By asking for your visitor’s name and email, you can retain their contact information and build a relationship with them after they’ve left your site.
Visitors don’t buy on the first visit. That is true, not only for print advertising but web advertising as well. I’m not sure who authored this quote, but it continues to resonate with me. It goes like this:
Consistency breeds familiarity, familiarity breeds confidence, confidence breeds trust, and trust breeds sales.
When developing your call to action (CTA), the buying cycle must be taken into consideration. The stages of the customer buying cycle are:
- Awareness
- Evaluation
- Favor & Compare
- Purchase
- Repurchase
Say, for instance, you offer a product or service that costs several thousand dollars. You wouldn’t expect a visitor to buy on the first visit now, would you?
Put yourself in their shoes. You need time to evaluate the offering, compare it with the competition, and then you’ll decide to buy. For some businesses, the buying cycle could be a few weeks to a few months.
So when I see the primary CTA on websites say, “Call now to get started with XYZ service” that won’t usually get a conversion. The visitor isn’t going to call because they’re not yet ready to drop $XXXX. They’ll likely leave without ever returning. But they were there because they were interested.
How do you develop a relationship with your visitors when they’re not ready to buy?
Ask them to join your email list.
Depending on your goals, email addresses are essential. By asking for your visitor’s name and email, you can retain their contact information and build a relationship after they’ve left your site.
I recommend offering something of value in return: a free e-book, a coupon or something that will show the visitor your value and commitment to building a relationship over time.
A mailing list allows you to frequently communicate with your subscribers during the buying cycle, and when they’re ready, they’ll likely chose your product or service because, as the unknown author said, “Consistency breeds familiarity, familiarity breeds confidence, confidence breeds trust, and trust breeds sales.”
Of course, other factors lead to the sale. But knowing that visitors don’t buy on the first visit, and capturing their contact information is helpful in your strategy to eventually win their business.