by Tony Vidler       

Getting prospective customers to move from content engagement to your call-to-action is a critical step in improving qualified leads, and conversions of them to clients.  One of the things I love about technology today is that there are always new applications helping you to improve your sales and marketing efforts in this arena. In fact, the more new stuff there is and the more you learn about it, the more you realise just how much potential there is to be even more effective in this respect.

One which has been a real eye-opener for me (excuse that pun in advance please) is being able to track eyeballs on your website, or blog, and see which parts of the page grab their attention.

In terms of gathering useful marketing intelligence, this is gold!  By using a heat mapping application you get real time insight into which real estate is the most valuable on your site.  And when we begin to couple that with some psychological insights, such as our eyes are drawn towards what others are looking at, we give ourselves an excellent chance of directing attention to the stuff that matters most.  For example; the best place to put your call-to-action in the image below is the top right hand side.

That is in part because we humans are drawn to follow the eyes of others and look to where they are looking.  In the case of this particular picture, everyone is looking towards the right, and the main character is looking slightly upwards to the right. Our eyes are drawn to the same focal point their eyes are aiming at.

The heat mapping that I have been doing suggests that an image such as this would be very useful for me.  The reason is that it reinforces the desired behaviour: it drives peoples to the top right hand side, which also happens to be the most valuable real estate for me anyway according to the heat mapping.

That “top right hand side” is not a golden rule for anyone and everyone to use of course.  It may well be that because of site layout or existing photo’s you have that your readers are naturally drawn to other parts of your page.  The key point is that the heat mapping software gives you insight into which areas are particularly valuable, and you can help drive more attention to them with the use of carefully selected images.  THEN, by having your primary call-to-action in that area you are increasing your chances of it being given prominence to the reader.

To get more eyeballs on your call-to-action use some smart technology to figure out where the readers eyes are lingering on your site, and then when using images pay attention to the line of sight of the subjects in the photo….it is all about tipping the odds in your favour to get a few more eyeballs on your call to action.

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How to create a “Hurry! Take Action Now!” that works