“Download Free E-book. Sign Up Today. Claim Free Coupon. I’ve tried them all. But nothing seems to be working!”
Is this you?
Don’t feel disheartened. You have to understand that viewers today are more knowledgeable than ever. They think before they click, which should make you think twice as much to get their attention.
The call-to-action (CTA) is designed to prompt visitors to your website to make a response and convert them into customers. If you are not getting the response you desire, then something needs to change – and it’s not too late to do so.
Let me help you.
The Need to Create More Effective CTAs
While call-to-actions are great marketing tools, you simply cannot put in a “Sign Up” or “Click Here” button in your website here or there then expect to generate leads and clicks.
Let me remind you that you should consider important elements so that people will actually respond and take action and not skip over your content. Brian Dean said, “SEO is not about content creation, it is about content promotion.”
Here they are:
1. Eye-catching designs.
Get noticed. Applying large fonts and colors that contrast with the overall website design worked for me. It is a good way to catch people’s attention and make them think about the call-to-action.
Where you place your CTA is important. The most common opt-in buttons are located on the upper right side or the bottom of landing pages.
While there is no particular best color to apply on your CTA button, you should learn to test each element involved in order to compare results and find out which option works best for you.
2. Engaging copy.
You don’t need a lot of words but you should also not make it too plain. The best CTA content uses crisp, catchy phrases and verbs that trigger immediate positive action.
You may put visually appealing call-to-action triggers and yet not get your desired results if you have a poor copy. My goal was to not only captivate the intended audience, but also to educate them – this resulted in increased conversions.
3. Clear propositions.
“If I click on this button, what will happen? What’s in it for me?” Those are the main questions in most people’s minds when they see a CTA. It is your responsibility to make it clear what they can expect. Your CTA should explicitly explain it if they are going to get a power point template, an e-book, a weekly newsletter or a product demo.
4. Good landing pages.
One of the main goals of using a CTA is to drive sales or leads. You want people to be connected to you and convert into potential customers. When preparing your CTA, you should consider which stage in the sales cycle you want them to take part in and direct them to it.
Captivate Your Audience and Get More Conversions
Not all CTA contents are equal and preparing them is not an easy task. Let me share with you the things I learned that helped me create more conversions: using powerful, creative content to captivate your audience and make them respond to my CTAs.
1. Sell the Trial
Free trials are very tempting and difficult to resist. By using a free trial CTA, you will gain more members. By engaging them to free use of your brand, the members will be able to see how you product or service will benefit them.
Moz offers its clients a 30-day free trial and Bigcommerce decided on a 15-day free trial period to increase the number of their users. Shopify, on the other hand, presents a 14-day trial which has helped grow its revenue 10 times in a span of three years. Shopify members now number to more than 175,000!
You may be thinking, “So I have a lot of members who are using the free trial. How do I convert them into paying customers?” Good question. Here is where email marketing comes in.
You can convert your free members into paying clients by using email marketing strategies such as the following:
- Email your new user immediately, congratulating them for making the right choice. This is very crucial because you want to connect with your potential clients straight away and let them know that you are ready and willing to serve them. Ideally, you should send the email within one to two minutes of clicking the CTA button. Don’t make them wait.
- Provide steps on how they can get started, or how they can get activated. In order for the user to be able to use your product or service, they need to do any the following activation verticals:
- CRM: importing customer data
- Project Management Software: creating a sample project
- Web Analytics: installing a tracking script
Make sure that the steps are clear and easy to understand. If it is too complicated, the user will not waste his time with your product.
Keep in mind that as your users realize the value of your brand, you need to guide them through the buying process. You cannot just wait on them to do it by themselves or you will lose potential customers. Just like with traditional sales and marketing strategies, you need to ensure customer satisfaction all the way.
- You should personalize the email. It is important to address the user by his name. You should also sign off using your email signature that includes a contact information.
You can send more than one email during the course of the free trial period. In your emails, you will be able to assist your clients by answering their questions, providing answers and solutions and removing possible hindrances to a great experience.
Kristi Hines says this about email marketing, “Email has the ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches – at scale.”
Do not be afraid of sending follow-up emails as long as you are adding value to your client’s experience by using informative and compelling content. If you offer a free trial for 30 days, for instance, you can send 2 to 3 emails during the first week and one email a week for the remaining period. When the end of the trial period is drawing close, send a reminder and ask for feedback.
Always include a clear call-to-action in all of your emails.
2. Cash in on Instant Gratification.
To a great extent, delayed gratification leads to success in real life. What you work for and wait for you will give great value. However, this does not apply to CTAs.
You want people to respond to you now. That is why you should consider instant gratification.
I don’t like waiting. Do you? Well, almost everyone hates waiting.
It’s the same with your market – never try your client’s patience if you want conversions. If you have long holding times, your customers will feel as if they are standing in long queues. Slight delays will give a negative effect on your conversion rate.
You want your viewers to feel that they will get optimum satisfaction from buying your brand. You want them to know that you are there to serve them and signing up to your email list will benefit them greatly. You want them to trust you.
Using compelling content in your CTAs such as “Get PDF” or “Download Now” appeals to people’s need for immediate reward and encourages them to respond positively.
Look at this:
3. Arouse Curiosity.
Curiosity will mean increased sales. Your CTAs should be able to tell people what they will do and what they can expect but you should not tell them everything.
It is human nature to be curious. People will want to dig deep and know more.
You should create CTAs that will create a desire in what you are offering and make them want to click. The greater click-through rates you get, the higher your sales potential is.
Make sure you apply emotional triggers such as surprise, delight, satisfaction, fun and trust to pique your reader’s curiosity. Curiosity will cause them to be engaged in incidental information. More than the action you want them to take, they will also be interested in other things you have to offer and what you are all about.
“Don’t optimize for conversions,” Neil Patel said, “optimize for revenue.” Remember, your primary goal is to have buying customers. Inspire them to make that click.
Music Contract Store not only piqued their target audience’s curiosity, their landing page also offered a promise and created a sense of urgency. The CTA button inspires the user to click and get that promised reward.
However, you should be careful about luring your target audience with CTA buttons and power words that do not deliver your promise. This will cause them to lose their trust in you and you will lose conversions.
4. Use Benefit-Oriented CTAs
When your viewers recognize a promised benefit, they will make that click.
Take Google, for instance. People know that when they search the internet using Google, they know that they will get the best possible answers.
Your CTA should offer the same benefit because if the viewers are not sure that what they can get from you will be beneficial to them, they will just skip over to the next site.
Keep in mind that your target audience are humans. They make choices based on their emotions and the rational or improving their life.
The best content writers understand that people will purchase products or services that will profit them in one way or another. Personal value has a greater impact than business value. Make sure that your audience knows that you value them.
Conclusion
In closing, let me remind you what Neil Patel said,
“I started out in business to make money and I have. But I found that money doesn’t bring you happiness, doing something worthwhile for others is much more rewarding.”
You see, it’s not just about traffic problems to your blog or website. This is where your major challenge lies: persuading people to make that click every day.
Your CTAs will either make or break you. They will cause you to create conversions or lose them. You want to be a business that brings something worthwhile to the table.
There is great potential for success when you make CTAs work for you. Use the tips and strategies I mentioned above and you will see higher conversion rates and lead generations.
Remember to use the six most important persuasive words: You, Bonus, Free, Instantly, Because and New. Be creative with your design and your content. Help viewers identify the problem and offer promising solutions.
If there’s one thing you should remember, it’s this: You need to establish yourself as an authority in your industry – someone trustworthy and not just hungry for clicks, someone who places value on customers before profits.
So don’t just focus on creating leads – focus on benefitting others and you will see not only a significant increase on your profits but also a significant increase in your happiness.
Be the best choice.
What’s your most ideal strategy in preparing a compelling call-to-action to get the right people to your business?
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