Creating a clear call to action

Now is the time to complete the persuasion process. When you believe a prospect has been convinced that they should respond to your offer, move quickly to complete the transaction. 

• Summarise what has been outlined in the sales copy.
• Summarise the target customer's goal, need or problem and the proposed solution.
• Summarise the major benefits.
• And then spell-out to your visitors exactly what they need to do in order to respond to your offer.  Give them a firm ‘call-to-action’. 
• Make this as clear as possible.  There should be no room for confusion as to what the reader needs to do in order to place their order or lodge their enquiry.

I like to say – make your call to action primate proof.  Your call to action should be so clear that you could sit a chimpanzee down in front of a computer and they would work out what to do!

Many ‘sales’ have been lost simply because the seller did not ask for the customer’s business. Strange, but true; they did not complete the persuasion process!

So provide as many different methods for facilitating their order or enquiry as possible:

• Some people, no matter how good your website security is, will not put their credit card details over the Internet.  Remove this boundary to completing a sale by offering alternative means of payment (cheque, direct credit, money order, and so on).
• Some people would prefer not to buy online at all: provide contact details so these customers can place their order over the phone instead.