Calls-to-action (CTA) help drive people to your offers. If your CTAs aren’t effective at capturing people’s attention and persuading them to click, then it makes the offer useless.
CTAs can be used on product pages (non-landing pages), in display ads, email, social media and anywhere you can market your offer. But not all CTAs are created equal. In a world where every brand is fighting for attention, it’s critical that prospects choose your offer over your competitors.
CTA’s are a key part of your content marketing strategy and overall marketing plan. Here are some tips to creating effective marketing CTAs that get the clicks.
Call to action where the eye can see
Calls-to-action do best “above the fold” – the space where your web page is viewable to the user without having to scroll down. According to heat map analysis, anything “below the fold” will only be viewed by 50% of people – your potential customers – who visit your page. Doubling impressions on your CTAs can significantly increase your lead count.
Be clear
Be clear and specific in your call to actions about what you want a visitor to do. Don’t be clever. If you’re giving away a free guide, say “Download our FREE guide to…” and explain the title of the guide. If you’re hosting a free webinar, say “Register for our FREE webinar on…” so that people registering will be your target market and therefore quality leads.
Your topics should clearly convey a compelling benefit of downloading or registering to join the webinar. This elevates your call to action from the standard “Download Now” or “Get a Free Article” as the full description helps to make your CTA’s much more specific.
Use contrast to make CTA stand out
A call-to-action is meant to stand out, so if your CTA blends in too much with your website design, no one will notice it. You want as many visitors to land on that call-to-action as possible, so use contrasting colours to make the CTA stand out, and more importantly, use design to make it clear it is a clickable call-to-action.
Link your CTA to a dedicated landing page
This tip might seem minor, but it’s incredible how often businesses miss this opportunity. For a successful marketing campaign, calls-to-action are meant to send visitors to a dedicated landing page where they receive a specific offer such as the download of a guide or a template.
Do not use CTAs to drive people to your homepage. Even if your CTA is about your brand or product (and perhaps not an offer like a download), still send them to a targeted landing page that is relevant to what they are looking for. If you have the opportunity to use a CTA, send them to a page that will convert them into a lead.
Promote offers on product pages
CTAs shouldn’t be one size fits all. If your company offers various products or services, you may want to consider creating a different offer for each of them. Then you can place CTAs linking to each offer on the website pages that are most relevant to that offer.
Thank-you pages
Even if someone completes a form on your website (thus they’ve converted as a lead), don’t stop there. Increasing engagement is a top priority for marketers so that prospects turn into loyal fans therefore targeted and personalises marketing communication is essential to maintain engagement. Once someone reaches a “thank you page,” the page that a visitor arrives on after completing a form, use that space as an opportunity to promote more offers and helpful content for your target audience.
These tips are taken from our detailed ebook – 30 Greatest Lead Generation Tips.
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