Over and above everything we do in web design and web development, the call to action is by far the most important. Others would point to search engine optimization. This of course is important, as you need to get them to your website. BUT, if f they get to your site and you have no clear call to action, your site will flounder.
So what is a call to action? Dictionary.com defines it as: “the implicit or explicit suggestion contained in a marketer’s content in an advertising banner or Web site copy”. In the early day of the internet, this was usually, a “Click Here” link. We have gotten away from that a bit, though click here is still pretty common and clients often still like to use the phrase. Now good call to actions can be in the form of a graphical element, (button, banner, graphic), a link, or other ways to get visitors to take the desired next step. This could be to make a purchase (if this is a product) , call you (as with service providers), or click on a link to be contacted or to get you to the page they need you to see.
Now, in this particular case, the call to action is designed to get visitors to fill out a form for a free review. The program which is guaranteed to save restaurants money is a good one, but if no one signs up, no one reaps the benefit and the company fails. My design team came up with a great strategy, where your eye is drawn to the call to action. The main graphical element, which will be a jquey fade between 4 slides will end with a powerful message urging them to fill out the form and pointing them below to the form. Below the image fade is a quick explanation of the program, which is actually a “challenge”. To the right of that is the actual form. Now even the header image background in the explanation is actually an arrow pointing you to the form. So all the elements work in concert to get the visitor to the call to action. (When this launches, I will add a link here to illustrate my point).
For example my tagline is “World class websites, Best in class support”. I feel that we are building high quality websites and we offer the best support in the industry. So yes, I am living my tagline (as all companies should strive to do).
In terms of support, we are certainly unrivaled in the small business website management world. If possible I close support requests on the same day. And I ALWAYS respond quickly. This kind of service is quite rare, and with most providers it can be as much is two weeks to get a simple thing done. Unacceptable.
But words are just that, here is an example:
I unexpectedly had to go to a funeral in Manhattan on Monday. Now most people would just blow off the day and not even look at email or worry about clients. Now I have priorities just like you and certainly family is first. But here is how I handled the situation: I put on my out of office reply and instructed my clients to open a support ticket which I would answer as soon as possible. Well, sure enough I returned home and found five support tickets waiting for me. Now I certainly could put them off until the next day, but instead I worked ’till midnight and got everything done. My clients would’ve certainly understood if I took a day or two or even more to get their requests done. But for me, as I said it is about living my tagline. You can’t just say you offer industry best support, you have to actually do the job. And this is something you have to prove everyday.
If your current provider does not giving this type of service, then please contact me.
