Homepage Call to Action

Your home page is usually the first thing that users see, the most important way to grab their attention, and the only way to keep new users on your site. How do you get customers from your front page to your checkout page? You have to hook them in! You have to give them an action on the front page – a newsletter sign up page, a free trial button, something that gives them an action to do. In the marketing world, they are known as a Call to Action. Not all calls to action are on the homepage – in fact they are all over your sites, posters, everything. However, we want to focus today on the home page. You see, these calls are meant to grab your target audience’s attention, entice them with something they want, and ensure them that by clicking that button or performing that action, they can fill that want or need. It is really just a very condensed version of your marketing advertisement with the button to instantly complete the goal of the ad. This means putting this on your front page can turn first time visitors into paying customers within seconds.

Creating an Effective Call to Action

 Because a call to action is literally just telling someone to do something – sign up, buy a product, fill out a form, you don’t necessarily have to make any huge choices. However, to make your call to action or any type of marketing the most effective, you need to define what need your product meets for whom, the hook of why they should go with your company, and how they can accomplish this with you. Then you set a goal that can be measured through the actions. Some of these are easy to come up with, but lets break it down so you have a pattern for the more difficult ones:

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• Your product is: Free Computer Basics Classes.
• The target audience is: people who don’t know how to use their computers very well.
• Their need is: to learn the computer.
• The hook is: to make them feel more confident about using the computer.
• They can get their need met by this action: by signing up for a free class.
• Metric to watch/goal: get more sign ups/100 new signups this month from this button
• The call to action (hook + action): Become more confident at using your computer by signing up for our free class today!
• The actual button says: Sign up Now!
• The actual button does: Sends them to a signup form with login etc

Lets try one more with a brand new product that you want to sell.

• Your product is: Natural Face Wash “Liquid Gold”
• The target audience is: 20-30, environmentally conscious
• Their need is: clear and healthy skin
• The hook is: natural, local, cheaper than leading by 15%
• They can get their need met by this action: getting a sample
• Metric to watch/goal: sales/100 sold this month from this button
• The call to action (hook + action): Try our newest natural face wash and spend less than the leading brand!
  
• The actual button says: Add Liquid Gold to your life now
• The actual button does: Adds the item to the cart

This last button could have just as easily been “Buy one today!” or “Receive a free sample when you buy x” or “Send me a sample”. Each of these calls to action will attract different subsets within your target audience, and can execute different goals.  We can help you decide the best approach for your site and current goals.

Matching Call to Actions with Goals

Make sure your call to action buttons are actually helping you with your goal. While the main goal for your business might be revenue, there are still other very important metrics goals you can work on with these call to action buttons. If your goal is to get more leads, that button should open the form to fill out there. If your goal is sales, that button should add the advertised product immediately to the cart. You want as few steps as possible between your customer and your goal. The call to action puts that front and center. Of course, you want the actual button and call to action to be convincing and effective. Putting “give us money” on a button probably won’t be effective unless you are running a satire based site. Below are some great examples of goals and calls to action.

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Gathering Leads

If you need more leads, gather emails! Get them to sign up for your newsletter, or ask them to fill out a form if they are interested in a consult, whichever you are looking for.

• Sign up to Learn More!
• Join Our Newsletter
• Get a free (xxxxxx) when you sign up for our newsletter!
• Ask us for a free consult today!

More Physical Traffic to your store

If you have a physical location and you want more physical traffic, entice them with your location! Make the button send them to maps, directions, appointment forms, anything that gets them one step closer to walking through your door.

• Set an appointment today
• stop by to see our new (xxxxxx)
• get personalized help at our store
• See our locations

Adding Users

So you have a membership based site. First tip is to always have a limited free tier to get them in the door. Whether your site is free acess or paid, these buttons should automatically send the user to the login/registration forms.

• Join Now/Join Today
• Sign up now
• Get started today!
• Start improving your (xxxxxx) today!

More Traffic to a Page

General traffic to your site can be increased through SEO, social media sharing, and much more. However, perhaps you have a new product or section on your website that you want people to head to. These call to actions are just to get your customers to a specific page.

• Check out our new gallery of (xxxxxx)!
• Learn more about (xxxxxx)!
• Start your own (xxxxxx)!
• Clearance sale!

Revenue

If your website and business is based in sales, you want the people visiting your website to buy things of course! How do you get them to do that? Well, isn’t that the million dollar question. All advertisements boil down to the same things, just with different sparkles and branding. Here are some examples.

Its New!

• Try it today!
• Order yours

Its Restricted/Rare!

• Get it before its gone!
• Get your exclusive coupon

It Improves you!

• Get it in your size!
• Improve your (xxxxxx)!

Its Better than (x)!

• Get your improved (xxxxxx)!
• Stop getting bad results!

Seasonal

• Order your (xxxxxx) for (xxxxxx) day!
• Make the best of (xxxxxx) day!