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You just know that things aren't going well when Steve wakes up in the morning and the first words he utters are "Is it Friday yet?" Sadly it's only Wednesday but, like Steve, I so wish it was Friday.
Hopefully you guys are having a much better week than we are and all that snow that's falling in parts of the United States should making your traffic numbers look a little more healthy. I also hope that those extra traffic numbers are turning into sales for you too.
Steve and I have just been looking at a potential client's mainstream site because the client couldn't understand why it was producing very little in the way of sales before she had someone other than the original designer do a complete redesign ... it is and was doing even worse since the redesign.
Of course the fact that there wasn't an image anywhere on the site that clearly showed the product wasn't going to help sales but the main problem was that there was no call to action. There was simply nothing there that told visitors to the site to 'buy now' 'click here', 'call us for our off-peak rates' or anything else that might encourage a visitor to make a booking.
Steve actually went over each page two or three times just to make sure he hadn't missed a call to action but he never found one ... not one ... so it's no wonder that the site isn't turning visitors into buyers.
So what do your calls to action look like? Are they clear, obvious and unequivocal or are they hidden away, subtle or just plain non-existent?
Do you rely on the calls to action that are built into your sponsor's banners to convert surfers into money in your pocket or do you actually dare to be different and write a few calls to action for yourself?
I guess that if you're lazy you're going to take the easy way out and leave it up to the sponsor's banners to make that call to action. After all, most banners do include a call to action so why not use them?
Sure we can ignore the fact that most surfers these days are blind to banners and just play the numbers game. If we throw enough traffic at a site that relies on banners for the call to action then some will convert but what happens if you don't have a lot of traffic or you just want more from your traffic?
If you don't have a lot of traffic or you do want to make more money from the traffic you do have then you've got to start thinking of using calls to action that you have crafted and that appear on the site in good old-fashioned text.
'Click Here' is the most obvious call to action but why not look beyond the obvious? Why not craft a call to action that incorporates other power words that people tend to instinctively obey?
Think about including words such as 'stop', 'save', 'bargain', ‘look' etc. and do a little tracking of your out-clicks to see what works best for you.
Do it now! Every single surfer who leaves because they didn't see your call to action could be a sale that you've just lost.
And while you're thinking about crafting your calls to action also think about the questions that you're going to ask people prior to hitting them with your call to action.
Steve and I have just come back from a local store where I'm a regular so I tend to have a lot of laughs with the staff who are all about my age. Today the person in charge asked me “Would you like to buy ...” and frankly it was something I needed but my automatic response was a clear "No"
The person who asked me the question told me that she'd been getting a lot of negative responses even though lots of people need this product and the price was better than anywhere else in town.
We joked and laughed about a bit and then, as she wrapped up what I had come to buy, Steve said to her:
"You're asking the wrong question. What you should be asking people is: ‘Do you want to save money and save your life too?"
Of course that brought on more laughter because it wasn't quite a life or death product but he's right. If you have to ask a question as part of your sales pitch make sure it's a question that they can't answer in the negative. Ask a question that gives the person you're talking to two options ... one they really don't want to choose and one that sounds too good to pass up and you're well on your way to making a sale.
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