By Alistair Norman

How to Do Calls to Action…..Wrong

Be under no illusion, your calls to action (CTAs) can make or break a digital marketing campaign or webpage, no matter how compelling your content. Why then are companies still getting it wrong?

Why CTAs matter

Calls to action…marketing necessity. Get them right and you have the means to propel customers to just the conclusion you want; be that driving up leads and revenue, purchasing goods or services, downloading your latest white papers, or any other of a myriad of outcomes necessary to grow your business.

Get your CTAs wrong and you are potentially crippling your digital marketing efforts and counteracting one of the most valuable weapons in your arsenal.

A poor quality CTA in today’s technology-driven marketplace, is the equivalent of – fifteen years ago, let’s say – listing your company in Yellow Pages and forgetting to add any contact details.

SMEs beware

You’d be surprised how many global enterprises still get it wrong – despite eye-watering marketing budgets – however, often it’s SMEs who are hitting widest of the mark.

A 2013 study by the Content Marketing Institute of a cross-section of smaller US business websites, threw up some alarming statistics:

96% didn’t feature any industry how-to guides or white papers on their home pages.
82% didn’t reference their social media profiles.
72% didn’t have any CTAs on their interior pages.
70% didn’t reference any notable CTAs on their home pages.
70% of websites with a phone number didn’t display it in a prominent place.
68% didn’t include an email address on their home pages.

10 ways to go wrong

Fluffy language

Don’t let there be any doubt as to what the customer will achieve by clicking on your CTA. Use clear, concise language. If you want your customer to ‘Download full report’ then say so. Not ‘Click here to be amazed by our survey’s results’.

Ambiguity

Avoid ambiguous or open-ended invitations such as ‘Click here’ or ‘Submit’. Instead, declare a clear outcome, such as ‘Speak to a consultant’, ‘Buy now’, or ‘Download your free trial’.

Lack of visual impact

Your CTA, whether presented as a button, advert, anchor text or image, needs to stand out from the rest of the page in terms of colour, design and position – don’t create a wallflower.

Poor placement

Your CTA’s position on the page is vital, although the optimum placement of a CTA will depend on a number of factors including the goal of your page and the complexity of its information. Broadly speaking, lead generation or ecommerce CTAs should be displayed prominently near the top of the page, whilst more complex pages might warrant a CTA below the fold. Do your research.

Failing to optimise for your media

If you’re aiming at a mobile audience, for example, don’t bury your CTA at the bottom of your page where users will be required to scroll endlessly to reach it, or create tiny buttons that will go unnoticed on a small screen. Optimisation is key.

Lack of personalisation

A case study from the MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2013, demonstrated a staggering 90% increase in sign-ups by altering one word in a CTA, from ‘Start your free 30 day trial’ to ‘Start my free 30 day trial’. Whilst studies in other languages have thrown up very different results, the lesson here is clear: understand the level of personalisation that resonates best with your audience.

Lack of testing or analysis

According to Adobe’s 2013 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey, 49% of respondents said that testing wasn’t yet a priority for their company. Don’t fall into the same trap. Testing will allow you to maximise the impact of your call to action marketing and understand the preferences of your audience to eliminate language and visuals which fail to resonate.

Not matching reality with expectation

Make sure your CTA does what it says on the tin. If you are promising a free report, then make sure the CTA leads straight there, not to your homepage, or to a series of complex sign-up procedures.

Failing to SEO your CTAs

If your CTA is embedded as an image, make sure you alt tag it with strong keywords. This will ensure your offering is correctly indexed with search engines and will help to maximise traffic.

Too much choice

Don’t bamboozle your visitors with too many CTAs or buttons per page. Where more than one call to action marketing is necessary, create a visual hierarchy to emphasise priority (eg. more prominent buttons for greater importance).

Ensure your CTAs convert into warm leads with our free eGuide: Marketing Director’s guide: How to enable the sales team with hot leads

The Author

Alistair Norman | Marketing Director

Alistair is responsible for the strategy, design and implementation of our Inbound and Content Marketing, with a focus on developing B2B and B2C markets.