Facebook Releases Call-To-Action Buttons For Business Pages

Facebook pages have become a huge destination for people surfing the internet to obtain information and review businesses. A business Facebook page has become a necessity amongst social media marketing tools and plays an important role in generating and nurturing leads. As marketers, I'm sure you've been waiting for the day when Facebook makes their business pages more "inboundy" and that day has finally come.

One big piece of your marketing campaign that has been missing from Facebook pages is the call-to-action. How can you guide prospects to make an action if you can't tell them what that action is? Putting a call-to-action on emails, online ads, and now, every page of your website, is essential to any inbound marketing strategy, so why should it be different on Facebook? We know that online readers have a short attention span and are quite fickle, therefore they need to be told what their next step is immediately upon landing on a page.

Until now, the prospect path on Facebook pages has been cloudy. There has been no clear way to direct your traffic to complete the next step on your page. Big news announced last week that Facebook is giving out an early Christmas present by releasing calls-to-action for Facebook pages! They finally drew the conclusion that Facebook pages play a pivotal role in driving business objectives. For marketers like you and I, this is great news. The calls-to-action will appear at the front of your Facebook page in button form right next to the "Liked" button. The new call-to-action buttons link to any destination on or off Facebook that aligns with a business's goals. With CTAs you'll be able to drive traffic directly to your website and help your audience clearly understand the action you want them to take after seeing your page.

After careful consideration Facebook decided on 7 options for the call-to-action buttons:

• Book now
• Use app
• Contact us
• Play game
• Shop now
• Sign up
• Watch video

A few small businesses have been testing the CTAs over the last few weeks. Online retailer Dollar Shave Club had this to say about the effectiveness of the new buttons, "Over the course of a three-week test, the Sign Up call-to-action button delivered a 2.5x higher conversion rate versus other comparable social placements aimed to drive new user acquisition." — Brian Kim, Director of Acquisition, Dollar Shave Club.

Although the rest of us must wait for the new CTA feature, you can now prepare yourself for a Facebook page that will be designed to bring in and convert more leads. By creating a clear, direct path for visitors, your Facebook page will become more than just a hub of information, but also a platform to get prospects to take action. Facebook says the call-to-action buttons will roll out in the US over the next few weeks and worldwide beginning in 2015. Get excited inbound marketers - Facebook is evolving to meet the needs of your users!