Chapter 4. Easily Implementable Changes to Improve Your Website

Authors

  • Laura Solomon

Abstract

Before we can talk about links or buttons, we’ve got to cover an important concept in online marketing. It’s called the CTA (“call to action”). Douglas Karr, writing for Martech, defines CTA: “A call to action is typically as a region of the screen that drives the reader to click-through to engage further with a brand.”

Whenever you ask someone to subscribe to your library’s newsletter, register for a program, or get further information, those are examples of CTAs. They’re very common online, but very few libraries have truly mastered how to make these attractive to readers. “Getting people to perform a click of a mouse button—or any desired action—however, is never easy. It takes careful planning and strategizing to get people to heed your CTA, let alone act on it.” It’s simply easier for people to ignore what you’d like them to do than to, you know, actually do it.

Author Biography

Laura Solomon

Laura Solomon is the library services manager for the Ohio Public Library Information Network (https://oplin.ohio.gov/) and a W3C-certified front-end web developer. She has been doing web development and design for more than twenty years, both in public libraries and as an independent consultant. She specializes in developing with Drupal (https://www.drupal.org/). She is a 2010 Library Journal Mover and Shaker (https://www.libraryjournal.com/section/movers). She’s written three books (https://www.meanlaura.com/books) about social media and content marketing, specifically for libraries, and speaks nationally on both these and technology-related topics. As a former children’s librarian, she enjoys bringing the fun of technology to audiences and giving libraries the tools they need to better serve the virtual customer.

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Published

2022-04-05

Issue

Vol. 58 No. 3 (2022): April

Section

Chapters