Why Great CTAs and Landing Pages Drive Better Results
Most marketers struggle when it comes to tracking lead interests, being seen as relevant, and converting their leads to customers. If this describes some of the challenges you are facing, then creating GREAT calls to action and landing pages will dramatically help you increase your results.
Kim Albee and Margaret Johnson have teamed up yet again to help SMB marketers grasp their second biggest boggle: creating enticing calls to action and landing pages that convert. Below is the recording of the webinar in case you’d rather listen than read.
Before diving into solutions, it’s essential to establish a comprehensive CTA evaluation framework to assess your current performance, as we’ve shared in other posts.
What Makes a Call to Action Worth Clicking?
When you think about the emails you have set up, what are your calls to action? Do they include: “Here’s our latest news” or “Buy our stuff”? If the answer is yes, then you are not providing something that is valuable to the recipient.
Before you send out an email campaign, you need to get into the mindset of the recipient and really think about what he/she might think is valuable enough to click on. So what’s valuable? A valuable “ask” usually has to do with one of these five themes:
• Helpful
• Informative
• Educational
• Insightful
• Attractive
Only 2% Are Ready to Buy—What About the Other 98%?
Only 2% of your audience is ready for a call to action like “Buy it now” or “SALE, SALE, SALE”, so in order to engage the remaining 98% you need to bring in value.
When a recipient clicks through an email you are able to do all sorts of wonderful things. You can track their interest levels, score them individually and update their lead profile so you will know when they actually are ready for a “Buy it now” offer.
Where Should Your Email Link Go?
So you got them to click through your email; your job is done, right? Not yet! Where are taking them? If you’re linking to a blog, you’re going to need an attractive CTA somewhere on the page with a Lead Capture form to gather some more of their information. Nothing’s entirely free, and a small amount of information in exchange for a whitepaper isn’t a bad deal.
Bite-Sized Content Converts Better Than Big Asks
For an example, if you take a look at the image within this post, you will notice one of our CTAs. We like friendly colors and images, and pop-up lead capture forms; it just seems to draw your eye.
Do you notice how it doesn’t say, “Buy it now”? That’s because we like to provide value to our audience. We normally stick with QuickStart Guides, Scoops, and Checklists for downloads, because we have found that bite-sized chunks of information are generally more effective.
Lead Capture Forms: How Long Is Too Long?
The final part of creating a landing page that will convert is the lead capture form. Success here depends on applying proven conversion rate optimization principles to balance value with information gathering. It is comically common to find a whitepaper offer gated by a form that is longer than the content inside the whitepaper (okay, maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration).
What does this end up doing to the lead though? It frustrates them, it dramatically increases your abandon rates, and it impacts the quality of data you’re getting (it’s true – we polled the audience and 75% of them said that they would not tell the truth on a giant lead capture form like the examples we shared).
However, if you lower the friction on the page (your lead capture form length) to reflect the value of the download, you will end up having more satisfied leads and more conversions.
Your CTA Must Match Your Landing Page
The only thing left to focus on is the consistency. CTAs must connect appropriately to landing pages. You’re only going to anger someone if you offer value and then send them to a “buy now” page instead of giving them the download. That’s when the “bears” come in, and you can learn more about that by watching the replay video at the top of this post.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a call to action worth clicking?
A valuable "ask" usually has to do with one of these five themes: Helpful, Informative, Educational, Insightful, Attractive. Before you send out an email campaign, you need to get into the mindset of the recipient and really think about what he/she might think is valuable enough to click on.
Why should I focus on the 98% who aren't ready to buy?
Only 2% of your audience is ready for a call to action like "Buy it now" or "SALE, SALE, SALE", so in order to engage the remaining 98% you need to bring in value. When a recipient clicks through an email you are able to do all sorts of wonderful things. You can track their interest levels, score them individually and update their lead profile so you will know when they actually are ready for a "Buy it now" offer.
Where should my email links go?
If you're linking to a blog, you're going to need an attractive CTA somewhere on the page with a Lead Capture form to gather some more of their information. Nothing's entirely free, and a small amount of information in exchange for a whitepaper isn't a bad deal.
How long should lead capture forms be?
If you lower the friction on the page (your lead capture form length) to reflect the value of the download, you will end up having more satisfied leads and more conversions. It is comically common to find a whitepaper offer gated by a form that is longer than the content inside the whitepaper.
Why must CTAs match their landing pages?
CTAs must connect appropriately to landing pages. You're only going to anger someone if you offer value and then send them to a "buy now" page instead of giving them the download.
