Automatic Merchandiser serves the business management, marketing, technology and product information needs of its readers including vending operators, coffee service operators, product brokers, and product and equipment distributors in print.
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So, let's review the specifc ele- ments of a successful, marketing- driven Website, including CTAs. There's no place like the homepage Undeniably, the most important page of your Website, the homep- age, is your opportunity to make a great frst impression. To do so, it should have minimal copy — pri- marily who your company is, who you serve and what benefts you offer — complemented by bold and striking visuals. If you offer multiple benefts and want to communicate them on the homepage, then consider a slider (or carousel) that rotates great visuals with attention-demanding headlines embedded in them. The homepage objective is to minimize the bounce rate, or the percentage of visitors who come to your homepage and leave with- out engaging with any content, flling out your CTA, or clicking through to an inside page. It's people who saw the homepage and said, "Nope… that's not what I'm looking for." You want this number to be as low as possible. You want to keep people around, get them to engage and take the next step into your sales funnel. That's why your site navigation needs to be clean and simple. Gone are the days of complex nav bars that click through to Website sections that contain page after page of dense para- graphs of copy. And your navigation needs to use the same words and be roughly in the same place on all of your inside pages; ideally your site visitors should always know where they're at and how to get where they want to go. Less (copy) is more Your sales copy and images of your products (or services) on the Web- site's inside pages can and should provide more detail than your CTA Rules of the Road Once you've attracted potential customers to your Website, you've got to get them to take action. Netting lots of visitors might boost your ego, but once they've arrived, they have to fnd something of value. An effective Call-to-Action (CTA) on your site is an important tool in turning a visitor into a warm prospect. Follow these rules of the road, and you'll be driving prospects into your marketing funnel in no time. Every CTA must have an eye-catching headline. Without one, no one's pay- ing attention, and you're more likely to experience a higher "bounce" rate (visitors leaving your site). Beneath the headline, spell out the benefts of your specifc CTA's deliverable. Finish with a direct appeal to your prospect to sign up using designated felds they must complete. A good CTA is essential for lead generation and prospect database building. Every time someone "opts in" and sends you their contact information, you own it. As such, you don't have to worry about breaking the CAN-SPAM law, which has been the prevailing law controlling email marketing since 2003. Keep your CTAs simple! You can ask for more than the prospect's name and their email address, but they may bounce, so stick to name and email only. You'll want to have their name so you can personalize emails to them if you are actively engaged in outbound email marketing. Offer something of value to the Website visitor, either something that will educate them, increase their productivity or help them become more ef- fective in their jobs. For example, sending a tip sheet on healthy vending as a result of an effective CTA might make your prospect look good to their employer. You get the idea…. Examples of what you can use to deliver on a CTA include: • "A report on…" • "Free guide to…" • "Case study on…" • "Video depicting…" • "Infographic detailing…" • "First-time purchase discount on…" • "Free demonstration of…" • "10 Tips for…" • "Ticket to a free event on…" We've created a few CTAs and deliverables for your use on page 42 and online. They have been written in your "voice" for use with customers or prospects who visit your homepage. The option you choose should de- pend on the kinds of prospects you want to attract. For instance, if your company lacks micro market customers, you may opt for the video on micro markets. Or you might want to use all three, rotating them on your Website every three to four months. Put a CTA on your homepage ›› TO GENERATE LEADS AND BUILD YOUR DATABASE. C T A o n h o m e p a g e T O G E N E R A T E L E A D S N D B U I L D Y O U R D A T A B A S E . 38 Automatic Merchandiser VendingMarketWatch.com April 2016 O N L I N E O P P O R T U N I T I E S