Steps To Create Effective CTAs & Landing Pages
by
INBOUND MARKETING AGENCY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
OVERVIEW ........................................................................................... 2
CALLS TO ACTION – TOP 8 TIPS FOR SUCCESS.......................................... 3 1. CONVINCE THE USERS ......................................................................... 3 2. OFFER SOMETHING EXTRA ..................................................................... 3 3. USE ACTIVE LANGUAGE! ....................................................................... 3 4. GET THE POSITIONING RIGHT ................................................................. 3 5. USE WHITE SPACE .............................................................................. 4 6. USE ALTERNATIVE COLORS .................................................................... 4 7. SIZE MATTERS................................................................................... 4 8. HAVE A CTA ON EVERY PAGE ................................................................. 4
STEPS TO CREATE A CTA & LANDING PAGE IN HUBSPOT............................. 5 1. CREATE A LANDING PAGE..................................................................... 5 2. CREATE A THANK YOU PAGE ................................................................. 5 3. CREATE A COMPELLING CTA ................................................................. 6
CTA & LANDING PAGES RESOURCES ........................................................ 6
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OVERVIEW
Lead generation is a 4 step process: 1. Interested person visits webpage (i.e. home page) 2. Sees and clicks on a Call-to-Action (CTA) 3. Taken to a landing page to fill out and submit form 4. Receives the offer – now this contact is a lead.
Q: What is a CTA (Call-to-Action)? A: It is text, an image or button that links directly to a landing page. Q: What is a landing page? A: It is a webpage with a form whereby a person supplies contact info in exchange for an offer. Q: What is an offer? A: An offer is free & valued information provided by a company, such as an eBook, consultation, Top Tips guide, product demonstration, etc.
Redefining what is a lead: Traditional marketing: a person who has indicated interest in your company’s product or service. Inbound marketing: a lead is a person that completes a landing page. The lead is then contacted, or nurtured via email campaign to act sometime in the future.
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CALLS TO ACTION – TOP 8 TIPS FOR SUCCESS
1. CONVINCE THE USERS Why should users do what you want them to do? Before a user is willing to complete a call to action they have to recognize the need. Take infomercials for example. Before they ask people to respond, they first identify a problem and present a product that solves that problem. Communicate the benefits of your call to action. What will the user get out of completing the call to action?
2. OFFER SOMETHING EXTRA Sometimes you may have to sweeten the deal to encourage users to complete a call to action. Incentives could include discounts, entry into a competition or a free gift. Everybody loves freebies.
3. USE ACTIVE LANGUAGE! A call to action should be crystal clear and tell users what you want them to do. They should include active words such as: • • • • •
Like Buy Register Subscribe Donate
All of these words encourage users to take an action. Also you may want to create a sense of urgency and a need to act now, these words can be used alongside phrases such as: • • •
Offer expires December 31st For a short time only Order now and receive a free gift
4. GET THE POSITIONING RIGHT Another important factor is the position of your call to action on the page. Ideally it should be placed high on the page or in a conspicuous place so people see it right away without scrolling.
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5. USE WHITE SPACE To make your call to action even more prominent, don’t just rely on positioning. Use also the space around it – White space. The more space around a call to action the more attention is drawn to it. If you clutter up your call to action with surrounding content it will be lost in the page.
6. USE ALTERNATIVE COLORS Color is an effective way of drawing attention to elements, especially if you use alternative colors. For example, if your website uses blues and grey, your call to action will work very well in highlighted orange. This extreme contrast leaves your users in no doubt as to the next thing they should do.
7. SIZE MATTERS Make your call to action big. We have already established that position, color and white space are equally important. However the size does play a large part. The bigger your call to action, the more chance it will be noticed.
8. HAVE A CTA ON EVERY PAGE A call to action should not just be limited to the homepage or landing page. Every page of your site should have some form of call to action that leads the user on. If the user reaches a dead-end they will leave without responding to your call. But your call to action does not need to be the same for each page. Instead you can use smaller actions that lead the user towards your ultimate goal.
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STEPS TO CREATE A CTA & LANDING PAGE IN HUBSPOT
1. CREATE A LANDING PAGE In HubSpot - Go to Create, then Landing Pages. Click “Create New Landing Page” button on left side. Pick a style and type in the first line a headline to grab attention. Ex. Download our FREE Guide to Improving X”. Plain and simple. Click on edit to make changes within the module. Add a photo headline and a photo that matches what the call to action is all about. Click on edit form to put in the data you want your customer to add. Be sure to change the submit button to something appropriate and save this. Click on configure form action to input the email of where this new lead will be sent to. Also add the URL redirect (which you will get from step 2 below). This way, after they fill the form, the person will go to your newly created thank you page. Hit “Save and Continue”.
2. CREATE A THANK YOU PAGE Click on Create, then Website Pages, then “Add new page” button. Then add a specific and descriptive Page Name AND de-check box "Show in menu?" so it will not show on your navigation. This will be the page the consumer hits after they fill the form so you need to copy this URL and then add it back to the configure form action back up from step 1. Click button “Save Changes” at bottom of screen. Click on newly created thank you page from menu on left, then “View/Edit page”. Edit module at top. Add in a “Thank You” message. Add your downloadable document by click on file, then upload a new document, then choosing the file that is located on your computer, then upload the new document. Then add the link text like "download document here". Then hit insert to input the doc.
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3. CREATE A COMPELLING CTA
Follow Best Practices: Read previous 2 pages “CTA – Top 8 Tips for Success” Tip#1
Be crystal clear about what the offer is in your CTA. And be specific. If you’re giving away a free guide, say “Download our FREE guide to X”. X should clearly convey a compelling benefit of receiving the offer.
Tip #2 Images stand out on a webpage more than text does, and get a lot more attention.
Create a CTA. This is a button the visitor will click on to get to your landing page (step 1). You will link this with the landing page you created above. You can type the verbiage for the CTA and color and shape of button. We can also add an image and have the image be the button. You will need to create the image with the verbiage of the call to action language on the picture to do this. Now that this is complete, we can add your complete call to action to any webpage or blog.
CTA & LANDING PAGES RESOURCES Want to learn more? Schedule a complimentary consultation with 98toGo to learn to learn: • • •
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