Way to go!
You're writing website page or blog posts, as well as landing pages that are geared to solve your target personas' challenges. You're checking off the search engine optimisation best practices. You're promoting your content on your social media platforms. And you're attracting tons of new traffic to your site.
Ultimately, traffic is great, but what's better than traffic?
That's right. Leads!
And the one way to ensure you're converting your newfound traffic into leads, as part of your inbound marketing strategy, is to use effective calls-to-action that encourage and convince them to take up your marketing offers, whether that means subscribing to your blog, downloading an e-book or even registering for a webinar you're hosting.
In order to convert traffic into leads, CTAs need to be done right. Here are a few ways to create a great, lead-generating CTA.
What Makes a Call-to-Action Effective?
1. Great Design
Your CTA needs to grab your website visitor's attention. Consider design elements like the size, colour and format to help them stand out.
- Make your CTAs bigger and bolder than your 'normal' content (just don't overdo it)
- Apply contrasting colours to lift them from your page
- Make it clear that it is clickable by using a button design or adding a hover effect to a particular element
2. Value Based
Offer CTAs that provide something of value to your prospects, such as e-books, guides, whitepapers, estimates, etc. “Contact Us” is the worst form of a CTA. Don’t rely on that as your only option for conversion. Remember that most buyers these days want to self-research and use your educational material to move through the buying cycle towards a decision.
3. Well Positioned
Placing your CTA in the right place is vital for lead generation and re-conversion.
- Align to Buyer Cycle: Segment offers based on the information your prospects and leads will need depending on where they are in their buying cycle. Provide top-of-funnel type offers (whitepapers, downloads) on top-level pages. Add middle-of-funnel offers (request a quote, trial, pricing) as the prospect is digging deeper and learning more about your offering.
- Page Placement: Place CTAs both above and below the fold. Placing CTAs above the fold is important because that area of a page gets the most views. However, there are still other areas of a page to promote your CTAs. Add some at the bottom of pages and within body content as well. Some studies suggest placing CTAs to the right of the page work better but testing this will ultimately determine what’s best for your website. Which brings me to the last point...
4. Tried and Tested
The most successful marketers test their marketing assets and initiatives regularly, including CTAs. Run A/B tests that compare different colours (e.g. red vs. green buttons), alternative copy or language and placement to see where CTAs get more clicks and drive more leads on various website pages.
Having a high traffic website means nothing if you aren't able to convert that traffic to leads that you are able to communicate with and nurture along their decision making process. Be sure to include calls-to-action across your website - using the above guidelines - to generate leads from your website.
*This blog has been repurposed from an earlier blog. 
