We’re not selling the product, we’re selling the next Geralt / Pixabay campaign
In marketing, a good “call to action” – evoking the desired response from our reader or viewer – can turn content from just insightful to truly valuable.
Psychology plays a role here. Tests have shown that “Find out more” isn’t a particularly compelling call to action (CTA), while “Get Your Free Guide to Corporate Tax Planning” says. Specificity and relevance are just as important as the action itself: “learning” is passive, while “receiving” is active.
While the semantics are easy to get into, the golden rule is that if we’re producing content for marketing, we’re not selling the product, we’re selling the next action.
To understand this better, you need to think of your client’s journey as a series of stages, with the aim of moving them from stage to stage as quickly as possible. Strategically crafted content is your tool to move a future customer on this buyer journey. This starts with raising awareness of vulnerabilities, reducing fears, preparing them for change, and walking them through the deployment process well beyond their honeymoon.
Unfortunately there are no cheats. A typical B2B sale is lengthy and takes nine to twelve months. As a rule, these are six-figure sums of money and higher amounts to convince and reassure you. This means that investing in a new product or service is not a quick or easy decision.
So don’t try hopping the queue tactics, they won’t work. While the instinct is to skip stages in an attempt to shut down the prospect as quickly as possible, there is a risk that you will confuse people or turn them off with irrelevant content that doesn’t resonate.
For example, if your customer is in the first phase – the “I don’t think I have a problem” phase – and you show them some content from the third phase. This is usually the case when a buyer is resilient to change and worries that it will be costly and time consuming, you will baffle them for not addressing the second stage, which raises awareness of the need for change.
It is only at this point that they realize that they are starting to lag behind their competitors and that a change is needed. That is why it is so important to be sequential and focused. This knowledge will also help you to write calls to action on site.
Another thing to consider is that a call to action – however beautifully written – can easily fail when there are unnecessary hurdles in consuming content.
A common point of friction is when brands send prospects from an email to a report by using a call to action, such as: For example, “Download our new report on digital transformation in the insurance industry now!” These can be beautifully designed and expertly put together, full of useful data and interesting insights, but then published as a downloadable PDF.
There are two problems with this. The first is that this content behind a form may be “hard gated”. Your reader must provide their personal information in exchange for downloading the report. Industry figures show that this translates into between 50% and 75% less engagement, not to mention a lot of people using fake names and junk email inboxes and systems to access the report.
The second problem is that PDFs are static and unrelenting documents. They don’t tell us anything about our audience – we’ll never know if they ever read our report, even if they downloaded it.
There are ways around this. As you move from PDFs to more responsive alternatives, you can place a gate anywhere in your content. This would allow readers, for example, to see a summary before parting with their data. If people can clearly see the value of your content, they should be more willing to reveal accurate information.
However, this is still a barrier to entry so you will receive some royalties.
Better still, let your reader get through to the end and then add a really good call to action: “If you enjoyed this report and found it valuable, we would love to add you to our mailing list for you to read may be among the first to read our latest manufacturing industry insights. “That way, the data you collect becomes far more valuable.
Ultimately, what you put in your emails or on your buttons is just part of the picture. Today you need to combine a seductive invitation to the next action you want with the removal of anything that makes that action harder than it’s worth taking.