Calls-to-action (CTAs) are crucial when it comes to lead generation, which is why it is essential to learn the importance of CTAs and how to create effective CTAs that will capture visitors and turn them into leads. But, before I delve into the deluge that are CTAs, let’s back up for just a moment and answer the first question that I have no doubt is pinging around your head – what is a call-to-action?

Basically, a CTA is a button, image, or linked line of text that encourages visitors to perform an action on your website, such as “Download a Free eBook”, “Subscribe to a Newsletter”, or “Request a Quote”. Fine, but’s what’s the point of it?

The overall goal of a CTA is to drive visitors to a landing page on your website where they will submit their contact information in exchange for a valuable marketing offer. The more effective the CTAs are, the more traffic you will generate, essentially resulting in more leads for your business.

Clear as mud? Great! Let the deluge begin…

Where to Place Calls-to-Action?

Website

To fully take advantage of CTAs you need to optimize the placement of them. The first place CTAs should be located is throughout your website on various web pages. Your homepage is usually your most frequently visited page and has a large opportunity to drive visitors to specific landing pages. Therefore, your homepage should include up to three CTAs targeted at various visitors.

Blog

Your blog is a great place for CTAs as each time you write a new blog article you are attracting visitors to your site. CTAs should be placed in the sidebar of your blog and in each individual blog article you post. CTA buttons or images can be placed at the end of the blog article and text CTAs can be placed within the blog content itself. It is important to ensure that the offer you are highlighting matches what the content of blog is about.

Social Media

Another place you want to incorporate calls-to-action is in social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Place CTAs in Facebook Ads, Sponsored Stories, and in any posts you make on your wall. On Twitter each individual tweet should include a link to a specific offer. In addition, to including CTAs in each post you make on LinkedIn, you can include text CTA offers for free downloadable ebooks when providing industry-specific advice on LinkedIn Answers.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great place to incorporate calls-to-action and every email you send should include a CTA. Place links within the first couple lines of your email as well as at the middle and end. This will give create various opportunities to drive your audience to a specific landing page.

How to Create Effective CTAs

Make it Clear, Concise and Specific

Your call-to-action should clearly outline what exactly it is you’re offering. For example – if you are offering an ebook on how businesses can leverage their blog for successful marketing, you would want your CTA to include something along the lines of Free eBook: Business Blogging for Marketing Success. It’s important to be specific and include details about what you’re offering so visitors will be intrigued and take action.

Make it Stand Out & Action-Oriented

If your call-to-action doesn’t stand out and just blends into the page, then it is less likely your visitors will be encouraged to take action. Make sure you create contrast so it stands out from the page and visitors are drawn to it. Also, your CTAs should tell your audience exactly what action they should take. Start your CTA with a verb such as “Download Now” or “Request a Demo” so they know exactly what to expect when they are taken to the landing page.

Keep it Above the Fold

When deciding where to place your call-to-action it is best practice to keep it “above the fold”. I know exactly what you’re thinking, “Above the what…?”. Above the fold is the area on the top of the website before you have to start scrolling down to view the rest of the page. If visitors have to scroll down to see it, there’s a good chance they may end up missing it.

Match the CTA Offer with Context

Your CTA offer should match the context of the page it is placed on. For example – if your page is about the importance of creating quality content for your website you may want to incorporate an offer for a free ebook such as The Essential Guide to Creating a Powerful Content Strategy. You also want to apply this same practice when it comes to your blog. If your blog article is about SEO, then create a link to an ebook on SEO. Having the CTA offer match the context of the page will help increase the amount of visitors that click on your call-to-action.

Align CTAs and Landing Pages

To help improve conversion rate it’s essential to create consistency between a call-to-action and its landing page. If the content on the landing page does not exactly match the CTA offer the visitor may become confused and end up leaving the page. It is also important to optimize the landing page to help ensure visitors convert into leads.

Include CTAs for Different Stages of the Buying Cycle

When visitors come to your site they are likely not all in the same part of the sales cycle. Therefore, it is important to have offers that appeal to visitors in all areas of the sales cycle, whether it be in the early, mid or late stages. A visitor in the early stage of the sales cycle would more likely be interested in a free ebook, whereas someone in the later on in the cycle may be more interested in a free demo. Creating offers for all the different visitors coming to your website will help you to capture more of these visitors.

Keep Testing

Once you have created your CTAs and implemented them it is important to test them to find out which ones are resonating the best with your visitors. You can try using different colors, messaging and placements, and see which ones have the highest click-through-rate. If you want to convert more visitors into leads you want to be using CTAs that successfully get your visitors to take action now!

Now that you are an expert when it comes to calls-to-action; what exactly they are, where to place them for optimization and what elements are needed to make them effective, you can now go out and start creating your very own CTAs! Go on, capture those visitors and convert them into leads for your business!

What other elements do you believe are important when creating effective CTAs? Let me know in the comments box below!