Financial and agribusiness inbound marketing campaigns depend heavily on calls to action or CTAs. Essentially, CTAs guide the user experience encouraging readers to take specific action, depending on your marketing campaign’s objective. A compelling call-to-action cuts straight through the copy to compel the reader to act. Examples include:
- Subscribe to a newsletter, webinar, or offer
- Schedule a demo or meeting
- Provide contact information
- Purchase your product
- Learn more about a product or service
- Sign up for a free trial
Regardless of what you want to achieve with your marketing campaign, ad, or published content, you need to ask for it. Conversion relies on guiding the user through your material with a specific end goal in mind.
Remember, when leads are looking for a product or service and performing their natural due diligence, chances are you’re one of many options. So, inevitably, the vendor with the most intriguing invitation will win. Using a lead magnet is a much easier way to pre-qualify potential customers and help them to the finish line.
It can be a big leap to “ask for the sale” right away, particularly with products or services with a hefty price tag. So, in many instances, businesses opt for a stepped sales process where the sale happens over time rather than through high-pressure tactics. In exchange for a user’s contact information (or opt-in), businesses will offer “value for value,” something the user would consider valuable to their product search: an eBook, white paper, video, free demo, or guide.
This way, businesses can continue to contact the lead and create a “soft sell” scenario where the lead is “romanced” over time through follow-up assets such as email campaigns, newsletters, and other value-added content that reinforce why that business is the right choice. This type of content driven process is known as Inbound Content Marketing. Throughout this process, CTAs become the action steps that lead the user to conversion.
Creating Compelling CTA’s
It can be challenging to craft the perfect CTA. You must appeal to an audience more aware of digital marketing tactics than ever before, so you’ll have to appeal to their emotions, and create a sense of urgency around your CTA. Two best practices for crafting CTAs are:
- Keep it Simple
- Make it Specific
No two marketing campaigns have the same goal, so your CTAs should be tailored to your desired outcome. Don’t use too many words or be too vague or generic. Choose words that correspond directly to the users desired outcome to convert more leads to customers.
You might use this phrase if you’re selling investments:
- Build the Future You Imagine
- Discover What’s Possible
- Achieve Your Retirement Objectives
In marketing, it’s important to speak through your CTA text in a way that naturally appeals to your target audience’s interests. The CTA example below is simple, direct, and speaks to the subject matter at hand.
Diversify the Call to Action
Each CTA on a successful landing page or content page will point to the same goal but will be phrased slightly differently. There will be several in the content and on the page, so if the customer doesn’t connect with one, they will connect with another. Some will be more overt and obvious, while others will be more conversational.
Here are a few CTAs to help you increase subscribers for your agricultural podcast:
- Subscribe today to learn more about crop insurance and risk management!
- Get instant access to top-level ag expertise every week. Subscribe today.
- Get the Agri-Business News You Need with our Podcast.
Eye-Catching Calls to Action
There are many ways to design a call to action button so that it stands out from the rest. In general, the clearer it is the more effective it will be in eliciting the desired response.
The CTA button should stand out with a distinct shape (a box) or with a contrasting color. Getting the message right is also critical. Reducing risk, offering benefits, and showing urgency are all necessary, but do not force the issue. The more obvious the call-to-action, the better.
Some websites serve pop-ups requiring the user to enter an email address in order to continue browsing. This comes across as heavy-handed and unlikely to generate the intended response or conversion. Make sure your visitors feel welcomed but not obligated. Your financial services website might benefit from segmenting visitors to provide them with the most relevant information.
If they are considering investing, you might suggest the following options which would lead to a more tailored message and CTA:
- I’d like to construct a customized portfolio.
- I prefer a pre-built portfolio.
Their selection doesn’t commit them to anything, but it puts them one step closer to getting what they want.
- Book a free personalized consultation with a Portfolio Risk Manager to find out if you are sufficiently diversified.
Use a lead magnet to collect emails by appealing to the questions your buyers may have:
- Checklist of questions to ask when vetting financial advisors.
Correct Placement of CTAs
There are no hard and fast rules about where to place CTA’s. We commonly see CTAs in top navigation, inline, headers, footers, sidebars and in hero images. You should include CTAs throughout your copy. Remember, users won’t always respond to just one or the other CTA, so having options throughout your website will make it easier for your users to act quickly.
You want your readers to love your content and to read the entire post, but some won’t. It is important to ask them to do the thing you want them to do when you have answered their question early and they are ready to take the plunge. Always emphasize CTAs throughout the content where they seem natural.
Are your Calls to Action converting? Learn how we optimize marketing content for financial firms and agribusinesses with great CTAs. Let’s have a conversation!
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