Driving prospects to your website does not help if they disappear. If your objective is to make a sale, you need to direct your prospects to take some kind of action. 

If you want your prospects to take the next step you need to tell them exactly what to do. The most effect marketing messages give the prospect a single, very short, very clear action to take next.

The example below on the website of digital marketing agency, Babelquest, is a great example. The CTA here directs the prospect to take a single, obvious and simple action. Other examples include:

• Enter an email address
• Call a phone number
• Mail a self addressed envelope
• Click a button
• Purchase a product
• Visit a website
• Tell a friend
• Download a free trial

The more clearly you present your CTA, the high chance you will convert traffic to do what you suggest.

The best CTA asks directly for the sale or permission to follow up. The optimum result is a sale since it makes it easy to measure marketing expenditure however asking permission to follow up is the next best thing, since it allows you to build a pipeline and follow up over time thus decreasing marketing costs. 

Of course a good CTA is not much use without website traffic. I recently wrote a post about creating a compelling hook however Babelquest have some hard facts on their latest initiative (click) here.

In summary ensure each message you create has a simple and clear CTA. If you think you're being too obvious, you are doing it right!