All too often calls-to-action are an afterthought at the end of benefit-driven content. David Van Schaick, COO at The Marketing Practice, talks us through three steps to make sure our calls-to-action engage the prospect in the buying process
How many of us have been guilty in our careers of spending all our efforts creating fantastic content and then adding ‘for more information please call…’ at the end? Such a vague request makes the likelihood of a response extremely low. It’s wrong to assume that a prospect is going to commit to a sales meeting after reading one email or piece of direct mail. Yes, the content may beautifully describe the benefits of a product or service. But the time-poor reader won’t pick up the phone unless they can see what’s in it for them.
If a prospect is to respond, they need to be clear on two things: what it is we want them to do next and why it is valuable to them. It’s a simple principle, but if we apply it with an understanding of the market and the buying process, it can dramatically improve results.
Here are three key steps to creating calls-to-action that actually work:
1. Think about the buying cycle
There are probably as many versions of the buying cycle as there are books on sales and marketing. But when it comes to developing the right call to action, they are useful tools since they help us understand that when we ask the reader to do something, it has to be appropriate to their current situation.
A typical buying funnel contains four stages: recognising the problem; working out what caused the problem and how big it is; evaluating possible solutions; and deciding on the best course of action.
Somebody who has only just recognised they have a problem is unlikely to pick up the phone and jump straight in to a sales meeting. At this stage, what will be most valuable to them is help in understanding the nature of their challenge. For these prospects, we might consider a link to download a whitepaper, or even inviting them to a workshop that helps them think through the cause and scope of their challenge.
Even at the later stages of the buying cycle, our time-poor prospects will be wary of picking up the phone unless they can see the value they will get in return for their time. Instead of ‘arrange a meeting with one of our experts’, then, how about a ‘case study road-show’ that shows how others have dealt with similar challenges?
2. Plan a series of calls to action that work together
So, we understand the importance of a call to action that is relevant to the prospect’s current situation. And we can also assume that, in any given market, organisations will each be at a different stage in the buying cycle.
What we can do now is plan campaigns that have a series of calls to action, each one helping to ‘nudge’ the prospect along the buying cycle. Ask yourself, at every ‘touch point’, what is the right action to motivate people along the buying cycle?
Think about the ideal next step for your prospect, based on where they are in the buying process and taking into account any other considerations relevant to the market you are in. Also, plan out the subsequent touch points you will need to maintain customers’ forward momentum. Success comes when all of these touch points tie together seamlessly.
So, our appetite-whetting email might link to a website. The website persuades our prospect of the value of attending an event. The event finishes with an offer of a one-to-one workshop that helps the prospect understand their challenge and gives them materials to promote their case internally. And then, when they’ve had that crucial meeting with finance, we get in touch and book a sales meeting to discuss the next steps.
3. Then get creative about the call-to-action and content
Okay, we are now ready to create our content. All we need to do is remember the golden rule: we are selling the next step just as much as the solution.
So often we devote 90 per cent of the content to the end product or solution and leave ourselves just a tenth to get across the bit that really matters: what we want them to do.
But now we have planned our ‘next steps’ to work together, our content can reflect that. We can devote more space to explaining the value of taking each step, giving us a much better chance of getting a response.
So, rather than making your call-to-action an afterthought, it should be at the forefront of your communication. If planned in the right way, it completely changes the structure and emphasis of your content. Let’s put calls-to-action at the heart of our creative.
