How call-to-action will increase the turnover of your online store

How call-to-action will increase the turnover of your online store

1. YOUR TURNOVER Call-to-action is a much-heard notion, surrounded by a lot of uncertainty. Everybody knows that call-to-action is a fundamental part of a successful online store (by the way, this also applies to all other channels), but only few people know how to use it well. Which is why we will explain in this whitepaper what call-to-action is and provide you with advice on how to use it in your online store. Because call-to-action is also important to your other marketing channels, we will provide you with some tips for them as well. Division of this whitepaper We have divided this whitepaper as follows: 1. What does call-to-action mean? 2. How do I know whether I have to improve my call-to-action? a. What does a good call-to-action look like? b. What does a good call-to-action button look like? 3. How does the context influence the call-to-action? 4. Call-to-action tips 2

2. WHAT DOES CALL-TO-ACTION MEAN? To put it simply although often overlooked by even the most talented online sellers a call-to-action is the information that helps visitors to complete the goal they had in mind in your online store. If you sell products, call-to-actions could be Add to Shopping Cart, Complete Your Order or Pay now. Call-to-action therefore may be regarded as an e-commerce compass that helps your visitors to navigate your online store and subsequently order the product they wanted to purchase. A call-to-action should follow a reason to take action. In other words, visitors must be directed towards your products, tempted by attractive images and provided with a guarantee by clear explanations, including tempting product information. As soon as they have found what they are looking for, the call-to-action will assist them with their purchase. Naturally, you can also create call-to-actions that do not immediately result in a sale. Call-to-actions are also the Read more links that provide detailed information about the product(s) you sell, or, for example, Subscribe now to subscribe to a newsletter. To achieve the best result possible, it is recommended to incorporate a number of navigation steps for your visitors. They can search from the home page of your online store, navigate to individual pages and read more about your products and purchase them in a third step. Keep your navigation short and easy. 3

The most obvious reason to change the call-to-action in your online store is sales that fall behind. Another suitable indicator is your conversion rate. For most e-commerce sites, the visitor-to-consumer rate lies between 2 and 3%, i.e. that 2 to 3% of visits to your online store result in a purchase. If your online store scores below this rate, it is wise to take action. Another important indicator is the percentage of visitors that started and completed the order process, known as the funnel conversion rate. The average value for e-commerce websites is approximately 29%, in other words, 7 out of 10 orders never pass the Add to Cart step. Closing a deal is the most difficult step in sales, therefore it is important to know whether your order process hinders customers in completing their purchase. Furthermore, by looking at the amount of time that customers spend in your online store, you will also gain insight in the effectivity of your website. According to recent research, the average time is less than three minutes. Yet you do not have to make an effort to make customers stay longer. Although customers that stay in your online store for three to four minutes will spend more, your turnover will decrease significantly when visitors remain in your store for seven minutes or more. The duration of the visit may also increase due to problems with site structure or navigation, or the order process in general. 4

A good call-to-action combines an effective call-to-action button with its environment. When it comes to optimizing call-to-action in your online store, you should therefore focus on the call-to action buttons as well as the context in which they are placed. We will provide tips to improve both of them here. 5

What does a good call-to-action button look like? The call-to-action button in your online store should incite to take action. With optimizing the call-to-action button there are a number of items you should pay attention to, such as form, color, location and the text that is used. rounded buttons convert better 6

Form The most important rule: It should be clear that a call-to-action button is a button and not, for example, a banner. After all, visitors should know that they have to click it to take subsequent action. The button preferably has round corners. This looks friendlier and invites to click. The size also matters. Experts recommend making your call-to-action button approximately 20% larger than your corporate logo. This way, the eye will notice the call-to-action button before your logo. This is desired behavior, because the callto-action incites to make a purchase, something the corporate logo does not (immediately) do. Would you like even more focus on your call-to-action button? Research by Digital Evolution has shown that adding an arrow icon to your call-to-action button can generate up to 20% extra clicks. Tip: Call-to-action buttons are sometimes blocked in e-mail campaigns. When you use a combination of HTML, background color and/or background image you can still imitate the call-to action button. The call-to-action button is 20% larger than the logo 7

Color A proper guideline on color use for your call-to-action buttons is the color scheme of Karelgeenen.nl. Color Features Use where? Drawback Red Increases the heart rate Classic call-to-action color May be associated with danger and negativity Yellow The first color a visitor will see Focus attention on the callto-action Orange Combination of dangerous red and yellow Perfect call-to-action Blue May cause visitors to doubt the step they are taking Green Easiest color to the eyes Ideal for testimonials White Puts more emphasis on other colors Will make the call-to-action stand out more Table: Call-to-action color scheme Source: karelgeenen.nl 8

Orange in general is considered to be a good conversion color, for it attracts attention (such as yellow) and provides excitement (such as red). In the past, red was used a lot as a call-to-action color but red is also associated with: 1. Danger think of virus notifications 2. Stopping or looking out think of traffic signs When it comes to choosing a proper call-to-action color, the most important reason is that it should stand out compared to the other colors in an online store. With this, the figure / background principle also plays a role; the call-to-action button should stand out from the background. When done properly, this may result in a 6% increase in sales (source: research by Econsultancy). Do you know where to click? 9

Location Above the fold and below the fold are phrases that are widely used in e-mail marketing, but also are very important to the lay-out of your online store. Just like the most important information in letters should always be located above the fold, the most important information in your online store should be displayed in such a way, that visitors do not have to scroll (the digital fold). Call-to-actions must be shown in a prominent location, which, for example, could be a separately organized section on your page. One could think of a separate section for newsletter subscriptions and social media channels. On e-commerce websites, it is often recommended to place the call-to-action close to the last point where the eyes of visitors were focused on. For that reason, many call-to-action buttons are placed close to product images (for example, to their right). Furthermore, it is also important to create enough space around the button to make it stand out more, which will result in visitors being more inclined to click. 10

In some cases, it might even be wise to place the button next to another one. This technique is widely used. The button that should get more attention, for example, because it leads to a purchase, will be given a color that strongly differs from the background, whereas the other button will have a color that more closely resembles the background. You can use this to guide visitors to click the most important button. 11

Text On a call-to-action button, a text like Click here, without any addition, is considered absolutely not-done. Visitors should be able to understand immediately what to expect when they click the button in question. It is therefore important to describe the next step in the call-to-action button, in combination with a verb. For example: Buy Now or Add to Cart. 12

How does context influence the call-to-action? The call-to-action button does not stand alone. The context in which it is placed should also boost the call-to-action. All elements in your online store should contribute, so you will need a good combination of images, text and maybe even sound. Below, you will find some points you should definitely pay attention to: Create urgency When you assign a temporary nature to your offer, visitors are more inclined to take action. You may use this in several ways. Many online retailers, for example, use texts such as Limited Introduction Price or Temporarily Reduced Price, in product photos, among others. When the call-to-action button subsequently contains a term like Now or Immediately, it is suggested that immediate action is required. For some online retailers it may be interesting to include a (clearance) sale area in their online store. Urgency: ordered before 09:00, shipped the same day Lower the threshold You can lower the purchase threshold in several ways. A simple way is to point out the little amount of time needed to place an order (for example: You are only 1 step away from your purchase, or Your order will be completed in 1 minute ). You can also point out low costs. Research from Complete. com has shown, for example, that 93% of respondents would buy more products online if shipping would be free. Free shipping therefore could be a possibility for your online store. You could compensate for free shipping by increasing the net price (make sure to stay competitive), or to only charge shipping costs when customers demand express delivery. In addition, you could also temporarily refrain from charging shipping costs to generate additional sales. Furthermore, you can lower the threshold by stating that you will only use customer details to process orders and not for marketing purposes. 13

Introduce what people may expect In this whitepaper, we already stated that a good call-to-action button indicates which next step customers may expect. The context in which this button will be placed may contribute to this, for example, by showing the steps during the order process. 14

How titles may contribute to the call-to-action An effective title is short and to-the-point. The internet is a volatile medium, which means that your customers will most likely scan your pages, instead of reading them. Together with the sub-captions and the call-to-action button, the title will have to communicate the key message. Research has shown, that titles in press releases may contain between 90 and 150 characters; this will not be very different for online stores. After writing the title and sub-captions, try scanning your own pages. Only read the title, sub-captions and call-to-action button and try to understand what the page is about. Apart from that, a title should also stimulate to read further, so make sure to write a creative text here, if the page or product in question permits this. According to The Science of Blogging, terms that stimulate to read further are: insights, analysis, answers, questions, advice, review, why, product, top and best. 15

4. CALL-TO-ACTION TIPS To conclude, some general tips to support your new call-to-action strategy: 1. A/B and Multivariate testing. Research by experts can be a good starting point for improving your call-to-action, but ultimately it will have to be your own research that shows you whether their results apply to your situation. This means you will have to continuously test and change your online store. This can be done with A/B and Multivariate testing. Diving deep into this matter is beyond the scope of this whitepaper (it would yield a new one), but, in short, it boils down to implementing small changes in your online store and measuring their effect on the CTR (Click- Through Rate) or product sales. 2. Make sure to live up to expectations. If the call-to-action button describes the next step, make sure that next step lives up to expectations. 3. Does somebody else understand what is being said? Let your texts lie for a day and read them again the day after. Do you still understand what is being said and do your customers understand as well? If this is not the case, remove redundant information and rewrite everything that is unclear. 4. Place the most popular products on your home page. This is why visitors come to your online store, so make it easy for them. 5. Make sure your pages are focused. Selling products is the most important goal of your online store. The step process from visit to purchase should go as smooth as possible, with as little distraction as possible. Retailers are often inclined to provide too much information, which in turn leads to customer confusion. Less is more. For instance, showing related products on a product page may lead to customers placing additional orders, but if these related products are too prominently present compared to the product they actually intend to buy, this could cause confusion. 6. Is your product available temporarily? Is your product available temporarily or your offer only valid for a limited time? Make sure to mention how long it will be available / valid for. 16

4. CALL-TO-ACTION TIPS 7. Repetition is persuasive. Place the call-to-action in several locations, for example, at the top and bottom of pages, or spread over multiple pages (depending on the call-to-action). 8. Satisfaction-or-money-back guarantee. A satisfaction-or-money-back guarantee can be the last push someone needs to make a purchase. This is our advice so far. We can imagine that this is a lot of information to process and implement in your online store. Which is why we have provided a brief summary at the end of this whitepaper. Note: Are you looking for software for your online store that has all of the above implemented by default? Then check out SEOshop e-commerce software! 17

INFO ABOUT SEOSHOP SEOshop is one of the fastest growing e-commerce platforms in Europe. SEOshop provides a Software-asa-Service (SaaS) platform, enabling entrepreneurs to start their own online store. SEOshop delivers to over 8,000 customers in 11 European countries, including Philips, Pearl Drums, dance4life and the Van Gogh Museum. SEOshop s headquarters are located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 18

SUMMARY Call-to-action button in its context Create urgency Indicate temporary offers by phrases such as temporary discount Add terms like Now or Immediately to indicate that action is required For some online retailers a (clearance) sale is a possibility Lower the threshold Show that it takes little time to place an order Show customers how they can save money Refrain from sending spam e-mails Introduce what people may expect Use steps in the order process How titles contribute to the call-to-action Keep it short and to-the-point (between 90 and 150 characters) 19

SOURCES 1. http://www.frankwatching.com/archive/2012/05/21/de-perfecte-call-to-action-creeer-je-eigen-conversieraketten/ (Daalderop, T (2012). De perfecte Call-to-Action: creëer je eigen conversieraketten! (The Perfect Call-to-Action: Create Your Own Conversion Rockets!; article available in Dutch only) consulted on February 15 th, 2013) 2. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/13/call-to-action-buttons-examples-and-best-practices/ (Gube, J (2009). Call to Action Buttons: Examples and Best Practices. Consulted on February 15 th, 2013) 3. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31435/how-to-write-call-to-action-copy-that-gets-visitors-clicking.aspx (Georgieva, M (2012). How to Write Call-to-Action Copy That Gets Visitors Clicking. Consulted on February 15 th, 2013) 4. http://www.marketingtechblog.com/call-to-action-infographic/ (Karr, D (2012). Infographic: Do s and Don ts of a Successful Call to Action. Consulted on February 14 th, 2013) 5. http://econsultancy.com/nl/blog/9225-e-commerce-calls-to-action-10-best- practice-tips (Charlton, G (2012). E-commerce calls to action: 10 best practice tips. Consulted on February 14 th, 2013) 6. http://smartdatacollective.com/pveugen/104606/your-ecommerce-website-suffering-usability-issues (Veugen, P (2013). Is Your ecommerce Website Suffering From Usability Issues? Consulted on February 14 th, 2013) 20