Filling Your CTA Gaps to Increase Lead Conversions

It’s a new year, which means lots of new opportunities to improve your inbound marketing strategy so that you're reaching your lead generation goals. One often-overlooked area is the lead conversion opportunities available throughout your website. By “lead conversion opportunities” I mean the different ways in which you have to guide someone to fill out a form on your website for one reason or another.

Evaluating these opportunities starts with knowing exactly what you have available on the other side of forms and making sure you haven’t forgotten anything that is still relevant and usable. But once you’ve done this and have a good idea of what you’re working with, here are some ways to uncover the gaps so you know where to focus your content-creation efforts.

Opportunities Addressing the Different Stages of Your Buyer's Journey

Easily put… do you have content that matches up with prospects that are at the top, middle, and bottom of your sales funnel? Do you have content that is addressing the unique needs of each stage so that, depending on where they’re at in the journey, they’ll have reasons to click and complete a form? Here’s a breakdown of what that might look like:

Top-of-the-funnel (Awareness)

• They are experiencing symptoms that reveal there's a problem or opportunity that aligns with what you sell, but they may not even be aware of the solution they want or need.
• Content here should be very educational and informative. It helps give a name to their problem and starts to share solutions that might make sense. These kinds of CTAs help people in the research stages.
• Example: Checklist to Determine if Your Business Needs a New Marketing Plan 

Middle-of-the-funnel (Consideration)

• At this stage they have clearly defined and given a name to their problem or opportunity (hopefully thanks to great content you’ve provided) and are now exploring their options for solving/addressing it.
• Content here should be more centered around the solutions you provide, educating them on benefits and pros and cons and they options they have. They are committed to researching and understanding the available options to them, so you want to help them with that.
• Example: The Pros and Cons of Inbound Marketing to Helping You Reach Your Sales Goals 

Bottom-of-the-funnel (Decision)

• They know what the problem is and they know how they want to solve it, they are just trying to figure out the best option for them. Your goal here is to help convince them that YOU and your products/services are the best option.
• Content at this stage should be helping convince them why your brand is the best solution for their needs. Content should be informative but also persuasive.  
• Example: An infographic on 10 Ways Working with LeadG2 Will Save You Money in 2018 

Content That Speaks and Applies to Different Target Personas

Most companies have more than one target persona, and for B2B you’ll likely find that you even focus on different industries. This is where it’s key to be sure you have a variety of content that speaks to those different personas (the SMB business owner or the corporate Fortune 500 marketing director, for example) as well as to people in those roles within different industries. As an example, the kind of questions or objections a business owner might have at a restaurant could be drastically different than a lawyer who has his or her own firm.

Be sure you have a variety of content and CTAs throughout your website, blog, and across campaigns and social media that speaks to these different people and the types of businesses they represent. Their needs, questions, and concerns are all going to be different and you want to speak to these needs with the right offer and language. 

Remember, your marketing and content strategy can never have a one-size-fits-all approach. If you try to be everything to everyone, you’ll end up being nothing to anyone. Take this advice to heart and kick off 2018 with some strategic content creation so that you aren’t wasting website visitors who come and go from your site without raising their hand. This is the power of CTAs and by addressing these two areas listed above you’ll see an increase in conversions across your site.