Welcome back to The Filter, the fastest way to get up to speed on the trends that matter most across marketing, comms, advertising, and more. This week, we’re exploring a staple of modern marketing: the call to action or CTA.
You already understand the importance of the CTA, especially if you market on social media. But mastering the newsletter sign-up, “contact us” conversion, or social media following is easier said than done. Your target audience will breeze past CTAs more often than they actually click them. Research from Vye finds that the average click-through rate of CTAs is just 4.23%.
Are your CTAs in need of a refresh? According to HubSpot, personalized CTAs convert 202% better than default versions.
Here are five types of CTAs/freebies to use on social (that will also convert):
Quizzes & Polls
Your target audience loves feeling involved. To loop in your network, try asking them direct questions. This will help you improve your targeting, and your audience will feel more included. To make it even more interactive, consider giving participants something they can share with their networks, such as a rating or an avatar based on their answers. At iProv, this is a well-tested way to encourage engagement while building some virality into your posts.
Give Away FREE Information
People buy your product or service because it relieves a pain point they have, but sometimes they don’t even know what that pain point is. So, try educating your audience on the benefits of choosing you to solve a potential problem. Put this information in a beautiful piece of art (an eBook, infographic, brochure, flyer, etc.) and lock it behind a newsletter sign-up form on your website. Then, advertise that landing page on your social media platforms with compelling graphics and copy that answers their questions. You grow an email list you can nurture over time, and your audience gets answers to their questions. Win-win!
Instant Gratification
Give ’em something they don’t have to think about. For example, the CTA “Art Projects You Can Do RIGHT NOW at home” might be the no-brainer solution your audience has been looking for. Ask for their email/information to download the infographic or blog with said art projects. They get instant gratification without having to think about the process while you gather key customer data. To make it even easier on your end, hire a social media expert to develop the content and consider hiring another person to set up and schedule the paid content and ads.
Coupons and Discount Codes
Everyone loves freebies. So, try offering coupons and discount codes to sign up for a newsletter or place their first order. It’s a win-win because it creates an incentive for the new visitor to commit to a purchase and often creates a new customer to add to your contact list (as well as money off a new—and possibly repeat—order).
Replace the CTA with a Strong Brand Voice
Sometimes, replacing the official CTA with a persona/character is the best way to convince your audience to click through. This won’t work for every brand, but one strong example is the Deadpool franchise’s social media campaign. Instead of directly telling people to buy a ticket or DVD, it uses the cheeky tone of Deadpool himself to convince people to click through the links.
If you need some help enhancing your CTAs, we’d love to help you brainstorm! Sign up for a free consultation to get started.
