Conversions are the ultimate goal for any inbound marketing strategy, and implementing a well-executed call to action (CTA) is critical to that bid. The call to action is a visual element that entices a visitor to complete a certain action. Many times, a CTA will lead a website visitor to submit their email or other contact information in exchange for a valuable resource, like an e-book or free scheduled consultation.
Different types of CTAs can be implemented at different points considering your prospect’s buyer’s journey and the marketing channel you’re using. Bearing this in mind, learn six effective call to action types that you should include in your marketing strategy to see crazy improvements in conversion.
The Visual CTA
As you craft you CTA, you must remember two things: attracting the visitor to the CTA, and getting/encouraging them to click on it. Visual CTAs are the most common CTA types: you’ve probably seen them at the bottom of a blog article to guide a user to the next relevant content, for example. You can also use visual CTAs to lead users to a particular e-book, checklist, or workbook that will be valuable for them. Other than choosing a great image and design for your visual CTA, you need transparent and engaging language to get users to convert. Speak directly to a concern the user has, and let them know exactly what they will get from the resource they download.
Visual CTAs may be grouped into a carousel, which allows a company to offer or suggest multiple content pieces for the user simultaneously. You can use this style to offer content that addresses users in different stages of the buyer’s journey. Therefore, a user can select the best path for them considering where they are.
Related: Improve Your Lead Nurturing Strategy with These 5 Thank-You Page Best Practices
The In-Line CTA
In-line CTAs work like visual CTAs, except they are designed to fit effortlessly into the middle of a page or article. Rather than including images, buttons, or shapes, in-line CTAs are usually hyperlinked text leading to another piece of content or a landing page for a product or service. If you have a blog, you will apply in-line CTAs each time you link out to other content that is useful to the reader. Consider where in your article you place an in-line CTA. Choose a location which feels natural for the reader; if you’re not sure where, a good guideline is to place it around halfway into your content.
The Pop-Up CTA
Pop-up CTAs are highly strategic. As their name suggests, they ‘pop up’ at a specific point during the visitor’s session, meaning it is critical to choose the right time and placement for the pop-up CTA. There are different styles of pop-up CTAs, e.g. those that slide in horizontally, pop-up on the top or bottom corner, or take up the whole page. For example, you can use a whole-page pop-up CTA to ask visitors to subscribe to your blog, or to download a valuable resource in return for their email address for your mailing list. Users can still scroll the page, but to make it disappear they must click the X or somewhere outside the pop-up. You can also use a pop-up CTA alongside your article to market a valuable resource or drive a different action without affecting the function of the page itself.
Related: The Buyer’s Journey Tailoring Your Offers to Bag More Conversions
The Hero CTA
Often, your homepage will be the first opportunity for you to make an impression on a website visitor. You have just a few seconds before they move to the next page, leave, or decide to engage. You can use a CTA in the hero section of the site to clearly address the user’s main concerns or pain points. The CTA should encourage immediate engagement and be perfectly tailored to the reason the visitor is likely on your site. It is possible to have more than one clickable option, although this is often not recommended. Just be sure, when having more than one button, that you have your visitor’s needs in mind and the two options will drive action based on your offerings. Ensure that you are transparent in your offering and approach to eliminate friction and build trust between user and brand. Ultimately, your forthrightness and strategic offering will yield greater interaction and hence conversions.
The Form CTA
There are instances in which the CTA requires that you give certain information before clicking through. For example, landing onto the homepage on Facebook without an account requires you to sign up before accessing the social platform. Right there on the homepage, they tell you everything you need to know: it is free, use it to connect and share with others, and it is quick and easy. On the right side, you have a short form to sign up, eliminating the need to go to another landing page to submit your sign-up details. You can also use form CTAs for users to subscribe to your blog or newsletter. An idea is to make the subscribe CTA a built-in feature within the blog page. This way, you don’t disrupt the user experience, and it will be there and highlighted on every page, should they decide to subscribe after interacting with the content. On Airbnb, the form CTA on the homepage includes all the fields needed to collect all information necessary to give better value to the site visitor. Interestingly though, you don’t have to fill every field to submit the form. This allows users to use the CTA even if they aren’t ready to give all the details. If you’re using a form CTA, your ultimate goal should be reducing friction, not increasing it. Ensure that all the fields in your form are necessary and justified.
The Conversational CTA
We have CTAs because we want visitors to click and convert – whether that’s capturing information or making a purchase. You can use chatbots for this purpose, which is how you create a conversational CTA. The greatest hurdle when implementing CTAs is ensuring that they are closely tailored to the visitor on the page. You can use conversational marketing tools like Drift on your site, which allow you to create multiple conversation pathways that lead to different CTAs. The chatbots has real-time conversation with the visitor to understand their needs, then serves the right CTA based on the data collected.
Conversational CTAs make it easier for visitors to build trust in your brand. The two-way conversation makes asking for information more natural than clicking buttons or filling forms. You can then guide them to helpful resources for their needs. Use the first question on the chatbots to grab the visitor’s attention. Let them know that the chat is specific to them, and hopefully, you will spark enough interest for them to click on the chat and engage with the bot. You can then discuss pain points and needs, then suggest relevant downloadable resources, or book meetings with support or sales reps right from the chat.
Final Thoughts
There are all kinds of CTAs, and there is no surefire way to guarantee that your CTA will succeed in driving high numbers of conversions. The critical thing to remember when crafting and implementing a CTA is to have the visitor’s needs at the forefront. Create something that grabs attention, establishes and gains trust, then convinces them to follow through with an action.