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In Chapter eight, they reiterate that “you’ve gotta give to get,�� especially when it comes to calls to action. With the amount of spam out there, people want to be certain that what they are giving up their e-mail for is worth it. Similar to a blog, you have to give something out with a call to action, in order to get the best returns. That “something�� is usually more remarkable content; our book gives a short list on page 132, but there are always plenty more options. You should experiment with all different sorts of offers to see which converts the best.

Out of the four criteria for a compelling call to action (valuable, easy to use, prominent, and action oriented), the requirement of value is one of the hardest to implement. Creating a prominent and action oriented form or link is not so difficult as thinking of a way to make it valuable to the visitor. What was the value of any calls to action you have engaged with recently? What kinds of things can you offer to make a call to action valuable?

Thanks for sharing this great information. i really appreciate your efforts.

I agree that creating value to go along with your call to action is where the challenge lies, particularly if your business is service oriented. The primary call to action on my website offers a free initial consultation. Eventually, I would like to offer valuable content for download as a report or white paper. Depending on the type of business, you could offer coupons, samplers in the mail, instructional videos, etc.

How does the initial free consultation work for you? We tried it for almost 6 months and and interestingly it didn't increase interest or orders - now we just offer 1 good idea instead - we'll see how that goes

We're going to try to start capturing e-mails so that we can send out a monthly newsletter - so we're trying to come up with the valuable offer for that - we'll probably come up with a PDF of some sort that we'll provide - but I agree with you Laura that it's a challenge.

I like the idea of providing information--it markets to people who aren't as far along in the purchasing process. Even when it's free, a consultation can feel like a lot of commitment. It requires a commitment of time, and there are certainly things that they need to know and information that they need available in order to make the most of a consultation. A newsletter or other information, though, requires less commitment.

Both are valuable things to offer, they just appeal to different people at different times.

A piece of important advice that stood out to me was about "making sure your website is set up so YOU can make changes to CTAs and test." While I agree this is important, it is an ideal. I don't think that many busy small business owners have the time or web knowledge to do testing themselves. So the solution seems to be to hire experts to help implement these suggestions.

For example, my mother owns a small business biochemical company and her "old school" website is definitely in need of some testing and a redesign for increased conversions. I know between running the business and family matters there just isn't time in the day for her to optimize her website alone. I have been telling her about this book and once she is able to set aside some extra income she is going to invest in hiring experts for testing & SEO to increase her conversion rate. I'm excited for her because I know this will help increase her businesses sales.

I've given my email address away for many a webinar or whitepaper. I've also unsubscribed many times upon receiving my first irrelevant email. I don't unsubscribe and essentially increase conversion rates for the company when I see there is potential for lasting value in the follow up email. VEPA is great advice! The challenge continues in keeping the value alive so that email subscribers convert into customers.