Earlier this week I wrote about the major benefits of the implementation of landing pages on a company’s Denver marketing website. I said that they were a salesman’s best friend and that they were invaluable. While I still stand by these bold statements, I can’t help but feel like I was only singing my praise to one hero, when in fact there are two others that are often overlooked. While landing pages are still in my opinion the bee’s knees, they would be nothing without the tireless efforts of CTA’s (call to action) and Thank You pages. It’s time to start appreciating some of the other hard workers in this potent sales force and learn just what exactly makes them tick!
CTA’s
Calls to action are merely buttons or images placed on pages with the sole purpose of driving visitors to your landing page. When a visitor clicks on a CTA they are immediately redirected to the landing page it advertises and is connected to. Take a look at some of the images and buttons on the side of this blog post, these are all CTAs! In order for the CTA to do its job the best of its ability, there are a few best practices that should be considered when creating one…
- Make it Action-Oriented!
- People should know that you’re image or button is a CTA because it should be telling them to do something, that’s why it’s named a “Call to ACTION!” Phrases like “Click Here,” “Get your FREE eBook” and “Download now” are just a few examples of an action oriented CTA.
- Include keywords consistent with the landing page!
- Used for SEO purposes, your CTA should include keywords that are consistent with the landing page it redirects visitors to. That way your wording is consistent for the reader and search engines will understand that the two are connected and similar.
- It needs to grab visitors’ attentions!
- A CTA is no good to you unless it’s getting people to click on it! Use exciting and vibrant colors, eye-catching fonts and interesting wording!
- It must be placed on the appropriate web pages!
- You’ve created the CTA and landing page with a specific buyer persona in mind, so be sure to keep them in mind when placing your CTA on different web pages! There’s no point in posting a CTA about Denver Social Media Marketing on a web design page since most of the people who will be on that page will most likely not have a need for Denver social media marketing and therefore won’t click on your CTA!
Thank You Pages
Once you’ve created a CTA and attracted visitors to your landing page where they filled out a form, you will need a page that provides the actual offer that initially brought the lead to you! This is where a Thank You page comes in! After a visitor has become a lead by providing their contact information on the landing page, the form redirects them to the thank you page where they are able to claim their free offer whether it be an eBook, template or just an acknowledgement that their information was received. Here are a few best practices when it comes creating a thank you page that really pops!
- Deliver the offer!
- The new lead wants your offer bad enough that they provided their contact information in exchange for it (not always an easy task in today’s world) so you better actually provide it for them! Including the hyperlink or downloaded version in a few different areas on the thank you page is one of the better ways to ensure that your new lead has no trouble finding the offer on the page!
- Provide direction and the next step!
- Make sure to tell the lead where on the page they can click to download their offer if there is one. If your thank you page is meant to only acknowledge that you’ve received their information, let them know that along with what they can expect to happen next in the process! No matter what the end product is, let them know how and when the next step will happen.
- Move the lead further down the sales funnel!
- A thank you page is the perfect area to start moving your lead further down the sales funnel! Did they just download a Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) offer? How about you put a CTA for a BOFU offer on the thank you page? How’s that for connectivity!
- Send a follow up email!
- Now that your lead has received the offer they signed up for, you might be at the back of their mind now! Take the time to send a thank you email and stay front of mind!
- Include social media options!
- Social sharing and social proof is huge for inbound marketing and the success of your workflow, so make sure you’re giving your leads the opportunity to share and review your offers for everyone to see!
Workflows are a key component of an inbound marketing campaign, and when best practices like the ones listed above are implemented, great things can happen for your Denver marketing!