By John Bonini
Jan 31, 2013
Topics:
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The following is an excerpt from IMPACT's ebook, "How an Inbound Marketing Agency Does Lead Generation." For more expert tips on generating more leads from your website, be
sure to check out the full ebook.
“Calls-to actions are extremely critical components of effective lead generation, and the language you use in your calls-to-action is probably the most important element you can optimize to improve their click-through rates.”
A call to action (CTA) is a critically important part of converting website visitors into leads. A CTA is an image or text that prompts visitors to take action and directs them to a landing page where they can convert and become a lead, typically in exchange for an offer.
What’s interesting, however, is that a lot of us have become absolutely immune to CTAs. Why? Because they all look the same. How many times have you seen “click here” on a webpage? Hundreds. Do you actually “click” there? Probably not. It’s bland, it’s boring, and it doesn’t really intrigue or entice you in a way that compels you to take any sort of action.
This is where a lot of businesses go wrong when they create their CTAs. They go for the standard “contact us today!” or “click here for...” when trying to generate leads.
Creating Killer Calls-to-Action
CTA’s Need to Stand Out!
The purpose of a call to action is to entice the user to want to click through and convert, but if they can’t find it, they can’t click-through. At IMPACT, we always make sure we have a CTA above the website fold, we make it action oriented, and we make it pop off the page.
Where to put CTA’s
It’s important that your CTA’s get the most exposure as possible. IMPACT ensures that there is a CTA on every page of the website. And we don’t stop there either. Email marketing, social media, print collateral, email signaures are all great places to include CTA’s.
CTA’s to to Correlate with the Landing Page
One of the biggest mistakes we see in CTA’s is that they don’t correlate with the landing page they’re sending traffic to. That slight confusion to the visitor may be all it takes to drive your landing page conversion rates way down. At IMPACT, we do everything possible to ensure that CTA’s and landing pages go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Optimize CTA’s
A great way to optimize the success of your CTA’s is to strategically place them with relevant content. For example, at IMPACT, if you’re reading one of our blog articles on Search Engine Optimization, we’re going to include a CTA at the bottom of that blog article pushing you to download an ebook on Search Engine Optimization. It only makes sense, right?
What to Include in CTA’s
In order for a CTA to be considered a “Killer CTA”, it needs a few things. First, every CTA needs to convey value to the reader or else it’s just going to be wasted space on your site. Second, it needs to create urgency. We like to include terms like “Today” and “Now” in our CTA’s. Other things we like to include in CTA’s include numbers, testimonials, and questions.
How to Measure the Success of CTA’s
Just as important of implementing CTA’s is measuring their success. Key metrics to monitor are number of impressions, number of clickthroughs, and number of conversions on the landing page. IMPACT uses HubSpot’s CTA manager to track the success of every one of our CTA’s.
A/B Testing
Should I say this or should I say that? I don’t know, try ‘em both and see what works. With CTA’s, it’s always a good idea to use A/B testing. Just because it sounds attractive to you doesn’t mean it will be attractive to the visitor. With A/B testing, you’ll receive stats on two versions and can quickly adjust accordingly.
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