Eye-Catching: Best Practices for Using Call-to-Action Buttons

Just over half of small businesses had a website in 2017. While things may have changed in the past four years, it is startling to see how many of us still struggle with the technology we use every day. It also gives us an impression of how vast the internet is.

The good news is that we’re here to help. We understand that setting up a business website can be difficult, even if you’re internet savvy. One of the toughest challenges is creating call-to-action buttons.

What is a call-to-action button, though, and how do you make one? We’ll answer those questions in the paragraphs below.

What Is A Call-to-Action Button?

Before we set up a call-to-action button, we should discuss what a call-to-action button is. A call-to-action button is a button that takes the user to a certain part of your website.

The button is paired with a call to action, which encourages the reader to do something, like shopping at their store or reading more about them. There are a lot of call-to-action uses, but they all share the goal of attracting clients.

1. Clear and Concise

A successful call-to-action should utilize active words. Active words clearly outline what you want from the customer. ‘Click the link’ for instance, isn’t a great choice of words because it doesn’t tell the reader where the link leads.

The best call-to-action buttons use phrases like ‘contact us,’ ‘write for us,’ and ‘read our blog.’ We know the moment we read them what they’ll do.

Calls-to-action should be more than clear, though. It’s important that you use as few words as possible. You may be an incredible writer, but nobody will read an entire page just to click a link.

2. Use Colors

Good call to action buttons use color to great effect. Color can be an excellent way to make your call-to-action buttons stand out. Your buttons should contrast against the background to make them more eye-catching.

If you want to play to the odds, certain colors work better than others. The two most successful seem to be orange and green.

Knowing the right color combinations can also help you promote your business in other ways.

3. Button Uses

Deciding what to do with a call-to-action button is often a difficult choice because you have so many options when it comes to advertising. Many companies choose to put calls to action on their social media accounts.

According to statistics, over 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies used social media in the past few years. The majority of the planet uses social media in some capacity, so it’s a great place to find customers.

 What to Know About Call-to-Action Buttons

Setting up call-to-action buttons can seem confusing, but it gets much easier once you have all of the information. We’ve offered some advice in this article, but there are more ways to use a call-to-action button than we could cover in a few paragraphs. Feel free to do more research or come up with your own ideas if you wish.

If you want to know more about business and marketing please visit our site. We encourage you to contact us if you are in need of marketing for event-planning services.

5 Chatbot Sales Funnels Designed to Increase Sales

Chatbots are endlessly useful tools. They save time and money, they answer important questions, and they keep customers happy.

More and more businesses are using chatbots to increase customer satisfaction levels and answer pressing queries. But aside from the already awesome attributes Chatbots bring to the table, now, many companies are seeing their potential as salespeople of sorts, as well.

What does this mean exactly? As it turns out, there’s a chatbot sales secret that brands are beginning to discover. Chatbot sales funnels are all the different ways in which these digital assistants can help to increase sales and revenue. Read on to find out what they are.

1. Lead Nurturing

Leads are potential customers that have expressed an interest in a business. They need to be excited and delighted so that they will move through the sales funnel until they eventually become customers. Part of this process is known as lead nurturing.

Chatbots can nurture leads in that they provide quick answers, useful information, and can be automated so that they are always working toward this goal.

2. Predictive Analysis

Chatbots are intelligent tools with immediate access to a wealth of data and information. This is important because this data can be used to predict customer behaviour. In this way, chatbots are capable of identifying good or qualified leads and focusing attention on these customers in particular.

3. Social Media Marketing

Another great feature of chatbots is that they can be easily integrated into social media marketing campaigns. Building brand awareness is crucially important, as it gives business access to more and more potential customers. Two of the first steps in the sales funnel are awareness and engagement, and chatbots reaching out to potential customers via social media is a great way to conquer both.

4. Improved User Experience

There are two things we know for sure about customers. They like to have 24/7 access to brands, and they like to have their questions answered immediately.

With chatbots, both of these things are a given. This means more satisfied customers, more returning business, and increased revenue streams.

5. Smart Shopping Assistance

Because of the customer data and information they have access to, chatbots are great at making shopping recommendations to customers. They can upsell or cross-sell, offering items that they predict the shopper will like and making the shopping process much easier. This results in more products sold and happier customers.

They can also persuade shoppers to stay if they look as though they are about to abandon their cart or exit the site, which can help to save potentially lost sales.

The Chatbot Sales Secret of Chatbot Sales Funnels

There are so many ways chatbots can be used, but for the most part, the chatbot sales secret of chatbot sales funnels is one use that is under-utilized. Don’t underestimate the power of the chatbot, it could end up costing you more than you’ll know.

If you’re looking to build your brand, increase sales or help your business to grow, get in touch with us today to see how we can help.

Success in Sales: Understanding Automated CRM Solutions for B2B

When CRMs first arrived on the scene, they really were little more than tech-driven Rolodexes.

A few people might have added their sales info to the database, but for the most part, data on prospects were still in people’s heads or never discovered at all.

Today’s customer relationship management system is all about the relationship. Gone are the silos between salespeople. Gone are the barriers between marketing and sales and customer support.

CRM solutions for B2B especially work to provide a complete customer journey from interest to contract to support. Automation tools drive the ability to do this consistently across departments. If you’re looking for a new B2B CRM, take a close look at how well it executes in this area as automation drives success today.

Marketing: Lead Generation and Nurturing

Step one of the sales process is to find some customers, right? This is where marketing comes into play, gathering leads and moving them from initial curiosity to warm interest.

The best B2B CRM software options today have brought the marketing piece of the journey into the system and connected it with sales. Aligning the two functions consistently delivers higher revenue, better customer retention, and higher win rates.

You want your CRM to track leads, but also gather information about those leads to ensure their quality. Once you attract a lead through email marketing or online ads, automation rules decide what contact to make next and their level of interest based on their behaviour.

The goal of marketing automation is to better track prospects and guide their customer journey in a personalized way. Any lead nurtured to a certain point in the process should be ripe for more in-depth contact.

Sales: Lead Scoring

Advanced analytics and AI-based predictions can determine how likely you are to close a deal. Lead scoring ranks prospects based on the intelligence gathered by marketing and lets you prioritize the ones that are farther along in the sales funnel.

This alleviates a common sticking point between marketing and sales. Research shows some sales departments ignore up to 80 percent of the leads marketing sends them. This is understandable when you consider in the past, 73 percent of leads they received were not ready to talk to sales yet.

Automated CRM solutions shorten the long B2B sales cycle by only passing on leads that have shown sales-ready behaviour. Being able to take the guesswork out of when to take the next step in the process underlines the importance of CRM in B2B markets.

Choosing CRM Solutions for B2B

Automation plays a key role in the customer journey today, making your CRM more of a prospect intelligence system than a database. As you consider new CRM solutions for B2B, you want to consider closely how well the system can execute automatically.

The first part of the process is to drive and nurture leads. If you need help with your marketing strategy or have questions about lead scoring, we’d be happy to walk you through the process. Contact us today to get a campaign going to fill your sales pipeline.

The Most Effective Principles on How to Create the Best Web Design

We live in the digital age, and every company that wants to survive must have a digital presence. E-commerce is steadily becoming the main source of consumption. By 2021, e-commerce will generate $4.5 trillion in sales, and by 2040, it is projected that e-commerce will account for 95 percent of all transactions.

If you want to have a piece of this huge pie, you have to create a website. However, your website has to be appealing and navigable for people. This can seem difficult to make happen, but don’t worry here’s an effective guide to creating the best web design.

Website Purpose

Your website must be recognizable and should be designed with the consumer in mind, catering to their every question. They should answer the most basic questions:

  • What’s your website for?
  • Why are you here?
  • What can this website do for the consumer?

If these are not answered, you need to reevaluate the website’s purpose and realign it. Your website is made to serve the consumer, and if you don’t understand your own website purpose, an everyday consumer won’t either.

Remember the core purposes of most websites: Recognition of your brand, description of your services/products, promotion, and customer relations.

Image Use

The imagery on your website is crucial. Let’s be honest, people don’t like to read, in fact, over 90 percent of people prefer visual content overwritten.

Images will bring more interest from consumers, as they can see the products or services they are investing their money into. Adding images will make creating your website both easier and more effective for its target audience.

Choosing the best images for your website is something we do well at Big Thinkers. We can make your website aesthetically pleasing while balancing the effectiveness of the images.

F-Shape Formatting

Studies show that our eyes follow the “F-pattern” when reading. Most times, the eyes don’t even make it to the right of the screen. The F-pattern follows the same way we are taught to read in the West.

By strategically placing important images or crucial information closer to the left, you make consumers more apt to view what’s there.

Easy Navigation

Navigation of your website is integral to the retention of visitors. They should be readily able to find whatever they are looking for on your website. If not, navigating for them will be too difficult and confusing.

They then will give up and go elsewhere that’s easier. We can make this happen at Big Thinker.

Mobile Friendly

Website design also includes making a mobile-friendly version. Most people spend the most time online using their phones.

Making a website design that caters to this fact is important to the success of your website, and one we can take care of at Big Thinkers.

Create the Best Web Design

When trying to create the best web design, you have to consider several things. If you want to make money, then you should be sure to follow these points. At Big Bold Thinkers, we understand what you need in a good website design.

Let us build that website for you so you can get a slice of that money pie. It tastes delicious. Be sure to contact us here if you have any questions or would like to know about what we have to offer.

5 Tools to Get Your New Website Up and Running Quickly

Which is better for business: A DIY website builder or a customized website?

48% of people cited a website’s design as the number one factor in deciding a business’s credibility.
94% of people cited web design as the reason they mistrusted or rejected a website.

The above statistics cited in the article, Why Having A Bad Website Hurts Your Business (Even If Your Company Is Referral Based), reinforce the importance of your website’s design.

To maximize your success online, your website must confirm your credibility, showcase your expertise, position your business as unique, and stand apart from your competitors. It must instantly capture and hold your visitor’s attention and convey that they have landed on the right spot.

Which leads to today’s question… Is it better to go with a DIY website builder or a customized website? 

Here are three key issues you should consider (that you might not immediately think about) when doing your research.

  • Templates. DIY Website builders like Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy use templates. Many are included in their monthly rate, while additional templates can be purchased for $100 or less. It’s important to note that templates are not designs. They are rules that determine how the various elements (headlines, images, text, videos) sit together on a page. This means that you must make your content work within the rules of your template.

    Pros
    The advantage of using a template is that you can get your website up and running quickly.

    Cons
    The problem with templates is that they are not unique, which may give your site a “sameness feel” about it. Using a template limits your flexibility with design and how your content is presented to the world. Plus, it can be extremely frustrating to find the right template for your business.

    Summary
    With a customized site, you have more flexibility in terms of how you want your website to look. Plus, if done right, your site will look more professional, which will enhance your credibility among your target audience.
  • Add-ons. Many talented programmers are developing innovative add-ons to make your visitor’s website experience more fruitful and your website more effective. A few notable ones are Boast, which helps you collect testimonials; Olark, a popular tool for chatting with your prospects and customers; and AddThis, a social media integrator.

    Pros
    DIY Web builders offer add-ons you can use for your website, which may satisfy your needs.

    Cons
    Because you’re working within the guidelines of a template, it can make the integration of third-party features into your site difficult (or impossible). You are dependent on the capabilities of the add-ons offered by the DIY web builder, which could lead to a reduction in choice and having to settle for an add-on that has fewer features than what’s hot in the marketplace.

    Summary
    A customized website gives you access to a greater variety of apps that can potentially increase flexibility and heighten the user experience.
  • Site ownership. With DIY website builders, instead of a more substantial fee upfront, you pay a smaller monthly fee. This means, while the content is still yours, you don’t own that original version of your website, you’re merely renting it.

    Pros
    Less expensive in the short term (and potentially in the long-term).

    Cons
    When you use a DIY website builder, you rent your site and are married to that company for a long time or until you get a divorce (which could get messy). Should you decide to switch services, it’s essential to know what is transferable and what is not. From the Wix site: “Your Wix site and all of its content is hosted exclusively on Wix’s servers, and cannot be exported elsewhere. Specifically, it is not possible to export or embed files, pages or sites, created using the Wix Editor or ADI, to another external destination or host.”

    Summary
    When you go the designer, proprietary website route, you own your site and its design, content, and so on.  (There might be individual elements exclusive to your designer. It’s best to clarify upfront what part of your site may be proprietary to them.) Owning your site outright means that all content is yours and you don’t have to fret if you change suppliers (due to poor customer service or whatever)—your site will remain intact, avoiding any disruption or downtime.

Even though online DIY website builders are advertised as easy-to-use, they take time to master and require a lot of tweaks and patience to get your site the way you want it. When you invest in a customized website, you leave the technical stuff to the pros to focus on what you do best.


If you’re currently planning to launch (or redo) your website, let’s talk. We will help you choose the best option for your business.

Wishing you light and love. ~Hema