Tips For Calling Visitors To Action
Posted on 22. Mar, 2010 by Cyrus Patten in How To
A blog is a blog. But without a call to action, you risk losing readers. Or worse, if your goal is to activate or mobilize, you risk missing your goal.
A call to action is anything that encourages visitors to act. Whether signing up for email updates, following your twitter feed, or forwarding to a friend, calls to action are key. Calls to action span into the political and non-profit world as well. Succesful websites with purpose also ask for donations, letters to the editor, or general registration.
Here are some of the most effective methods, and associated tips for calling your visitors to action.
1. Social Media
Email Updates
Remember to place the signup form prominently, above the fold. Also, the simpler the better when it comes to signing up. When calling visitors to action, don’t ask for their life story; a simple name and email address form is ideal.
Don’t over-do the Twitter thing. If people want to follow you on Twitter, they know how to find your information. Consider placing above the fold, but it doesn’t need to be huge.
RSS
Most modern browsers offer a way to identify sites with RSS feeds, but it doesn’t hurt to offer an easy-to-find image linking to your feed. It can be handy to offer multiple feeds based on categories or tags. I am certainly more inclined to subscribe if I can compartmentalze and choose specific areas.
Related Content, Popular Posts, Most Commented, Etc.
I call these types of tactics “Content Wrap-rounds” because they link readers to another part of your site, thereby increasing time on the site, demonstrating the diversity of content, and increasing the likelihood of retention.
2. Social Bookmarking
Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Technorati, etc.
These sites are pivotal to spreading the word. Of course, no site is successful without quality content. Nor are any successful that aren’t read. See how these relate?
3. Mobilize, Activate
General Registration
This is a rarely utilized but powerful tactic for engaging and retaining visitors. Signing them up as “members” or whatever you may call it will allow you to provide access to various engagement techniques such as following you on Twitter, promoting your site to friends, even writing letters or making phone calls for your cause.
Another tactic used by membership sites is sending sporadic emails encouraging users who haven’t visited in a while to visit again.
Contribute, Donate
Donate and contribute buttons are often utilized by political websites, and under-utilized by non-profits. Whether a simple Paypal donate button, or a complex payment gateway, donation buttons should be the most prominent button on your site. Unless, of course, you don’t need any money.
More about design techniques below, but your donate button needs to have contrast, and to pop from the page.
Engage
Giving finite engagement requests like writing letters, making phone calls, donating, signup up for updates, etc., on the front page is key. Don’t rely on inside pages to engage people. If it’s important, put it right on front.
Schedule
What’s going on in your world? Is your candidate or cause going to be in my area? Utilize calendar widgets and other boxes to tell people about what’s happening right now. Don’t delay or rely on emails to your list.
4. Design Tactics
Utilize Negative Space
Negative space is not necessarily white, but rather a space created by the absence of design elements. Use this space to your advantage. Placing calls to action within these spaces alone will encourage action.
Contrast Colors
Each quality website design has a color scheme. Choose a contrasting but thematic color from the scheme and use it to draw attention to various calls to action. If none of the colors in your scheme contrast signficantly from the rest, choose a new one that “goes” but easily draws attention.
Utilize Size
Larger elements attract the eye first, regardless of the reader’s intention. Pay attention to the size of your call to action and tweak as necessary. Some people say there is a ceiling in terms of size, I disagree. The size of your buttons should scale with the importance of the element.
Typography Matters
Choose typography carefully. This tool can be very helpful. As web browsers evolve, more fonts become “Web-friendly” and usable across platforms.
Follow the Eye
Consider where the eye will move naturally, and take advantage of this. Research shows people naturally read left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Also, the mouse pointer often starts at the top right of the screen. This political season, look for the most important button: the donate link. It will most often be located in the upper right area of the site.
Dimension
Dimension is very Web 2.0. Use things like dropshadows and overlaps to give dimension to elements. This brings focus to the particular element by giving the impression that it sits out from the page.
Wrap-Up
These points outline why and how a good website calls visitors to action. Every website should be doing it on some level, some more than most. Follow these guidelines and you’ll see increased conversions and effectiveness.
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Written by Cyrus Patten
Cyrus Patten is a social worker and community organizing consultant. He specializes in the role of technology in community affairs and organizing.
49 Comments
Tips For Calling Visitors To Action | Web Developer
22. Mar, 2010
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social network designer
23. Mar, 2010
Google buzz is providing a new way of social networking and it is very simple to use.
Selurus
23. Mar, 2010
Thats interesting tips. Something to really consider when choosing a new theme or modifying your blog design.
Benjamin Rama
23. Mar, 2010
good article – Ill go over this one when often cheers
.-= Benjamin Rama´s last blog ..Impressive & Mind Blowing CG charcters in Z brush =-.
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23. Mar, 2010
Social comments and analytics for this post…
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Logobird Designs
23. Mar, 2010
A call to action is certainly a vital element of design. It is important not to make calls to action too in-your-face as you risk turning off your audience. Most users just need a small prod in the right direction. It is always a bit of a balancing act to get it right.
Some good tips here.
.-= Logobird Designs´s last blog ..Beyond the Brief – Undertanding a Logo Design Client =-.
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Netsnacks
23. Mar, 2010
Thanks for the tip. Found the design part interesting, tend to pay alot of attention to the content and promotional parts. Great .o)
.-= Netsnacks´s last blog ..President Obama is in town =-.
CSS Brigit | Tips For Calling Visitors To Action
23. Mar, 2010
Tips For Calling Visitors To Action…
A blog is a blog. But without a call to action, you risk losing readers. Find most effective methods & associated tips for calling your visitors to action….
Daniel Kurdoghlian
23. Mar, 2010
Thanks for this article Cyrus Patten!
I needed this one to refresh my knowledge again
.-= Daniel Kurdoghlian´s last blog ..Flash-like Color Morphing with jQuery =-.
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23. Mar, 2010
Cool Tips. Call for Action is most important in any website design.
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23. Mar, 2010
Great article! Rt’ed it!
.-= Tony´s last blog ..8 Twitter Problems and How You Can Solve Them =-.
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23. Mar, 2010
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23. Mar, 2010
helping material…..thanks
.-= Dzinepress´s last blog ..40 Ultimate Useful Mind Mapping Tools =-.
Waheed Akhtar
23. Mar, 2010
Thanks guys for all your comments.
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Changzhi Lee
24. Mar, 2010
Very helpful for setting up of blogs. Thanks! What about flash sites? How can we attract visitors constanty if content is not updated on a daily basis?
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Cyrus
24. Mar, 2010
Changzi, you’re right, updating content is very important. But there is a growing school of thought that daily content is unnecessary. Rather, quality content, every few days or so, is better.
Cheers,
Cyrus
.-= Cyrus´s last blog ..Welcome to the ShapeShifter Blog =-.
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Wynne
25. Mar, 2010
some good info there. thanks.
.-= Wynne´s last blog ..Speed Up Your WP Blog & Get Better Search Engine Rankings With this Tool =-.
Wynne
25. Mar, 2010
BTW I love this commentLuv plugin you are using. I wish commentLuv and DISQUS would hurry up and sort their act out so that I can use both at the same time.
.-= Wynne´s last blog ..Speed Up Your WP Blog & Get Better Search Engine Rankings With this Tool =-.
Rob W
25. Mar, 2010
Forgotten link: “Choose typography carefully. This tool can be very helpful.” (Which tool is that?)
Thanks for the helpful article!
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25. Mar, 2010
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Cyrus
25. Mar, 2010
Good catch Rob! The links I meant to refer to were: http://sixrevisions.com/graphics-design/20-useful-typography-tools/
Thanks for everyone’s comments!
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Cyrus
25. Mar, 2010
Hi Rob,
Good catch! The link I intended to include was this one: http://sixrevisions.com/graphics-design/20-useful-typography-tools/
Thanks for all the comments everyone!
.-= Cyrus´s last blog ..Welcome to the ShapeShifter Blog =-.
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20. Sep, 2010
Definitely gonna’ be applying some of these tactics to my site soon… Thanks!!
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15. Oct, 2010
it is good to see a motivational business hiring. it is good to see a motivational blog spreading the news. good job stay fresh.
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21. Oct, 2010
Nice ideas to attract and admire visitor to get in action.
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