So, as I hope you know. One of the most important elements for any marketing opportunity is the call to action. When you get right down to it, in most cases, the marketing message without action amounts to a shameful waste of resources: money, time and energy. That’s where an obtrusive, unapologetic, unambiguous call to action comes in. It’s good practice to tell the customer what there next step is after absorbing your message. Should they think about their carbon footprint before driving two cars to the hockey game? Should they call their mothers and ask them to schedule a mammogram? Or should they call your office to schedule tats for their next birthday party?

In any case, don’t count on them to figure it out on their own. If you really think that your product is for them, don’t be bashful about telling them how to get it. In most cases for our customers this means something like “call 1-800-XXX-XXXX now to schedule your next tat event” or “click here to place your order now!” Quick note, remember if you fall into the first camp (phone driven) make sure that your contact information is clearly available because you will be kicking yourself if you are allowing an interested prospect to leave your site because she can’t find your phone number. So put that kind of stuff somewhere easy to find, and if you can, make sure that it’s on every page.

You’ll notice our phone numbers prominently placed directly under our title in our header graphic on every single page of our site. Make sure that you have yours too, or you might be missing out on potential clients.

Here’s my call to action. I want you to get on your site find your call to action and your phone number. If you can’t find it, fix it. If you can, that’s great. Make sure that it’s exactly as prominent as you want it, and that it is exactly the action that you want your customers to take. Either way, send me (Benn@TatStore.com) yours, and I would like to publish them here next week. I will put up the call to actions / contact information pieces that I find interesting and I’ll tell you what I think about them. So get on it! Take those screenshots and send them to me at Benn@TatStore.com. *Hint: Before and After shots are almost assuredly going to make it onto this blog. That means a great link for your site on this blog next Monday! Snap those calls to action into ship shape, and get them in to me.

Final note: If you are not sure how best to get it to me just bring up what you want me to see on your screen and then press the Print Screen button on your keyboard. Normally it is abbreviated PrtScn or prt sc, but usually it’s located in the delete button cluster or thereabouts. Once you’ve pressed Print Screen you know have a screenshot saved to your clipart, now you can paste that image into an image program (even microsoft paint which comes with every PC under accessories will do), save it as a .jpg and attach it to an email. If you have any problems, questions or concerns, shoot me an email or leave a comment here. I am really looking forward to those submissions so get on it… do it now… before you forget.