When you are designing an inbound lead generation campaign, you are creating an offer for people whom you have identified as your target personas. No matter how wonderful it is or how much your offer will help your visitors, if you do not drive them to take action, most will never know.
Calls-to-action (CTAs) are your best tool to capture your visitors’ attention and convert them to leads, but there is more involved than simply saying, “Buy now!” or “Click here!”. Increase your lead counts with CTAs that rock!
CTA Placement Counts
Calls-to-action that are buried near the bottom of a page that is filled with text might as well not even exist. A very few people will read every word of a page and it is not an exaggeration to say almost none will read a CTA and take action if you have made it seem like an afterthought, or unimportant.
If you picture a traditional newspaper, prime placement for the biggest headlines appear “above the fold.” In other words, you see them immediately when you look at the paper, without even unfolding it. Your web pages have the same precious real estate and that is where your CTA should appear– somewhere near the top half of the page, before your users have to scroll down their screen.
Focus on Clarity Rather than Cleverness
While cleverness and even humor have their place in attracting and keeping attention, that place is not in an effective call-to-action. You have put a lot of work into creating an offer that is designed to appeal to your target market so be clear about what your visitors are getting. If your offer is a free ebook about xyz, say so. If you are unclear or vague in your CTA, you risk losing the attention of your visitors or worse, making them confused about what you are offering. In either case, you will not get your conversion to a lead because the visitor was not sure what they would be getting.
Make your CTA Pop
Just like you do not want to bury your calls-to-action at the bottom of your page, you do not want it blend perfectly with the rest of your page’s design. The idea is to attract as much attention as possible so people know right away there is something to click on, something that is going to be valuable to them. Use high contrasting colors and a design that makes it obvious your visitors should click on the CTA to convert more leads.
Lead Visitors to a Dedicated Landing Page
When people click on your CTA, make sure they land on a page dedicated to the offer you have made or the information they are seeking. Too often, people are led to homepages or product pages that are not directly related to what they wanted and if they have to work to find the offer, you will lose the lead. By the same note, if you have several products or services you are trying to promote, create unique offers for each that will send the potential customer to the appropriate landing pages.
Increasing lead counts with calls-to-action that rock is not difficult, but it is vital to include each component for maximum results. As an added bonus, once your newly-created leads have completed your offer, leverage the value of your “thank you” page to increase engagement by including other related offers! Learn more by visiting our Lead Generation service page.
