Some folks think that calls for action just sounds plain cheesy, but they work, be it in affiliate marketing closing a sale or a simple action like downloading or registering. Here are three simple reasons for their effectiveness.
1. Usability
If your web page is well designed, with little distractions, a callout will gain the attention of the customers - making it obvious where they can click to checkout, download, register, etc. There’s nothing worse than getting a visitor’s attention, then losing them because they don’t know where to click next.
2. Options
Just as important, visitors will often come to your site because they landed there from a search, it’s important to provide them a path to continue your relationship. They may have found what they are looking for, but offering them something else can keep them coming back!
3. Curiosity
There’s a certain percentage of users who just like to click on stuff. Providing a nice bold callout can provide them with the target they’re looking for. Additionally, it could bring you a new sale.
If a call to action with a bold callout isn’t on your check list when creating a website or email, be sure to add it today. You will definitely see a noticeable difference in your web efforts.
Motorola continues to struggle as they posted a first-quarter continuing operations loss of $194 million, or 9 cents a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $218 million. Excluding costs tied to recent job cuts, Motorola lost 5 cents a share, 2 cents better than the Wall Street analyst estimate.
But if the company’s bottom-line performance was slightly better than expected, the rest of its report wasn’t terribly upbeat. Motorola posted sales of $7.45 billion, down 21% from a year ago. Sales in the hard-hit handset unit slumped 39% from a year ago, as Motorola sold 27 million handsets for the quarter.
The drastic decline at that operation prompted Motorola to agree earlier this year to split off its handset and broadband businesses in a new company, as well as to give some board seats to dissident investor Carl Icahn, who has been criticizing Motorola for more than a year and who has called repeatedly for a splitup.
Motorola is also bleeding cash, posting an operating cash outflow of $343 million in the first quarter. The company said it expects to lose 2 to 4 cents a share for the second quarter, excluding costs related to job cuts.
Analysts were looking for a penny-a-share loss. Shares of Motorola, which have lost more than half their value over the past year during the handset unit’s implosion, dropped 35 cents in early trading Thursday to $9.20.
To rescue the economy and encourage consumer spending, the US government is printing more money and increasing federal debt. But the shadow of recession continues to loom large.
Monthly mortgage payments are rising as home values plunge. This double whammy has caused some homeowners to simply abandon their homes and their loans, rather than throw good money after bad.
New tax laws introduced last year have allowed home buyers to walk away from mortgage obligations without a tax consequence. Last time, if bank forgive the shortfall when the house is foreclosed, it is considered as income and hence taxable.
Is it alright for troubled homeowners to walk away when they can no longer afford their homes? I think if you choose to walk away, you have to accept that you’ll pay more for car loans, credit cards and mortgages in the future. At least for a while. I am worried that the hard lessons of greed are not learned if the exit strategy is so easy.
What do you guys think?
A new form of marketing has been tailored for the mass of unsold home inventories and foreclosures. A Foreclosure Bus Tour….
It is a six-hour trip to showcase homes to buyers in Orlando and educate them on the vagaries of snatching foreclosures in a state where residential real estate has stagnated over the past two years.
The foreclosure bus tours are good value for visitors. A cost of $45 per person or $65 per couple covered the tour, house information, teaching sessions, a continental breakfast and lunch at Applebee’s. A mortgage broker, attorney, home inspector and agent are on hand to advise; for newbies, you get a feel of the team you need to set up for your first foray into real estate.
Real estate agents have also organized foreclosure bus tours in California, where the idea seems to have originated, and cities such as Phoenix, Detroit, Kansas City and Jacksonville.
