Does Your Marketing Campaign Have a Call-to-Action?

 

The Call-To-Action is a crucial part of any marketing campaign, and has been described as the bridge between marketing and sales. In the pest control industry, we use a variety of techniques and tactics to bring in new leads and customers. While traditional marketing techniques like billboards and TV advertisements are great at creating awareness for your company and don’t necessarily need a strong CTA, most of our online content, whether it’s your website or social media, should include CTA opportunities to convert viewers into customers. 

 

There are good CTA’s and bad CTA’s. For example, let’s look at the infamous “I WANT YOU” poster.

 

This image was among 46 posters that James Montgomery Flagg created for the U.S. Government during the First World War, helping to motivate young men to help their country. While we have all seen this poster and understand the message and significance, as a CTA it is mediocre. The message is clear and concise, as any good CTA is, but it is missing a key ingredient. How can the target audience enlist? Where should they go? To complete the message, the poster should read “I WANT YOU for the U.S. ARMY ENLIST NOW (at the Post Office on Main Street)”. 

 

Thankfully, as marketers today, we can learn from Mr. Flagg and all the great marketers that came after him. Your call to action should provide clear instruction to your readers on what they need to do, and should be formatted in simple, concise terms. 

 

For internet marketers, it is important to find the best places on your website for your CTA. Some marketers prefer to have the CTA strictly at the bottom of the page, as a final instruction. This follows the AIDA model, an advertising tactic that states you must gain a potential customer's Attention, then build their Interest, create Desire, and finally they will be ready to take Action (purchase). While this model works well for traditional sales, online content is slightly different. As we are not physically present to walk customers through the process, we aren’t as easily able to tell when they will be ready to “take the bait”. Because of this, internet marketing experts suggest that we place the CTA where the reader can easily find it when they are ready to take action. This could come in several forms, the most common being:

• Sidebar

• “Buy Now” Style icon

• Floating CTA

• Static at top or bottom of page

All of these options provide potential customers with an easy route to follow once they are ready to buy.

 

Most importantly, a good CTA will create value for the customer, and will not appear to be self serving for the company. The customer should be able to decide if they’re interested simply by looking at the call to action alone, without reading what else you have to say.