A successful call-to-action strategy will generate both leads and sales. Sarah Aird-Mash, director at digital agency Firecracker, provides seven top tips to encourage click-throughs
Every business needs to know how to best convert indirect leads into potential customers. Whether the interested party has navigated their way to your website, responded to an ad or received a direct communication from you, data capture and conversion to an actual lead will be your number one priority.
There is one main rule to remember in B2B communications – always include a call-to-action (CTA). Digital communications enable us to target our messaging to mirror content/medium/audience, which gives us increased control of the CTA opportunity.
Before considering your CTA, standard practice should include monitoring competitive activity. Your CTA should either be different to what your competition is offering, or better. Try to ascertain best practice, read case studies and monitor the business press. As with all marketing activity you need to make sure that your plan perfectly represents your offering. Here are some top tips on creating effective calls-to-action.
1. Identify your objective
There are two key CTA objectives:
• To generate a lead.
• To generate a sale.
Either objective is relevant in a business context, whether you are selling a product or a service. In the simplest terms – where your product can easily be compared on features/benefits/cost –
your most likely objective will be direct to sale generation.
Selling business services or high net value products will inevitably be a more involved decision-making process, hence lead generation is key. Whatever your objective, your business should aim to nurture all prospects.
2. Select your channel
Where will your CTA be? On your website, an email or an ad? Depending on your selected channel, the CTA message can vary. Digital gives us the power to highly target content very cost effectively. You should have a CTA on every page of your website. This will range from a ‘contact us’ button, to a user enquiry form, through to making assets available on a separate section where users have to complete a simple form to receive the information. Depending on the content of the page, you can tailor your message to maximise relevance and impact.
On an email or ad you are actively targeting a specific user group with a specific message, so your CTA should relate directly to that.
3. Add value
Whatever your CTA is, if you want your customer to submit contact details you need to make them feel its worth their while. Add value through your CTA by offering exclusive content, business incentives, free trials or ‘how to’ guides. Demonstrate you are an expert in your field – it will reinforce your credibility.
If you have a wealth of added value information don’t be afraid to offer your customer a choice of CTA. As long as they are relevant and add value, your prospect will feel reassured that you have a lot of knowledge in your field.
4. Profile progressively
It is standard business practice to ask for basic contact information in return for incentives. The key is not to ask for too much information in one go. Offer staggered incentives, in return for increased data. For example:
• 1st incentive: Whitepaper in exchange for the user’s name/company/email.
• 2nd incentive: ‘How to’ guide in exchange for the user’s job position/telephone number/stage in buying cycle.
• 3rd incentive: Free consultation in exchange for information about other specific requirements they have that will enable you to make sure your consultation is as relevant as possible.
At each stage, request a little more information from your enquirer – this will help you build a profile that you can use to tailor your communications.
5. Use explanatory copy
Strong explanatory copy will boost click-through rates. To maximise response to your CTA you need to be clear and concise about what you’re offering, why it will benefit your client and how they can get it. Using this statement as an email subject line should boost open rates.
6. Test different incentives
Test different incentives and monitor which your customers respond best to. There may be seasonal considerations and there will always be cost considerations. An offer will work well but be careful not to devalue your brand or undersell your service. It may give you some easy wins but cost is not always the key deciding factor and it isn’t always the best way to grow your business.
Combine different incentives with different media and monitor any changes in response rates.
7. Evaluate everything
Check the click-through rate of every CTA you use. Measure the most effective medium of communication (website/email/ad) and the most popular subject lines, and continuously evaluate the most successful incentives to ensure you are getting the most out of every CTA.
