Facebook fan pages have become an essential component for business marketing. One area of the Facebook page that has seen tremendous growth in the past year has been in the ways businesses are using default landing tabs—in other words, where they choose to have a new user land, and the ways they are crafting messages with specific call-to-actions.

In this post we explore the topic of call-to-actions and offer insights into how to create compelling ones. We’ve done a round-up of Facebook fan pages of twelve brands who engage with B2B businesses to see their approach.

Call-to-Action Defined
In Michael Stelzner’s new book, Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, he defines a call to action as “a suggested activity that guides people toward an outcome.” Mike suggests that without a call to action you’re throwing away a golden opportunity. Mike further elaborates by saying that a call to action must be simple, engaging, appealing and effortless for the user.

Steps for Creating a Call-to-Action
Renee Warren suggests five steps for creating a call to action:

1. Make it stand out
2. Make sure your call to action is in the top right-hand corner or in a pop-over, human eye is drawn to the top right-hand corner so it’s the optimal location for your call to action
3. The design of your call to action is just as important as the placement. Make it stand out by designing it both large and contrasting to the background, use color, direction and make it big.
4. Use specific language, be clear and specific. Highlight the benefits, if you’re sending traffic from a branded Facebook page, mention the Facebook page in your call to action.
5. Split test, change the color of your call to action, alter the size, text and position, try as many variations as possible to ensure the best results

Here’s some great advice too, from Hubspot, who suggests that the call to action shouldn’t end there. They propose the idea of a secondary call-to-action and a lead conversion form.  They suggest that when a user is taken to a page following the initial call-to-action that they be presented with a form to get immediate access to compelling content, e.g webinar. By filling out the form the user is then taken to a thank you page where you can provide them with the links or instructions for getting the promised content. This way you interact with the user several times and have opportunities to engage further.

Specificity and Call-to-Actions
Nate Riggs writes in the post, Facebook Page How To: Using Page Design and Custom Tabs to Call Fans to Action these important points:
Suggest the actions you’d like your fans to take once they land on your fan page, since attracting the right people to your fan page is going to help you build  brand awareness for your business. Getting someone to follow through on a call to action is only part of the equation. You then must fulfill your promise of having valuable content, and make sure that your page is administrated to help maximize the viral reach of your content.

A Look at Fan Pages & Call-to-Actions:
Where the User Lands, What’s the Call to Action and What Happens Once the User Gets There?

In the 12 examples below you’ll see a variety of page designs, different landing tab options (only one company actually lands on the wall and doesn’t offer any specific call to actions), different types of promises, and only one company utilizes a form. See what you think of the different approaches. Is there enough there for you to click “Like”?

American Express Open

Landing Tab: Vote Big Break
# of Fans: 206,910
Call to Action: Watch the 10 videos and VOTE!, Sign up for free
What Happens? Clicking on like takes you to page where you can vote

North Social

Landing Tab: Sign Up
# of Fans: 85,629
Call to Action: Click our Like button to get an exclusive “Fan Only” offer and learn how you can build a powerful custom Facebook page for your brand.
What Happens? When you click on like you ‘re taken to a form where you can enter your contact info to sign-up and they’ll email you an app catalog and a special “fan exclusive” discount code.

Constant Contact

Landing Tab: Welcome
# of Fans: 23,044
Call to Action: Click on the like button to join the official constant contact community on Facebook.
What Happens? Takes you to a page where you see the latest blog posts, upcoming events, join mailing list for newsletter, and listings for webinars

Vistaprint

Landing Tab: Become a fan!
# of Fans: 61,536
Call to Action: Like us now, great deals, inspiration from other business owners, chat with micro businesses
What Happens? Offered deals, 1 free t-shirt for Facebook fans, up to 100% off photo products, website, email marketing, get found online, get all three

Staples

Landing Tab: Arc System
# of Fans: 152, 114
Call to Action: Let’s talk about Arc
What Happens? User can talk about Arc

FedEx

Landing Tab: Content Hub
# of Fans: 53,896
Call to Action: Get what you like.  Select any number of our FedEx content topics and we’ll deliver videos, articles, utilities and other related content directly to your Facebook feed.
What Happens? Given a choice on the type of content that will be added to your news feed e.g. sports and entertainment, business expertise, earthsmart ideas, teammember stories, tools, offers and promotions, community involvement.

UPS

Landing Tab: Welcome
# of Fans: 24,813
Call to Action: Join the logistics conversation,ups logistics email series, ups law to live by, concert tours get greener with UPS
What Happens? User can join conversation, sign up for emails and additional information

Fidelity Investments

Landing Tab: Welcome
# of Fans: 14,985
Call to Action: We’d like to be part of the conversation about planning for your financial future. Like us to see what we have to say, try myPlan Snapshot.
What Happens? User can learn more about financial readiness

Vanguard

Landing Tab: Become a Fan
# of Fans: 20,172
Call to Action: Click the like button to connect with Vanguard, join our conversation about investing, retirement, college savings, personal finance, the economy, and much more. You’ll get the chance to interact with other Vanguard fans, and we’ll use your feedback to help shape the Vanguard experience.
What Happens? User can connect with Vanguard

Costco

Landing Tab: Welcome
# of Fans: 295,850
Call to Action: Visit our wall, products, services and special events, mobile update offers, join now, costco services, costco travel, shop online
What Happens? Links from welcome screen are activated and user can do all the actions promised in call to actions

Home Depot

Landing Tab: Welcome
# of Fans: 413,250
Call to Action: Answers to all your how-to questions, vote now to support volunteer projects in communities, check out fan photos, find out about latest workshops at local home depot
What Happens? User can take steps mentioned in call to actions

Lowe’s Home Improvement

Landing Tab: Wall
# of Fans: 595,753
Call to Action: None

Conclusion: As you can see in the above examples, businesses are taking a variety of different approaches to their Facebook landing pages and the ways they are inviting users to engage with them and receive company updates and  information.

How are you using the Facebook Landing Page and Call to Actions? Is there anything you might consider doing differently? Let us know in the comments below.