5 Proven Call to Action Buttons Missing from Your Website Posted on March 30, 2016June 28, 2016 by Jonathan Herrick With billions of online searches done each and every day for products and services, your website is the catalyst to driving more sales for your business. But even though you may have a modern, updated site, chances are you are probably missing out on the one major factor that can turn your website into a sales machine: well placed and intentional calls to action. In fact the majority – 70% of small business B2B websites – lack a call to action according to Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends. What does a Call to Action do? A Call to Action (CTA) is a text hyperlink, button, or image on your website designed to encourage potential visitors to take an action. According to Kissmetrics, 96% of people are not ready to buy from you the first time they visit your website, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t able to capture prospects early in the buying process. Placing clear CTAs throughout your site in exchange for valuable resources – like webinars, how to guides, checklists, and product offers – transforms your website from a digital brochure to a lead generation engine. CTAs also help your visitors to better understand what you expect them to do (learn more!) and what actions to take next (schedule a call!). Without these call to action prompts on your website, your visitors will bounce without learning anything more about your business, and without leaving any follow-up information behind. If you want to turn your website traffic into new leads for your business and generate more customers online, here are five CTA opportunities your website might be missing: “Solve Your Problem” Converting anonymous visitors to your website into actual leads you can follow-up with can be a real challenge for most businesses. By using “lead magnets” throughout your website, you’ll grow your pipeline of prospects. A good lead magnet attracts your ideal customer by addressing a specific problem they might be struggling with. Here is a great example from the Hatchbuck homepage: Offering helpful resources (like our free marketing planner) in exchange for a lead’s contact info and email address both gives your visitors tools they can use to be successful and grows your lead pipeline at the same time. The marketing planner lead magnet on our homepage, for example, was crazy successful at growing our pipeline. In fact, we drove over 1200 new leads into our sales funnel in just 2 weeks. If you aren’t sure what type of lead magnet to build for your website and need a little inspiration, here are 6 simple lead magnets to test on your site. Bonus tip: Keep your lead magnet form short a sweet. A name and email address might be all you need to start a conversation with a lead. Asking for too much information can actually deter leads from filling out your form. Instead, use your content as a way to segment your leads and their interests. For instance, we know that anyone who requested our marketing planner was looking at revamping their marketing efforts for 2016, while anyone who requested our marketing automation guide was ready to look at software. “Learn More About Our Business” Potential leads can land on your website in many different ways. They might do a google search and land on your homepage. Or they might click on a link they saw on social media and enter your website through your main blog. Including “Read More”, “Learn More” or “View Page” buttons on your site will drive visitors more deeply into your site content, helping them down the path to becoming a customer. Keep content on your homepage, your landing pages, and your main blog page short, easily scanned and well-organized. Cut out any unnecessary jibber jabber and keep it brief as a way to maximize the visitor experience. Instead of going in depth into a product or article, for instance, include “Read More” or “Learn More” CTAs that take visitors to a related page on your site where you can really dive into the nitty gritty details. That way, visitors can quickly scan the page they land on and navigate to the content that is most important to them, optimizing their experience on your website. Here’s an example from Hootsuite: “Like or Share” Along with lead generation, your website can help to promote your brand and reach more of your ideal audience. A simple yet often overlooked call to action tip is using social sharing buttons: Buffer uses social sharing buttons such as Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest to help build their social audience and expand their reach – and you can, too. When a visitor to your site (including your customers) shares information with others via social media, they bring that third party cred factor to your brand. Their network is exposed to your business through a trusted peer, and your prospect pool becomes larger. The trust brands build with their audience through social media isn’t just about brand awareness. A strong social presence is a major contributing factor to why consumers decide to purchase. So, if you aren’t encouraging social shares on your site, considered it a missed opportunity. “Go Ahead. Check Out Our Product.” Once you have a visitor checking out your site don’t forget the obvious – make it easy for them take the next step to engage with your product(s). Using a prominent product CTA button on your homepage and throughout your site gives your potential customers a clear way to find out how your product meets their specific needs. A quick explainer video, or product page that lists benefits and features are great ways to give interested prospects an overview of how you can help them solve a problem. For example, LeadDyno has a “Take a Tour” button on their site that sends visitors to a quick overview video of their software: There are a number of ways to showcase your product depending on your industry and sales process. For some businesses a “Live Demo” leading to a consultative meeting with a sales rep may be the best fit. For some, a “Self Guided Tour” can give prospects all the information they need before they sign. As a best practice, have this button stand out by differentiating it from any other CTA buttons you use on your site. Keep the button color and button text consistent throughout your site, so when a visitor is ready to dive into your product, they instantly know where to click. Bonus Tips: When using a product call to action try to stick to what makes a powerful and clickable call to action: Keep this call to action above the fold. Think about common traffic areas on your site such as the top navigation on your homepage, pages that describe product features or benefits, and even blog articles with content relevant to your product offers. Maximize your conversions by keeping your button text simple and aligned with the offer on the other end once the user clicks through. “Buy Me” Once your prospects have had the chance to engage with your online resources and learn more about your product, don’t miss the opportunity to ask for the sale. This means using specific call to action buttons to to make it easy for your new customers to sign up for your products or services: Box uses simple CTA buttons to get visitors in the buying process. Bold “Buy It” buttons capture those who are ready to do business now. A less highlighted “Try It” button for a 14 day trial captures those not quite ready to take the plunge. Lastly, for users with more complex needs, a “Contact Us” CTA creates a better experience for enterprise visitors. When thinking about what calls to action will work best to close the sale, make sure you align the CTA with the needs of your visitors.Then, measure conversions with proper tracking to better understand what’s working and what’s not. A compelling call to action is vital to helping your visitors navigate through the buying process. Putting these 5 top call to action tips to practice on your website positions you to capture missed opportunities, turning more visitors into leads and converting more online prospects into customers.
Three Tips for Email Marketing that Creates Customers Posted on April 24, 2014June 1, 2016 by Jessica Lunk We know that email is a primary channel for revenue. So how can you maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing to produce more customers so your business can grow? Speak to the needs of your prospects: Segmenting prospects by their interests helps to deliver personalized messaging that potential customers can relate to. To engage prospects, uncover their unique challenges and provide them with a solution. Example: You are a real estate agent and your customers’ pain-points include determining how much they can afford. You provide a mortgage calculator on your website, and drive your prospects there through email. By helping your prospects answer a question or overcome a challenge, you add value and increase awareness of your brand. Evaluate your prospects’ place in the sales funnel: A prospect who is just browsing has a different set of priorities than a prospect who is ready to buy. Serve up helpful, value-added content at the awareness level, and save the feature and benefit comparisons for hot leads in the buying stage. Example: A prospect in the awareness stage is just beginning to research buying a new home. They aren’t sure what they can afford. A mortgage calculator is valuable at this stage. Down the line, they determine their price range and are ready to shop. At this stage, sending home listings in their price range keeps them engaged. Finally, they find the right home and are ready to buy. Resources that help them secure financing are going to be of the greatest value at this stage. Focus on a single call-to-action: Each individual email should have a clear call-to-action, such as visiting your blog, downloading a resource, or contacting a sales representative. When your email focuses on one single outcome, conversion rates increase. Example: When faced with too many options, your prospects often end up choosing to do nothing. Dear Jessica, Searching for a new home? Determine how much you can afford with our mortgage calculator: http://www.mynewhome.com/mortgagecalculator Or check out our list of lenders: http://www.mynewhome.com/lenders Or visit our website to see our latest listings: http://www.mynewhome.com/listings A single, clear call to action will increase email conversion because there’s only one choice to make – to click through or not. Dear Jessica, If you are thinking about buying a new home, you may be wondering, “How much can I really afford?” We hear that question a lot, so we’ve provided a handy mortgage calculator to help you determine yoiur price range. Check it out:http://www.mynewhome.com/mortgagecalculator Today’s consumer is desensitized to generalized batch & blast email. A more effective approach to email marketing is to create a pitch with a single call to action that speaks to a potential customer’s interests and their place in the sales funnel. A personalized, targeted approach will increase email engagement and convert more prospects into customers.
6 Simple Ways to Get More Mileage Out of Your Blog Post Posted on April 2, 2014 by Jessica Lunk Keeping up with your business blog isn’t easy. Even for someone like me who enjoys writing, coming up with new ideas and posting consistently is really challenging. So if you’ve conquered inertia, sat down and written a great blog post, give it the finishing touches- and the attention- that it deserves: 1. Add a great image. Whether you’re flipping through articles on Flipboard, or scrolling through your Facebook feed, you’ll find that marketing is becoming more and more visual, and a great image can help grab a reader’s attention. Here are a few ways to whip up an image for your blog post: If you’ve got an artistic side, put your graphic design skills to the test and create your own image. Sometimes a smaller canvas brings out the most creativity. You might surprise yourself. Inspiration is all around you. Grab your smartphone, snap a pic and slap a filter on it for an insta-image. Take advantage of others’ talents and search for eye-candy on Google images, Flickr and more using CreativeCommons image search. 2. Create a post excerpt. It’s tempting to move onto the next thing once your post is in the can, but one tiny extra step can make a big difference in your marketing. Write a short teaser in just a couple sentences. If you already have a great lede that entices your audience to read on, you may not even have to write anything. The content is already there. 3. Add a call to action. Your blog post shouldn’t be a dead end. Help speed up the conversion process by making sure that prospects who have come to your post know what to do next. Link to a related article or page on your website, ask them to sign up for your email newsletter, or point to a free resource that you offer. Don’t let them fall off your site because there was nowhere to go next. 4. Share on social media. Social and content go hand in hand. Content feeds your social media engine, and social distributes your content to a wider audience. Oh, and guess what – you already have a snappy excerpt and eye-catching image to help spread the word. 5. Alert your team members. Amplify your social media efforts by alerting your team members that a new article is up. Pass along your excerpt as well to make it super easy for them to share with their unique groups and networks. 6. Create a value-added email. It’s easy to turn your blog headline into a subject line and to craft your pre-written excerpt into a value-added email that you can share with your prospect list. Do this for every post, and soon you’ll have a great drip campaign that will keep marketing leads engaged. There is no better feeling than wrapping up an interesting, funny, educational, or entertaining blog post. But don’t just click “publish” and forget it. With a few extra steps, your hard work will get way more mileage, reaching a bigger audience with your brand.