Here’s a simple and powerful statement that you ignore at your own marketing peril. People want to be led. It’s not an earth shattering statement. You’ve heard it before. Left to their own devices people often stumble around and take a long time to get somewhere. In marketing, time is money. We can’t afford leads and prospects stumbling around searching and not finding. We need them to get off the dime.
So, we lead them.
It’s why the strategic call to action is so important. What is the call to action? At BusinessDictionary.com its defined as, “Words that urge the reader, listener, or viewer of a sales promotion message to take an immediate action. It uses phrases such as “Write Now,” “Call Now,” or “Click Here.” The call to action is an essential marketing tool if you want to generate new business quickly. The call to action leads people towards a desired action. It provides interest and incentive to take action.
A call to action can lead to varying degrees. You can provide a call to action that says, “Buy now. Below is call to action for integrityautorepair.com. The call to action is “Schedule Service.”
Here’s a call to action from uisinsure.com urging you to “Get Started Today.”
Another call to action is the “Learn More” strategy. The company doesn’t go for the sale right away. It realizes you need to spend some time and learn more. Here’s the “Learn More” call to action used by intuit.com.
Cyril Northcote Parkinson first published Parkinson’s Law In the 1950’s. The adage states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” If you give a student two weeks to finish an assignment, the student will wait until the night before the assignment is due to do the work. If a manager gives a subordinate two days to complete a task the subordinate will take two days to complete the task. Parkinson’s Law is really based on procrastination. “If you’re going to give me two weeks then I’ll take two weeks. Why should I get it done early? I’ll just wait.”
The strategic call to action battles against Parkinson’s Law and the human tendency to procrastinate. The call to action doesn’t give in to procrastination. It says, “Learn More Now” or “Get Started Now.” It prompts action on the part of the prospect. Without the call to action the prospect can contemplate involvement and always have reasons why action isn’t warranted. Lead generation requires activity. It doesn’t work unless there is activity and involvement.
If you sell a product or service you should have calls to action on your website. It’s hard to do. It’s not easy to simplify your offers and make them compelling. How many of your prospects will react to your calls to action? Statistically its not a big percentage. It’s not as if 80% of people who see your call to action will respond. It’s more like 3% to 5% will respond. What’s wrong with that? Nothing. It’s a very respectable response rate. What did it cost you? Putting a call to action on the top of your website is low cost marketing. Putting messaging in front of your traffic on your website doesn’t cost much. It’s not just the replies that are important. The cultivation is also important. The person who didn’t respond today may respond next week or next month. Keep up the good messaging!
Put your calls to action on your website. Don’t give in to Parkinson’s Law.