Hello from 38,000 feet!
I’m on my way to Fort Lauderdale to speak to furniture retailers about social media marketing. I’m especially excited for this seminar because I’ve been working with a store for the past six months and we’ll be sharing what worked and what didn’t as we marketed using Facebook and Pinterest.
During our case study, each month we filled out a tracking report to monitor the growth in networks, engagement and website traffic.This is something I suggest all businesses do to regularly check the results of the efforts put into marketing online, and this is an exercise that takes 10 minutes/month.
Over the next few weeks our focus is going to be on your website. This week, we’ll specifically explore website CTA’s (calls to action).
First I want to quickly note that I suggest all businesses have a website. You might be using social media sites like Facebook to host all of your business information because it’s free and easy to update, but Facebook owns that data and at anytime they could decide to shut down, they could get hacked or they could stop showing your posts (oh wait…that’s already happening! But that’s a topic for another day).
You should have an online presence that you own, which would be a website. Next, your website should have a purpose; it should support your business. When you have a website that supports you, the site shows up in search results, shows web visitors the benefits of buying from you, lists the products you carry, tells your story and gives your location(s) and contact information.
Once someone is on your website, what do you want them to do next? Do you clearly ask them to do that? Do you make it easy and appealing to the viewer? What’s in it for them?
This is called having a Call To Action (CTA) on your website. Here are some common CTA’s for retailers:
- Ask visitors to give you more information like an email address by using an opt-in form. Give the viewer a special offer for joining (this makes it appealing and gives them something in exchange).
- Ask them to watch a video where you show how you’re an expert in your field by doing a demonstration or giving a tip or advice.
- Tell them to download a resourceful guide or season trends in exchange for their email address.
- Ask them to RSVP for an event. Prompt them to come in this weekend for a sale or to view new products (list the new products or better yet, show pictures of new items).
- Ask them to join your loyalty program.
- Tell them to shop favorites or new product arrivals online now.
- Call to make an appointment.
Websites need to have CTA’s in order to further the relationship with the visitor and eventually gain them as a customer. Website CTA’s support your business and gives your site a purpose.
Pick one or two CTA’s that makes sense for your store and your customers, and put it on your website. If you already have a CTA on your site, good job! If it’s been the same CTA for months, I’d switch it up and try something new unless of course, the CTA is producing great results.
In addition to having a CTA on your site, make sure your website is supporting your business. It might be time to update, add fresh content, optimize for appropriate keywords, etc.
To download a social media and website tracking template, and to gain access to more training’s on increasing website traffic; consider joining Social Edge.
Next week we’ll discuss how to track where your traffic is coming from and ways to increase referral traffic.
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