By Stephon Jacob

You’ve worked hard to build up your social media engagement rates. Your SEO and ads are performing well. Your potential customers are coming to your site. Do they know what to do? A call to action is a crucial to element on a webpage, acting as a directional sign that lets the user know what to do next. Without a clear CTA, the user may not know the next steps to purchase become a customer, member, or supporter. Your work to drive traffic to your site may become a dead ned if you’re not careful…

Here are a few ideas for simple CTAs to add to your website.

Highlight your most popular solution to a problem   

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Make it easy for them to find what they need. You can get ideas from your order histories, or audience traffic, and even demographic information. Create a CTA based on that simple concept.

Highlighting your most important service or product may change based on time of the year. Be sure to update this key CTA to be timely and relevant. If you are an HVAC company and it’s summertime, you should highlight your “Fix Your AC” button on your website because, in the summer, that’s the solution to the program people are having. As it changes to fall, perhaps you can update it to say “Get ready for the Winter.”

Make sure next step is easy! If a Custer selects a CTA, it should lead to a form where they can easily set up a consultation or appointment easily.

Offer a Coupon

Highlight a first-time or temporary deal or coupon. Request an email address or an appointment to unlock the benefits, for example.

A local auto repair business is a great example. That’s a big ticket item, usually, and if you can ease your potential customer’s mind with a good deal they may convert. As we mentioned above, keeping your coupons timely and relevant is helpful. Some businesses have offered first responders’ discounts. As an auto repair shop, that’s very smart. For quite some time, they were the only drivers on the road.

Restock Email Sign Up

If you’re a retail business, this is a simple addition to your site. Customers who want updates will sign up for restock alerts that give instant updates on their favorite products. This is an excellent call to action for companies with limited releases, smaller inventory, and more. As website visitors fill out the restock request, you’ll also secure their email address to add to your email list. They’ve already expressed interest in your products, it’s likely they’ll want to see what else you have to offer.

Sweet tip: Your website is your most crucial employee because it is working 24/7.

Invitation for a Consultation 

Another great CTA for your business is an invitation to schedule a consultation. If a person isn’t quite ready to make a purchase or investment online, they may be likely once they talk with a real human being. They can ask questions, you can build trust, and you can help bring their decision to a close. If someone requests a meeting, you can trust it is because they are interested.

This CTA would would great for anyone offering professional services, such as legal expertise, accounting, business coaching, and more. These are complex services and may be confusing to a customer. Clear the fog, help them understand, ensure they understand what they are getting for their money.

Join for a Free Trial

Virtual classes, streaming services and other subscription-based services are great options for a limited-time free trial call to action. Let’s start with Netflix, for example. Everyone gets the first month for free when they sign up for the subscription. Netflix’s CTA is very popular because subscribers get to test Netflix and see what it is about for a month for free. Netflix provides this CTA everywhere digitally for users when they join. As you can see above, this same CTA is also effective for virtual fitness and wellness subscription services.

Sweet Tip: Constructing a sense of urgency in your call to action buttons can yield some impressive click-through rates. 

Offer a Free Download

Your first interaction with client doesn’t have to involve money. Use the opportunity to showcase your expertise. Offer it up for free to demonstrate what you CAN offer. Get their creative juices thinking about their business. Downloads are usually simple easy-to-digest lists and start-up guides.

Kim Brundage, for example, offers up a free personal branding guide. It’s really helpful and helps her potential customers realize all that goes into branding a business. The guide also helps demonstrate the importance of dong it right, and therefore why they may need her help. It’s genius!

Less is More When it Comes to Choices 

As you create and develop your CTAs, be sure not to confuse your customers. Be sure to focus on a few funnels to your products and services. Your CTA should help them cut through the noise and make it easy to get from A to Z. We humans tend to suffer from the choice paradox – we enjoy choosing between an apple or an orange, but present us with apples, oranges, dragon fruit, grapes, pomegranates, bananas, clementine, and mangos and our heads may nearly explode with indecision.

In one study by Mark Lepper of Columbia University, participants who were asked to choose one chocolate from a box of six were happier with their selection than participants who selected one chocolate from a box of 30. Keep your users happy by giving them fewer buttons to choose from!

We’re here to help!

Reach out to us and let us know what call to action ideas you are considering or how we can help: [email protected].