Getting your flock to go where you want them to? For a shepherd, that’s easy-peasy. Getting your website users to click where you want them to?
Now that’s another story.
To nudge users toward actions or sales on your website, it’s important to improve your online “round-up” skills. 70% of businesses don’t have calls-to-action on their websites – don’t be one of them!
Let’s go over how calls-to-action are essential herding tools for your website users.
Ah, the famous call-to-action. It’s designed to convince users to take action and lead them to key areas on your site.
Calls-to-action on your agriculture website are how you’ll guide and compel users to click and take the most important steps. According to HubSpot, the most common calls-to-action involve variations on: sign-up, subscribe, try for free, get started, learn more and join us.
It can be hard to come up with the right call-to-action, especially for your agriculture website. That’s why we have some ag-specific tips to guide you in the right direction.
Every call-to-action should use strong verbs. These may include simple words like “buy” or “sign-up.” You should consider ag-specific verbs too. Depending on your agricultural products/services, you can get creative with your wording.
For example, if you’re a honey bee farmer, you might have calls-to-action such as “Sweeten your table with our fresh honey” or “Bee-hold our weekend sale” or “‘Don’t buzz off! Sign-up for our enews.” These are just a few ideas for ag verbs to grab your attention right away.
Every brand should tell the stories behind their products, but agriculture even more so! People love animals and nature, as well as family histories. Your brand should constantly select stories to make your calls-to-action even more compelling.
For example, if you own an apple orchard, you could share a picture of your oldest tree and write a call-to-action based on your company’s experience. This could look something like this: “Our roots run deep. We planted this tree in 1965 and have brought you mouth-watering apples ever since. Pre-order a crate and become a part of our history.”
Calls-to-action always work best when the customer understands the “why.” For ag products/services, the “why” could range from feeding families, bringing everyday products to the table, enjoying delicious meals, making seasonal events special, etc.
In addition, the “why” could be cause-oriented if your brand has environmental or social commitments, such as creating sustainable foods, ethically raising animals, serving certain communities, donating food waste or revolutionizing the ag industry.
This ag-specific “why” should always connect with the call-to-action. For example, if you ethically raise cattle with large land lots for free range, mention it. You could say something as simple as: “We go the extra mile for our cattle. Go the distance with us and sign up for our enews.”
For ag brands, calls-to-action don’t have to be one word. In fact, long-form calls-to-action are well-suited for your agriculture website because they can help tell the story of your company. You can create calls-to-action like “Donate a care package” or use a long-form call-to-action such as “Put food on the table for families this season. Donate a care package fresh from the farm.” Embracing the long-form call-to-action can bring depth to your brand.
Call-to-actions are never isolated. You should always accompany words with visuals. Great visuals can get users in the mood to take actions like buying, donating or signing up for your enews.
Choose beautiful images of your farm or ag business. You can hire somebody for more professional shots, or get a tech-savvy family member to take candid photos. You might even consider video backgrounds to capture users’ interest. Either ways, the visual works with the call-to-action to get everybody in the right mindset.
Website users are big on stats. Whenever you can include numbers in your calls-to-action, the better. These numbers could talk about any aspect of your ag business, from animals to land size to number of donated meals. Whatever you think would connect users to your “why.”
For example, if you have a family-run farm growing corn, you may tell users about your tallest stalk of the season. “Knee high by the 4th of July? Think again. Our tallest stalk is currently at X inches. Sign up for more corn-y updates.”
At the end of the day, your agriculture website deserves the best calls-to-action possible. By providing great content and action points, you’ll herd your users to where you want them to go. You should look at other areas of your ag site for improvement, too. Here are ten amazing examples of agriculture websites for inspiration.
Need a hand updating your agriculture website? Contact the Onsharp team to dig into the details.