Sunday, January 19, 2025
How many different ways can you put together a webpage call-to-action (CTA)? While the number literally is limitless, there is no doubt that any CTA is better than a button which says “submit”.
Taking a step back, why do people land on a particular web page? Likely it is because they were searching on Google, and clicked through to a particular page. Or perhaps they clicked a link, be it from an advertisement, a link on Social Media, an email, a QR code, or perhaps from a website that referenced your page.
In all cases, they were looking for something, and when they arrived on your page, they hopefully found what they were looking for.
The best CTAs are those at the intersection of what the user might want to do next, and what you want them to do next. And since you don’t know EXACTLY what they will want to do next, it makes sense to provide a few options.
An argument for CTA options: If you only provide one CTA option, the user must choose between that option and nothing. (Or, perhaps something, but not with you.) On the other hand, providing two options – or three – is a choice between something… or something. Some examples of CTA options:
- Multiple price or payment points
- Multiple newsletter delivery options
- “Long form” whitepapers or one-page summaries
- Attend a webinar or book a meeting with you directly
With CTA options, the odds of matching what they want to do next will increase dramatically.
While most marketers think of CTAs solely in the context of landing pages for lead magnets or event registrations, this is missing the mark widely. CTA’s should exist on every single page of a website, ultimately leading to a path that moves them to a particular action. Each page is a “tributary”, leading the user through page-based CTA’s, into a defined wide river, ultimately to a destination of the users’ (and marketer’s) choosing.
Executing this broader CTA strategy is actually quite simple. Thinking about your three key personas (target segments): if they landed on a specific page and scanned it, what would be the next thing that they would want to know, or do? Then make sure that these links are there.
This week’s action plan:
Review your Google Analytics data and identify the top 25% your pages, and make sure that you have CTA’s on each of them. And make sure each CTA has at least two options.
Call to Action insight: Of even greater interest are the “exit pages”: these are the pages where someone got to the page, and then figured that you couldn’t help them – there was nothing more of value on the website. These are serious mismatches: literally, prospects are running out your door. To mitigate this issue, go back to Google Analytics, and rank your exit pages. This is your “Check for a CTA” to-do list. While adding CTA options to exit pages won’t solve all of your problems, it can make a difference.
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