the buyer wants. Make it easy for them to know you, understand the benefits you offer, and feel comfortable in dealing with you. They want to be sold, make it easy.
Tru-Market is all about lead generation and nurturing the desired people who want your products / services online. It is GPS For Business.
flickr photo By HuntFishGuideTru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Call to Action Tactics:
Where are you losing visitors to another site? At what point does the visitor leave your site for another? Why is this happening?
- The value of staying on the site is less than pain of current solution the visitor is seeking.
- Visitor is not representative of your target market (wrong visitor)
- Not enough reason to stay on the site (No call to action, information is not easy to find, etc.)
- Outside distraction (not the right time for the visitor).
All of these reasons are 'real' to the person visiting web pages. We all have our own agendas, the goal of a good web page is to be able to weed out the 'weak' potentials, and draw in the stronger ones.
How is this accomplished?
The real answer: One size does not fit all. Know what, where, how long current visitors are on your site. Understanding the traffic patterns of a web page / site is a great starting point. Twin Cities search engine marketing demands high value be front and center to visitors. Give them what they want! Make them want to dig deeper!
The majority (>80%) are only ready to engage with you, or a web page when an acceptable comfort level is achieved. Ever have someone try to get you to eat a sample at the grocery story? For some, annoying, others, willing to take anything for free.
Repeat visitors is where the meat of your true market lies (Yes, there are always exceptions).
Improve visitor comfort level to the point of engagement (call to action button, landing page optimization, fill out form, click to another page for more information, dig deeper).
Reduce the number of 'tire kickers' just looking for something to look at.
Increase the time visitors spend on pages, # of pages viewed, reduce bounce rate, etc.
Is this different that any other venue, no. I spent part of my career calling on doctors who specialized in Psychiatry. The average time or visits it took for a doctor to alter his/her prescribing habits based on educational data, studies, reports, fact based journals was seven face to face visits. Why is this important? People are people, habits are hard to change, give visitors what they want.
The Bottom Line:
Comfort level regardless of face to face, or online is still a strong determinate of how we make decisions. Make it easy for visitors with positive call to action tactics to dig deeper, gather relevant data, accept free offers, and improve their decision making power, and you have the opportunity to make a connection / loyal customer.
flickr photo By Intersection ConsultingTru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
CTA: Call To Action! I need more sales! I am reminded of the small companies seeking out solutions that attempt to cure a weakened pipeline of business with veneer like products / services.
We all have spent time seeking out solutions to our homes and come across products built on a base of engineered fiber board with a thin layer of veneer across its visible surface.
How many of you have had 'fun' putting these together? How long did it last? Every try to take them apart, move, and reassemble?
In small businesses, solutions to improve sales are bought to fix a core problem with the existing business platform. I need more Sales!
Want to improve it? Increase your PPC budget, Glue some customer management software on top of it, toss in a social media campaign, learn as you go, or hire someone to fill in the blanks (good website marketing consultants would not let you do this).
The Main problem still exists.
The reality is that a sales pipeline built on older technology does work, if there is enough of the energy and will to connect with customers face to face, and then have them visit your website. This is also dependent on finding them in the right frame of reference when you call them back for a follow-up.
The bottom line here is that somewhere in this mix is the experience of visiting your website, If you have to think to:
- Ask: What is it that you want me to do?
- Find information / knowledge to feel comfortable to engage. CTA, where is the call to action?
- Understanding how to navigate
- Can't find the contact us form, and/or call the number listed (if you can find it).
- Least I know where the Back button is, I'll use that.
This approach works if you have thousands of visitors coming to your site to afford to lose potential customers in 'their stage' of buying' to those that are willing to accept the 'one size fits all' approach to your site.
Old website/organization + New technology = expensive old website/organization
There is a time and place for a cheap veneer-like solution. Having a website that fails to deliver what the visitor is looking for when they want it, is asking people to accept that you 'know' what is good for them.
Stages of buying:
Don't rely on just increasing traffic. If you already found out that when they get there, it does not address the stage they are in,
Nor does your site give enough in advance to improve and engage the visitor (increasing comfort level, and gets you closer to a solution they want).
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Don't take just my words on good effective websites that pull you in,
Want to know who really has their act together in regard to engaging their customers on multiple levels with rich content and actionable verbiage?
Take a look at www.Realage.com. I receive their e-mails and they draw me in probably 2/5 times with amazing calls to action. (and that is when I am going through 75+ e-mails a day)
If your skeptical about the benefits of Inbound marketing services, look at how they keep you moving and clicking for more information.
'How a fist bump helps your heart'
'These amazing fruits will reduce your waistline'
'Eat this salsa for firmer skin'
They hit their target market on many levels, its that kind of high energy with well placed content that drives their visitors too engage. In order to hit this geographically, i.e. market research Minneapolis is necessary to find, connect, and develop before you just price promote.
And notice that they don't sell you with 'in your face' price/promotion. The main message on every page is rich in meaningful content, with calls to action next to it for you to move forward to another page on other topics. This is the best definition of what Landing page SEO is all about. Sure there is advertisement on every page, but it is secondary in presentation because you focus on information first. That action lowers your negative reaction level to being sold and improves the click thru rate for promotion.
Need that kind of energy and drive from your visitors? Small businesses should be utilizing their websites to drive this kind of interaction, because this is what will drive your business in the right direction.
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
As a new 'potential' I want you to impress me with something! Help me along my path to problem resolution. Do I even know that I have a problem? This is more common than one would think. Small businesses benefit the most from having a site that encourages two way communication, earns two way communication with its true market.
People want to work with others of value to their organization, Does your site offer relevant value? Or just tell me how great you are?
The choice to continue on your site is made in a few seconds. Site confidence is crucial, offer value up front, engage, come across as active listening, meaning, truly trying to understand the potential customers point of view or frame of reference. Who doesn't want the opportunity to be first in line when it comes to making buying decisions. How do you do this? Through providing value every step of the buying process.
The 5 steps for online buying:
- Problem recognition- I need information to know that I have a problem, ask questions, give information via blog, Call to action, Landing pages, let me know that your site is a good place to be.
- information search- keyword search, educate me on your knowledge of solving my problem -no marketing / selling yet. just solid information, price is not even a consideration here -please no hype.
- evaluation of alternatives- be not afraid to talk about alternatives, back up statements of benefit to me; increase sales, smooth operation of my computer, no viruses, safe toys, etc.
- product choice- reassure me that using your product is good for my objective, goals, etc.
- outcome- help me after the sale and I will talk favorably to my friends and colleagues, and buy again and again.
If my site offers value for each step on various landing pages initiating engagement, then my chances go up of being considered in the communication of 'the problem'.
Visitor motivation is involvement, how much effort will I have to exert in reading this Minneapolis consulting business blog? Can I afford the purchase? Do I need this 'right now'? Am I getting my monies worth? What is the perceived risk of not doing this? What if I make a bad decision?
Understanding buying behaviors within your tru-market is an art. Twin Cities SEO marketing + targeted behaviors build effective CTA (call to action) buttons, and Landing pages. Then we test it, and test it some more. The goal: increase conversions, we live for conversions!
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business
Get found, Convert, Analyze - Increase sales, Targeted results.
Does your site engage with people your interested in? Here is five different people in different stages of the buying cycle for one product and how to connect or engage with them.
- Interested in knowing more about product / service.
- Basic knowledge of need, wants to be educated, demonstrating competence of your company.
- Educated, weighing options- sites- process- commitments.
- Knows exactly what they want, very specific.
- Been using a competitor, not happy with performance, looking for improvement.
Can you say with a high level of certainty that your Call to action (CTA) speaks to each of the five types of customers? A well developed / viewed analytics report should answer this, as well as a full pipeline. The list could be any number, in reality the number relates directly to your target market. Every company should have this in very specific terms. Inbound marketing consulting is about giving your target market what they want.
The act in question is; Do you have a CTA (call to action) developed for each of these five? How not to engage them:
- Download our Product Specs
- Free Trial
- Request a Free Consultation
- Enter to Win (unless the chances are really good)
- Save 50% When You Buy Today
If you are using any of these techniques, stop it right away. These are blanket CTA's. What do they mean? They actually mean different things to different people. What is consistent in these offers is that listening is not part of the equation.
You only get five seconds to make good on who you are. Offer something of value specific to your target market. Then and only then will you get people to come back and potentially engage with you. This is tough stuff! When I see CTA's like these, I know that they are not interested in really what I am looking for.
Website visitors will share their contact information with you when they believe that you understand their challenges, problems and goals.
They could care less about your product or your pricing until they think you understand.
For example: If I sell widgets, a good call to action (for one or more people in their educating / buying stage) that educates and demonstrates competence could be; 
"5 ways that improve widget performance in the winter" not 'download our product specs'. Now, I live in Minnesota, there is winter, I depend on having a widget, my current widget is worn out because of winter use. And because I have tested different ways of this CTA over time (crucial to the seasons) and found a higher percentage of engagement with this CTA. This led to a higher quality of customer, higher sales, recommendations, and a better product.
See the connection? An effective inbound marketing CTA educates / informs the reader on widget performance, shows how my widget offering is solid, and most of all, demonstrates listening / understanding of widget owners and it is throught interaction that improves production/ performance adjustments to make my widget stronger, and last longer.
Tru-Market is all about giving your online visitors the information to be educated, nurtured, and motivated to become customers, it's GPS For Business