When I tell Boon to “come,” most of the time I immediately have his attention, but he doesn’t always listen. In fact, he rarely listens. That is….until I pull out a treat.
I picture my relationship with potential leads much in the same way I picture my relationship with Boon (hear me out on this one). I am a blog writer and my blog posts usually serve the same purpose as me yelling my dog’s name. They grab attention. Each blog post I publish is a calling out to potential leads. I know I have their attention when they read my blog, but how do I actually get them to come to me? How do I get them to become leads and hopefully customers?
The Answer? Calls-to-Action. In this blog post, I will discuss four things you can do to make sure your calls-to-action convert.
1. Make Your CTA Useful and Relevant
It probably seems obvious, but your CTA needs to be useful and relevant to your visitors if you want to generate more leads. Before you start creating content you need to ask yourself: “What action do I want my audience to take after reading this content?” The treat analogy dies a little bit here, but think about it like this:
Let’s say there are three different things your dog can do: Fetch, roll over, and come. To get your dog to fetch, you will need a stick, to get your dog to roll over, you need to make a circular motion with his favorite toy, to get your dog to come, you need a treat.
Each of these tasks can represent different actions you want your visitors to take, whereas each object represents the CTA you use to get them to take said action.
You need to make sure that the call-to-action you are using is relevant to your content and useful to your potential leads, otherwise, you’ll end up trying to play fetch with a treat.
2. Make Your Language Clear and Concise
A good CTA tells a visitor exactly what they will be receiving in a way that is both easy to understand and doesn’t take more than a few seconds to read.
When you tell your dog to sit for a treat, your dog knows exactly what to do to get the treat. There isn’t really anything to explain. Unfortunately, your visitors haven’t already filled out your CTA hundreds of times in the past.
To make sure your visitors click your call-to-action, tell them exactly what is going to happen if they click. For example, if you want visitors to download your step-by-step guide to creating a fantastic CTA, you wouldn’t say: “Click here to learn more about lead generation.” You would say something like: “Want to learn more about lead generation? Download our step-by-step guide to CTA Creation to find out what a CTA can do for you! “
Your visitors need to understand what they are getting in order to develop a trusting relationship with you. If a visitor does click your CTA and they end up with something they didn’t expect or didn’t want, you might gain them as a lead, but immediately lose the battle to gain them as a customer.
3. Make Your Language Actionable
If you own a dog you might have experienced the phenomenon of the deep voice. When giving commands to a dog, creating a tone familiar to a low growl seems to work more effectively than using a higher one.
Think of the language in your CTA in the same way you would this tone. You don’t want to use fluffy language. You should use a high impact verb vying for action on the part of your reader. Download our _______ or subscribe to our ______. Beginning with verbs like these is the equivalent to that low growl (you know, accept friendlier), it gives visitors a base for initiating change.
4. Make Your CTA Stand Out
‘Well duh.’ Obviously, no one is going to click your CTA if it isn’t noticeable on your page, a fact you are probably aware of. I don’t even think I need to go into how your dog can’t fetch a ball he can’t find. This is pretty straight forward.
Make your CTA big. Make it obvious. Use contrasting colors. Make it hard for your visitors to not be intrigued. They should feel like little kids who were just told not to press the big red button.
Regardless of if you actually have a dog, these tips should help you entice your visitors through your calls-to-action. Generate more leads, increase your sales, and make more profits. You’ll be on your way in no time.
Part of creating a great CTA is understanding your buyers, what they like and what will make them click. Needs a little help getting inside the minds of your buyers? Well, then take a look at our Target Profile Worksheet.
