$3 Million Dollars are right here.

This month's web site success tip is on calls to action. There is an old joke about NASA I want to tell to illustrate my point:

NASA developed a new rocket too dangerous to fly under U.S. regulations. So a NASA representative was sent abroad to find an astronaut candidate. First he went to Germany. He asked the German candidate, "How much do you want to fly this very dangerous rocket to the Moon?"
And the German says "Three million dollars."
So the NASA rep says, "Why three million?"
The Geman says, "It is a fair price. One million for me, one million for my wife and family, and one million for the Fatherland!"
"Right," says the NASA guy and flies on to France.

He says to the French candidate, "How much do you want to fly this dangerous rocket to the Moon?"
"I want six million dollars."
"All right." The NASA rep makes a note. "And why six million dollars?"
"Two million for me, n'est-ce pas? And two million for my wife and family. And two million for my mistress."
"Fair enough," says the NASA negotiator, and he flies on to Iran.

He meets with someone at Mehrabad airport, an oily type he wouldn't normally go near. "How much," he says, "to fly this dangerous rocket to the moon?"
"For you, my friend, an exceptionally good deal. Only nine million dollars."
"Nine million?" The NASA guy looks at his notes. "Isn't that a little high?"
"Not at all." The Iranian leaned close.
"First, my friend," there is three million dollars for you. And then there will be three million for me."
"But you said nine. What about the other three?"

Click here for the punchline (then I'll have a landing page they'll go to that will says what's in the rest of this e-mail)

"The Iranian shrugged. "Well, we still have to pay that crazy German to fly your rocket to the Moon."

As we discussed last month, one of the keys to web site success is traffic. Without traffic your website doesn't help you. We also discussed ways to attract traffic, such as blogs, pay-per-click ads, and traditional advertising. This month, we are going to talk about converting that traffic into leads. The first and most important part of lead generation is the call to action. This is where you tell the customer what is in it for them, where there three million dollars is. First I will discuss the most common and ineffective call to action on the web. "Contact Us." If this is your call to action, your potential customer, your traffic, is probably asking themselves "Why? Why should I contact you?" And since you are not there to tell them, they merrily go on their way to a competitor who does tell them why.

Some examples of good calls to action:
"Contact us for a free consultation on your ___________ (health, finances, web site, etc.)"
"Contact us for a free demo of our product"
"Do you want to double your clients? Fill in this form to receive 'Top 10 Ways to Double your Clients'"
"FREE - We'll send you a free mock up website design just for contacting us!"
Or
Click here for the punchline and "This is where your $3 million dollars are." :)

Do you see the difference? You immediately grab your once passive traffics attention by telling them what is in it for them. There's an old saying that you won't get something for nothing. This is true in business as well. You are far more likely to convert your traffic to leads if you offer them something free to try you out. Don't think of this as a loss! Think of this as an opportunity to show a willing audience just exactly what you can do for them.

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