Effectively Using Call-to-Actions on your Business’ Facebook Page
Facebook users visit your business’ page driven by a certain need or desire that you promise to fulfill, but this doesn’t guarantee that they will follow through and engage in business with you. The call-to action feature on your Facebook page serves to keep these people ‘hooked’ and is a mechanism through which they can interact with your business without leaving Facebook’s convenient platform or doing any searching of their own. This prompt helps businesses achieve their objectives and has been proven to boost customer acquisition without any additional costs.
What is a Call-to-Action Button?
Your call-to-action button will link users to any destination on or off Facebook and can drive them to complete a range of actions that are important in achieving the specific objectives of your business. This will ensure that people are not only visiting your website and learning about your corporate entity, but are also buying your produce, booking appointments or signing up for regular updates.
There are seven call-to-action options that you, as the page admin, can choose from. These include Book Now, Shop Now, Contact Us, Sign Up, Play Game, Watch Video and Use App. The Donate Now button has also been rolling over to non-profit organizations and may not be available for your business. Different businesses meet their objectives and create their turnover in different ways. That is why the call-to-action buttons are equipped to play a range of different roles. It is important to select a button that is relevant to the link you attach and that ensures further communication between you and the Facebook user - guiding them to your app or a place where they can sign up to your newsletter, for example.
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Book Now
The Book Now feature is commonly used by professional entities that need their clients to book appointments in advance, such as clinics, hospitals and dentists. Businesses centered around entertainment and leisure, such as restaurants and hotels, also use this feature for the booking of tickets and reservations. The Book Now feature offers potential customers the instant gratification of booking their seat at an event with the enticing promotions on your Facebook page still ringing in their ears. Giving people access to your business without allowing them the time to develop any second thoughts is one of the biggest advantages of Facebook’s call-to-action features.
Shop Now
The Shop Now feature simply leads users to a business’ online store. This is an essential tool for e-commerce businesses that conduct all their sales online. Regular posts have to be uploaded to social media sites such as Facebook, displaying images of their stock to promote sales and new releases. The Shop Now option provides shoppers with an efficient route to the items that have caught their eye and prevents posts from being crowded by URLs.
Contact Us
The Contact Us button is useful in leading a user directly to your website’s contact page. This is important because the user is then in the position to explore the rest of your website, such as your catalog or gallery, and therefore encourages him or her to engage in business with you. Brick-and-mortar businesses, for example, can make use of this function to find local customers.
Sign Up
The Sign Up button is ideal to ensure the continued communication between you and the users that visit your site, enabling them to subscribe to regular newsletters, for example. This should be your default call-to-action feature as endless possibilities are opened by the collection of people’s email addresses. With a substantial list of email addresses, your business can promote sales, invite people to events or simply remind the public of your existence.
Play Game
The Play Game button is centered around the benefit of gaming companies, allowing potential consumers to experience a demo of their game or play the game online. This simple and instant access to the game increases the chances that people will play it. Online gaming sites are similar to e-commerce businesses in the sense that they conduct all their business and promotion online, making this feature an especially handy tool.
Watch Video
Any brand or business can create a corporate video to entice potential consumers into interacting with them. The Watch Video button will lead users to the link for this video. There are a number of benefits to uploading your video on Facebook rather than Youtube, such as obtaining information on the total views received and the average duration of the video viewed by the audience.
Use App
The Use App button is not only for app fan-pages to entice more people to download it - in fact, this feature can be useful to absolutely any business that has invested in its own app. Encouraging potential consumers to install your app creates a more permanent link than simply leading them to your website, which they can browse and promptly forget about. An app lingers on their phone and is almost certain to have them returning to your business’s interface. The modern citizen’s overwhelming usage of mobile devices has made it crucial for a business to be able to lead potential consumers to both apps and mobile-friendly websites.
How to set up your call-to-action
A business can only have one of the seven call-to-action buttons on their Facebook page at a time. The feature can be activated by selecting the “Add a Button” tab found on the page’s cover photo. The desired call-to-action can then be selected and the URL of a relevant website can be inserted. You could, alternatively, insert the link to your app, for both IOS and Android users - making use of the Use App button. Once you’ve created a call-to-action button, you can explore the Promote option at the top right corner of your Page. After filling in the details of your promotion, you will obtain a call-to-action ad. When promoting your Page's call-to-action, you'll be able to obtain information regarding how efficiently your ad is driving people to interact with the button itself. For example, you will be able to see the number of clicks your call-to-action button received, the total number of people reached, and both the organic and paid reach. This data can be obtained by exploring the Ads Manager or the Promote tab. You can also manage, edit and pause all your promotions from the Insights tab on your page.
Having a call-to-action won’t necessarily equate to booming business, however - your business will need to have a simple, stylish webpage linked to it. Your contact page should always be up to date, your sign up process should take only seconds and your website should be designed for efficient shopping and booking. A call-to-action button is the bait with which you can interest the public - but their interest can be lost just as easily. Ensure that all your digital assets are state-of-the art to keep them hooked and reel them all the way in.
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