1. Convince the users

Why should users do what you want them to do? Before a user is willing to complete a call to action they have to recognise the need. Take infomercials for example. Before they ask people to respond, they first identify a problem and present a product that solves that problem.

Communicate the benefits of your call to action. What will the user get out of completing the call to action?

2. Offer something extra

Sometimes you may have to sweeten the deal to encourage users to complete a call to action.
Incentives could include discounts, entry into a competition or a free gift.

Everybody loves freebies.

3. Use active language!

A call to action should be crystal clear and tell users what you want them to do. They should include active words such as:

• Like
• Buy
• Register
• Subscribe
• Donate

All of these words encourage users to take an action. Also you may want to create a sense of urgency and a need to act now, these words can be used alongside phrases such as:

• Offer expires December 31st
• For a short time only
• Order now and receive a free gift

4. Get the positioning right

Another important factor is the position of your call to action on the page. Ideally it should be placed high on the page and in the central column so people see it right away without scrolling.

5. Use White Space

To make your call to action even more prominent, don’t just rely on positioning. Use also the space around it – White space. The more space around a call to action the more attention is drawn to it. If you clutter up your call to action with surrounding content it will be lost in the page.

6. Use alternative colors

Colour is an effective way of drawing attention to elements, especially if you use alternative colors. For example, if your website uses blues and grey, your call to action will work very well in highlighted orange. This extreme contrast leaves your users in no doubt as to the next thing they should do.

7. Size matters

Make your call to action big. We have already established that position, colour and white space are equally important.However the size does play a large part. The bigger your call to action, the more chance it will be noticed.

Look at Firefox’s call to action. Pretty big, isn’t it?

8. Have a call to action on every page

A call to action should not just be limited to the homepage or landing page. Every page of your site should have some form of call to action that leads the user on. If the user reaches a dead-end they will leave without responding to your call.

But your call to action does not need to be the same for each page. Instead you can use smaller actions that lead the user towards your ultimate goal.

9. Bring it home

So you have created an awesomely clear call to action and the user clicks on it, now what? The rest of the process needs to be as carefully thought through as the call to action itself.
So consider what happens when a user does respond to your call to action. The process should be as simple as possible. Don’t ask any information from the user that you don’t actually need.

Read this: 9 Secrets Towards an Awesome Call To Action is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

Big thank you goes to Peep and Madis for design and development… and for understanding what I actually meant with the original wireframe. It all started from this draft:

Then we asked you to give us feedback on first designs. Thank you to everybody who took the time to talk to us. In comments, Facebook and email. Thanks!

Now we ask for your help to iron out any bugs and make it even better. Let us know how do you like the new design or when you find errors that need to be fixed.

Dreamgrow New Design is LIVE! is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

Read more: Taking A Customer From Like To Love: The UX Of Long-Term Relationships – Smashing Magazine.

Taking A Customer From Like To Love: The UX Of Long-Term Relationships – Smashing Magazine is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

The picture below shows 3 different websites and where people look on them. Red indicates the area, where people looked the most, yellow areas got a bit less eye-action, blue areas got the least views and the gray areas, well, people didn’t focus on them at all.

As you can see, the more people scroll down, the more they lose focus and start mainly scanning your website. So always try to place the most important information in the top part of your website.

Here are the 15 facts you should know on how people view websites.

1. Text attracts more attention than pictures.
2. People start viewing your website from the top left corner.
3. Readers ignore banners. Surprise, suprise.
4. Fancy fonts are ignored.
5. People only scan the lower parts of your website.
6. Short paragraphs work better than long ones.
7. Ads, that are placed on the top or left part of your website, get the most views.
8. Ads, that are placed inside or below an awesome piece of content, get more views.
9. Big pictures attract more attention than small ones.
10. Also headlines draw attention.
11. Visitors spend more time looking at menus and buttons than other parts of your website.
12. Lists are better at keeping your reader focused than large paragraphs.
13. Some people even completely ignore large chunks of text.
14. White space is good!
15. Menu works best when placed on the top part of your website.

There you go. Some points from this list are pretty basic and elementary, but a good reminder never hurts. So the next time when you’re writing an awesome piece of content, or building your new website, keep these points in mind. You now have the knowledge – use it!

Sources:

BBC News | directcreative | GoogleBlog

15 Must-Know Facts on How People View Websites is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

After some pretty extensive wireframe work and design we have arrived at something that we think is pretty good. So, now we ask you, the reader, to post comments, about the new design. Here are two views: front page and a post page. Click the images and the full size view will will open in new tab/window.

Front Page

Post Page

Now, please, let us know what you think! Even nice/ugly is helpful.

If you like our design work drop us a line to get some eye candy for your brand!

We Need Your Help to Design Our Site! is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

(This is image, test clicking on the sidebar)

The most important change is that now your visitors don’t have to leave to Twitter if they want to start following you. Clicking the new Twitter follow button will open a small window where you see the details of the person you are starting to follow. Clicking the follow button will then follow the user and close the pop-up window. If you are already following that person then you have the option to on follow.

If you are not logged in to Twitter when you press the new follow button then you have the option to “log in and follow” the pop-up window.

To get your new Twitter follow button use the tool provided by Twitter. Or if you are a code guru and think that you need to have more control over the way the button is displayed then here you can find to detailed specs of the new Twitter follow button.

Twitter Released New Instant Follow Button is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

Shakespeare would undoubtedly make a great blogger!

Here are 22 blogging tips that will help you be a better blogger, improve the quality of your posts and get you more readers. If you are in the internet marketing and social media you know that content is king. Creating valuable content is one of the most important tasks of any marketer.

1. Know what you are talking about

It’s hard to write about something that you don’t know. If you write about tea then be a tea expert. If you blog about cars be a car expert. If you are just beginning on the path of becoming an expert then blog about that. Read a lot and write about what you learned. In no time you will be perceived as an expert.

2. Know your audience

It is very important that you know who you are talking with and who you want to reach. For example this post might be more interesting to a marketing practitioner than a C-level executive looking for strategic advice. Use the language and style of the people you are targeting. Be as simple as possible because simpler language gets shared more.

3. Write about important stuff

Solve a problem

What value will the reader get out of your post? Find some itch that needs scratching and write about that. For example people may need to stay current or look for ideas.

Keywords

Look at what keywords are popular in your industry and what problems are related to those topics. Sort the keyword list in descending order and start writing. Top 10 ideas about [keyword], best [keyword] tools, Best books about [keyword], etc.

Surf the forums and Q&A sites

Find the important forums in your industry and scan them for problems that do not have answers or you can provide a better solution. For example you can scan Yahoo Answers and answer a question or two in depth every week. Post the short answer next to the original question and link back to your post. Be careful to add value to the conversation or some admins might consider this as spam.

What are others writing about

Read other blogs in your field. What are the important issues? Can you identify a rising trend and boost your visitor numbers that way? Maybe some industry expert writes about something that you think is wrong, take an opposing view and let everybody know.

4. Set the goal for your post

Is this going to be everlasting post that people ca read in three years and still consider it valuable? Or are you breaking some important industry news? Or a regular post that solves an existing problem for some of your customers? Use the resources according to the goal. Spend lot of time and effort for the important stuff and reasonable constraints on regular posts.

5. Be different

Do you add some value with your post? Is there something new and previously unknown in your post. What is your unique angle? One good way to get a new perspective is to look at it from your targets point of view. For example changing a flat tire for women.

6. Great headlines

We wrote about great headlines here 9 Simple Formulas to Create Killer Headlines. Most people read the headline and decide if the want to know more. Work with the headlines and this will make a huge difference in your readership and shareability. Learn from tabloids how to reel people in.

7. Start with the lead

Start with one or two sentences that will tell your reader what they are going to get out of the post. We don’t have much time and we want to know immediately if this is something that in need to read. You may have a great post but if the essence of the post is at the end then many people just may not reach it.

8. Keep it short & simple

Readers scan the post with their eyes and decide if it’s worth reading. If it’s a big piece of block text then only your most devoted fans will read it. Keep everything short and simple. Simple words. Short sentences. Short paragraphs. If you have to much material, maybe it’s a good idea to break the post into a series of posts.

9. Make it easy to read

People don’t read web pages they scan. Make it easier for them to scan pages. Use large font, I would say that 12 pixels is absolute minimum text size for the website. Dark text on light background. Bold text or bullet points for important items. New paragraphs every 4-5 lines, one idea per paragraph.

10. End with the call to action

At the end of the post ask people to share it with their friends of give feedback in the comments. If you are writing about your products and services then make an offer. Ask them to sign up to your newsletter or follow on Twitter. If you ask them to do something more people will do it.

11. Use their language

Use the language that your readers are using. You may have specific industry terms you use with your colleagues and nobody else understands. Don’t use that! If you are a web developer don’t tel your readers about php, Ruby, SQL, XSS, HTML5 or JQuery. Tell them what it does and what benefit will they get out of it. Many people fail at this step, let your non-specialist friend read the post and tell you if they understood what you had to say. Write so your grandmother would understand.

12. Use pictures and captions

Pictures help you r post to stand out when shared on social media channels. People like images, they are easy to consume. Do not use unrelated images about happy people with laptops. There has to be a connection between the post and the image. If the connection is not clear, make it clear with the caption.

13. Emotions

Let your reader feel empowered, happy, smart! I suggest you go with the positive emotions but you can get results with FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). Let them understand that you understand and they will love you.

14. Show yourself

Identify who you are and what you do. Make your blog template display short info about the author. People want tho know who’s behind the post and this will help you to identify yourself as their peer. As one of my friend said I don’t care what they print about me as long as the name and the image are correct. Admittedly, the dog ate the “author section” of this blog.

15. Link to sources

Link to sources. Where did you get that image, who else is writing about this, have you covered this topic before. For example the original of this post was written by Annes Org for our Estonian blog. We use creative commons images in most of our posts and link to the source. This way you will get more credible and your readers will get an alternative view. And don’t worry about linking out as Outbound Links are Gold.

16. Be consistent

You can write once every week or twice a month but keep that schedule. I believe that to achieve real results you need to blog several times per week but consistency is important. Your readers will get used to the regular posting cycle. If you leave big gaps in your blogging activity readers will leave and they seldom come back. If you are not one man band then ask your colleagues to write, too. It helps even if it’s once or twice per month.

17. Optimize for search engines

Use your important keywords in your post’s title, address and heading. These three are the most important elements. Write a description. Link to related posts with keyword rich text links. Add tags and categories. Use keywords in image file names and alt tags.

18. Set goals and measure

If you want to get somewhere you have to measure if you are moving in the right direction. It it said that people with clear goals have more success than the ones without. Write down what are you trying to accomplish. For example per month goals might be:

• Leads
• Revenue from web
• Comments
• Newsletter signups
• Visits
• Facebook likes
• Twitter followers

You can read more about what to measure here: 48 Social Media KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

19. Don’t over do it!

If you are empty, leave it at that and come back later. Take a break, do something else and then come back to write.

20. Check and double check

Always check if everything is working. All the links are pointing to the right place. The signup form actually signs up. SEO elements are in place, categories and tags are set. We have a separate check list to make sure that you don’t miss anything: 20 Steps to Write a Blog Post.

One great idea to write better posts is to write the post and then come back to it after 24 hours. You will make your post better every time. Guaranteed!

21. Practice make perfect

It sometimes doesn’t feel like that but… The more you write the better you will get.

22. Passion

Write about thing s you really care about. If you don’t care about given topic find a new one.

I hope this post will help you to be a better blogger. If you know anyone who might benefit from this post then please share it with friends on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

________________
Image credit Lincolnian (Brian) – BUSY

22 Blogging Tips That Will Get You More Visitors is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

So, what has changed?

• The navigation bar has been reorganized, removing the doubled profile link we have seen so far.
• The search bar has been moved to the center, indicating Facebook’s desire to make search more relevant inside the site. If they would also work on it’s algorithm a bit, it may really grow to be a widely used search engine. At the moment, the Facebook search feature is really bad. Even if you know what you are looking for you may end up empty handed. SO, if this is only cosmetics then it won’t do much good as people will probably ignore it, if it gives consistently bad results.
• Facebook has combined some of the menus to an all-purpose “account” dropdown, making it look more logical than before, especially for the newcomers.
• The sidebar is scaled down, taking some design elements from Facebook Lite. Still the functionality of the sidebar is a bit rudimentary considering the amount of space that it takes on the screen. This could be remedied by
• the bookmarks that have been added to the sidebar – a (hopefully) nice way to have a quick access to your favorite applications or pages.

Facebook Having A Redesign is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

53% of all British adults surveyed said that given the economic climate they are now conducting more transactions online than they did in the past year.

77% of adults that have conducted a transaction in the last year saying they have experienced problems. (89% in 2008 and 86% in 2007)

Website problems are having a dramatic effect on the bottom lines of online businesses with 46% of adults revealing they would abandon a transaction entirely after experiencing a problem on the website. 40% said they would abandon and then turn to a competitor, leading to potentially long-lasting loss of revenue.

13% of online adults who encountered issues said they shared those experiences on a social networking site.

About half (51%) of all online adults said social media has influenced online transactions, 52% of online adults saying they used a particular
vendor after reading good reviews.

The nex big thing? 48% of respondents said they had a web-enabled mobile device and of these, 31% have conducted online transactions using a mobile.

The presentation of the findings:

Survey of Online Consumer Behaviour is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media