Facebook gave small business owners an unexpected early holiday gift yesterday, December 11th - new CTA buttons for business Facebook pages! Calls to action (CTAs) are an incredibly important - but often forgotten - part of the design of any piece of marketing. How are you supposed to get your potential customers to take the action you want if you don't tell them what it is?
CTAs typically show up most in outbound marketing pieces like emails and online ads, but savvy business owners know that it's also key to have highly-visible calls to action on their websites. The online viewer is fickle and easily distracted, so it's imperative that they know immediately what they're supposed to do while you have their attention.
For the savvy business owner who understands the value of Facebook as part of any marketing plan, it has been frustrating not to be able to install a clear call to action at the top of the page...Until now.
Announced in a blog post yesterday, Facebook's new CTA buttons will begin rolling out to business pages over the next few weeks, and worldwide over the course of the year. For anyone who has been looking for ways to get a better return on investment from their business Facebook page (so, everyone), this is fantastic news.
There are currently seven CTA options, which encourage a wide variety of actions by the viewer. Facebook has done a great job of looking at their business user base and coming up with buttons that really reflect what their business objectives are. The new CTAs are:
- Book Now
- Contact Us
- Use App
- Play Game
- Shop Now
- Sign Up
- Watch Video
It looks like online retailer Dollar Shave Club was among the first to test this new option, and had this to say about it according to Facebook:
"Over the course of a three-week test, the Sign Up call-to-action button delivered a 2.5x higher conversion rate versus other comparable social placements aimed to drive new user acquisition." - Brian Kim, Director of Acquisition, Dollar Shave Club
So, even though the rest of us will have to wait for our CTA buttons to be bestowed upon us by Facebook, now is the time to start thinking about which one you will choose, and where it will direct people. The buttons can link to any destination both on and off of Facebook.
Already have the new CTA buttons from Facebook? Share a link to your page in the comments so we can all gaze enviously upon it!