Your financial advisor website’s “Call-To-Action,” or CTA for short, is considered one of the most important parts of your financial advisor marketing strategy. It is the motivator and the extra nudge that encourages your audience to start an interaction with you and your firm. Whether it means downloading a free offer such as an eBook, or signing up for newsletter, when done right, your site’s CTA’s can have a large impact on your firm’s ability to generate new leads.
Are your website’s CTA’s doing all they can or are you leaving opportunities on the table? If your online presence has not been generating steady new business for your firm then there has never been a better time to take a look at what goes into the all-important Call-To-Action.
The Hook
Think about all the times you have clicked and signed-up. Whether it was Netflix, Amazon Prime, or a subscription to a financial blog, chances are there was a good CTA calling you to act. With convincing text and compelling graphics, the CTA is strategically written and placed to entice, reassure, and convince consumers to take the next step. Those steps can be very different depending on the goal of the particular marketing, but in the end, one thing is the same, a good CTA will help convert your prospects into your new clientele.
The Truth Is In The Search
As a financial advisor, you are going to have prospects that are interested in your site but may not be ready to become your clients just yet. We all know this is a normal part of an investor’s journey and we can also utilize this knowledge with effective CTAs that help guide and educate consumers along their way. For instance, when your Call-To-Action invites visitors to sign-up for a valuable offer, then not only can you stay in touch, but you will also keep your firm in the front of their mind when they are ready to invest. After all, forming a relationship with your prospects fosters trust and can establish you as a knowledgeable expert which is how to become their go-to choice when the time is right.
What’s In It For Them?
While the point of a CTA is to guide your audience to the desired action, the best CTAs do this in a way that is helpful to the audience. This is done by making sure that your CTAs are benefit-driven rather than focused on features. This ensures that your communication is not only relevant but this also helps it avoid sounding like a high-pressure sales-pitch which can be a big turn-off. To be benefit-driven, you must emphasize what your leads will gain when they take action.
A good CTA should be:
- Straightforward
- Focused on benefits
- Action-oriented
- Easy to see
- Easy to do
An Offer You Can’t Refuse
Sign-up, subscribe, learn more, or try free--CTAs all serve a designated purpose with language that is crafted, tested, and more fine-tuned than ever. Today marketers are employing more creativity and strategy to develop CTAs that producing impressive results. There are times as a consumer for instance when all you really want is more information to help you prepare or decide. This is where a low-commitment CTA is a perfect way to let your leads learn more, become acquainted with you, and gain confidence. Another popular CTA incorporates a free offer. Whether these CTAs are invitations to try something worthwhile, attend a webinar, or download a relevant tool, they let potential investors experience your firm and connect with your brand.
Location Is Everything
Your website should have CTAs in all the right places, which means in every message you produce and especially where you get the most traffic. You can discover where your online browsers are visiting most, and even where they are staying the longest by using handy analytic tools. Data and analytics can go so far as to measure where your leads are coming from and test different scenarios in order to shine a light on ways to improve. Once you identify where leads are coming from, you can make sure the pages they land on are doing all they can with powerful CTAs. Strategically placed CTAs let your visitors conveniently click for more information about the topics they are interested in. Including CTAs in the best locations will make actions like scheduling a meeting or signing up for a newsletter easier for prospects more likely to act after they begin to browse your content, rather than the moment they first land on your site. An expert in digital marketing can help you harness available data in order to fine-tune areas in your marketing that can generate more business for your firm.
Where to use CTAs:
- Landing Pages
- Website Copy
- Blogs
- Emails and Newsletters
- Social Media
- Advisor Bios
Show Stopper
Consider whether your page would benefit from a "stop-everything-and-click” pop-up or a less obtrusive CTA that slides in along the bottom or side of your page. A CTA that slides in mid-way can catch readers on your longest pages before they tore and browse elsewhere since research shows that readers get only 60% of the way through an article. A digital marketing expert can easily help you incorporate strategic CTAs throughout your messaging in order to create optimum convenience and ease for your prospects.
Catch Their Eye
Professional graphics also play an important role in effective CTAs because by using strategy, color, and design in just the right way your CTAs will become more clear and effective. Even if there are other places a user might click within the page, a professional design will dictate that your CTA always stands out as a prominent feature not to be missed. A digital artist considers elements like background, layout, and placement to highlight your CTA and optimize your user’s entire experience. A professional with proven success in website design will be mindful of components like target audience, usability, and consistent branding in order to make your CTA pop.
Watch Your Language
Because your ultimate goal is to get your audience to act, your CTAs must be absolutely relevant to your target market, down to the very language you use. As you write your Call-To-Action remember to include words that are familiar to your target. Rather than industry jargon, your CTAs should include vocabulary and phrases your audience knows. Your writing must be professional, but also written at an appropriate level, rich with words and examples unique to your target. Some CTAs take the concept of targeted copy a step further by incorporating personalization. Specific personalization like including the prospect’s name in your CTA has been found to resonate well with leads and clients alike.
Short & Sweet
The phrases you use in your CTAs should be short and straightforward as this simplicity helps readers see the action as convenient. In addition, including reassuring words in your CTAs can help the action feel comfortable and low-pressure. When your copy is strategically doing everything right it can make your CTA feel like an enjoyable browse into a topic of interest rather than a tedious time-commitment they may not be ready for yet. You might also test out the effect of utilizing phrasing that alerts readers to scarcity or urgency as these also have been found to have an impact when expressed in the right way. But keep in mind that your CTAs can feel too pushy when the wrong language is used and it is important not to sound overly aggressive or you will risk turning clients away. Ultimately, a good call-to-action paves the way to a relationship built on trust, which can not be accomplished with 'salesy' marketing that does not keep these tips in mind. To your audience, your CTA might come on too strong if you overuse exclamation points, bold text, underlines, and other gimmicks that can diminish your message and tarnish your brand.
The Proof Is In The Pudding
If you want to ensure that your messages are resonating with your audience and not inadvertently sending them on their way, a marketing expert with a team of copywriters on staff can help strike the right balance and motivate your market to act. Paladin Digital Marketing has been helping Financial Advisors of all kinds make the most of their online presence and secure a stream of new business for their firm or for their solo, online operation. Because you have one good chance to engage a new visitor, make sure you cover all your bases with CTAs that are doing everything right.
