Imagine going in to give a sales pitch to a big prospect. You march in, talk about your company for ten minutes, favor them with your most winning smile, and then immediately leave the building. You don’t allow them to ask questions, and you don’t ask them if they’d like to do business with you. On the way out you drop off your business card with the receptionist, or – if she’s busy – you hide it under a potted plant down the hall. Then you’re off into the wild blue yonder, in hopes that they’ll be dazzled by how incredible your company is. Surely they’ll put in the effort to find your card and give you a call!

…Absurd, right? And yet that’s what a surprising number of businesses are doing with their Web sites. 

Why do you have a Web site?

If you run a business, most likely your site is about bringing people through your doors to buy what you’re schlepping, whether by placing an order online or contacting you to start a dialogue. Either way, you have a definite action in mind that you want your site visitors to take.

Blinding flash of the day: it should be very obvious to your site visitors how to take the next step and contact you or buy your product.

This sounds like common sense. Yet lately we’ve been amazed by how many sites don’t have that crucial call to action (CTA).

We’ve had a number of clients, for example, who come to us with a site already built, but it’s not translating into business. No one ever seems to fill out the form or make a call, and the site is more of a liability than an asset. Invariably, we look at the home page and we find their logo, some pictures, a navigation menu, and a few paragraphs about the company. No indication of where the visitor is supposed to go next or what they’re supposed to do. There’s usually at least a “Contact Us” link somewhere, but it’s tucked in with the other menu links and not easy to see.

Building your site this way is exactly like waltzing in and out of that big prospect’s office, talking at them for a bit, and hiding your card under a plant. You effectively squash any chance that they may stick around. Sure it’s possible that they may hunt down your card and call you, but it’s much more likely that they’ll move on and find someone else to work with, someone who makes it easy to interact with them.

Today’s takeaways, then, are:

1. Have a CTA on your site
2. Don’t hide it at the end of a virtual maze – make it easy to reach out to you

Next week we’ll look at some visuals of various kinds of CTAs.

Photo Credit: bfishadow via Compfight cc