Ah, the humble CTA. Like chewing gum on a seat, they truly are everywhere. Ok, maybe that wasn’t the most pleasant of analogies, but I was trying to think of something that is always there. I should’ve gone for teenagers with vape pens. But let’s discuss CTA’s and their importance in the world of B2B marketing, when to use them and when to hold back on the little tykes.
Now, I’m 99.999999999% sure that you know what a CTA is. But solely for the benefit of that 0.000000001% that don’t know, let’s have a quick little recap. CTA stands for ‘Call to Action’ and is essentially a marketing gateway to lead conversion. Usually a button or hyperlink, it is your way of directing people to your desired course of action. Whether it be to go to another page on your site, open an eBook or to enter an information form, CTAs will always be crucial to funnelling your leads to where you want them to go. Outside of the world of your site, CTAs can be a button on a social media ad, or even a suggestion just to ‘like’ or ‘share’ a comment or post. Yeah, I wasn’t kidding when I said they were everywhere. The best practice when utilising CTAs is to use a healthy mixture of the different types to really draw people in in every way you can, but make sure not to clutter one page with too many CTAs – try and direct them towards one.
But what makes a good CTA? That really depends on where the CTA is and what action it’s directing the person towards. For website calls to action (I’m already a wee bit tired of seeing ‘CTA’. And there it goes again, but more on that later), you want them to be quite specific but concise at the same time. Don’t just put ‘click here’ every time you want them to do something. If you want them to download your case study, put ‘download case study’. Make their destination as clear as possible instead of giving them a vague idea and an accompanying sense of slight deceit. The last thing you want to do is lose their interest, or even their trust. However, you also don’t want to make those buttons too long at the risk of confusing the person and losing their interest – keep it snappy. Aka, no ‘click here to download our case study on SEO underuse in B2B marketing’. The copy that led up to the CTA should have contained the majority of that information, not the button or link itself. Furthermore, as tempting as it is, don’t make it all about you. People are interested in the benefits clicking on that CTA have for them not the benefits that them clicking will give you. For example, instead of ‘read our eBook’, you can put ‘receive your free eBook’.
Now when it comes to social media on the other hand, it’s quite a different story. People skim over social media posts even more than other pieces of content, as social media is a swift, easy way to pass the time. This means that you want your CTAs clear, attention grabbing and short. This is where one-word calls thrive. I already mentioned it briefly, but words like ‘comment’ or ‘share’ are perfect examples for social media. Not only are they direct and snappy but note the way they are less like an invitation and much more like a command. You wouldn’t think it, but a lot of the time people like to be full on told what to do – so don’t be afraid of being a little bit (but not too) bossy.
The email. Still one of the most reliable mediums in B2B marketing when connecting with customers and leads and will likely remain that way for many years to come. Now that we’ve talked about what a CTA is, you’ve probably noted just how often you see an example of one in all those emails that flood your inbox every day. Whilst I said before not to clutter your pages with lots of calls to action, email is a slightly contrasting idea. A lot of emails (more specifically, a lot of B2B emails) are rather long, and can contain multiple different topics. Firstly, you’ll find that a lot of people simply skim through emails and will likely only read the first paragraph if that. This is why placing multiple CTAs throughout the beginning, middle and end of the email increase your chances of people actually clicking on them. Secondly, a lot of emails will talk about a series of different things. This means that for each different topic, you should place its own specific CTA. This means that you can send people to a variety of exciting content, which again will lead to increased conversion, instead of just sending them to your general site and relying on them to find their own way about.
So, there you have it. CTAs are a crucial part of any industry, but B2B marketing is highly reliant on them. Keep them concise, engaging and don’t clutter it up. Good luck!
