8 examples of CTAs that Should Inspire You to Assess Your Own and Make Some Changes
“If you build it they will click?” Not likely. Your visitors do not have some instinctive urge to click a button just because it is there. They have to want to click that button because there is some value in doing it. The questions to ask yourself are as follows:
Have you created enough value or benefits?
Is your CTA really “connected” to the conversion?
Are you providing “no-risk” for clicking that button?
Have you told the visitor exactly what to do?
Have you established some form of urgency?
Are your CTA’s taking advantage of the psychology of conversions?
While no single CTA will probably meet all of these criteria, the more that can be incorporated, the better. Here are 8 example CTAs that are getting conversions, with an explanation of why they do.
Manpacks Wants You to Get Creative
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Three B2B content marketing case studies
The increased focus on content marketing has continued , a trend highlighted by a number of studies surveying marketers’ top priorities:
The content marketing boom is also reflected in the relative search volume trends for phrases related to content marketing:
Content marketing can be defined as the strategy of providing valuable, relevant, quality content that customers want in order to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.
This definition certainly applies to a number of notable case studies, particularly those involving Coke, Disney and famously Red Bull and Felix Baumgartner's space jump in 2012. However, whilst these are all very valid and useful examples of content marketing at its best, they are all from consumer brands.
Content marketing is practiced…
Use these tools to give your blogging a boost
Anybody who has ever owned a website knows how much hard work goes into creating, and then running and updating it, adding changes, uploading content and media, and keeping track of all the social media accounts tied into it. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The problem is, the only thing an end user sees is the content, which makes it the most important ingredient.
Coming up with exciting content is a bit tricky though, not just because everything has already been done to death, so it’s hard to come up with anything original, but also because once you set out to create it, it seems as if everything is turning against you and wants to prevent you from creating it. You name it: procrastination (although that one is on you), writer’s block…
Use the latest Facebook ads with ease
There's been an exciting new development in the world of Facebook advertising - video ads made up from a sequence of static images. They are called Slideshow Ads and are an option for a number of the common ad objectives.
Video has been where it's at on Facebook for some time now. And new (novel) ad formats generally tend to get good traction anyway, so I decided to try one in anticipation of our Black Friday sale at Musicademy.
What you need
A series of static images
Power Editor (and a bit of knowhow on using it)
Copy, landing page etc etc as per usual
What you do to create an ad
Create your Campaign and Ad Set (targeting, etc) as you usually would in Power Editor. Check the Instagram placement at Ad Set level if you want the ad to show there too.
Create an Ad - select "Ad with…
How and why you should get started with Instagram advertising
Did you know that since September any business could buy and place adverts on Instagram? Better still, they could do this easily using Facebook's existing Ad tools with no new system to learn! Sounds good, right? But what does this tell us about Instagram?
The significance of this news wasn't lost on me at the time Instagram rolled out ads to every advertiser, yet even to this day it seems to have been largely glossed-over by mainstream social media news sources. Even Instagram's own announcement back in September was sketchy on exactly what businesses could do, let alone how they could do it. Since then Instagram have continued to release new features for advertisers but still few are aware of the possibilities or how easy it is to have a dabble. But most importantly, there's little real understanding of why businesses might now consider advertising on Instagram.
I've unpacked the key points, the different ad types, plus a brief…
How do the trends of 2015 compare to 2016 and what are the implications for your marketing investments in the year ahead?
Around November/December/January of every year, there is a flurry of posts discussing the trends for the following Season. This time around is absolutely no exception!
With trends posts already creeping including Dave Chaffey’s Digital Marketing Trends for 2016 post), they undoubtedly make for interesting reading and help you consider further where to prepare for the year ahead. In Dave's post we asked Smart Insights readers to vote not just on 'what's hot' or what they expect to drive the most leads and sales, but what will give the biggest increment - or improvement - a key difference when looking at changes.
In early December we'll be doing a 'deep-dive' into trends for the different channels too at our free online summit - check out the agenda below - you can register in advance…
These trends will shape mobile marketing next year
Mobile marketing strategies span across several industries. Due to rapid changes in mobile technology and marketing approaches, marketers have to be on their toes to adapt the new trends that come their way and integrate the same in their promotional strategies.
What are some of the top trends that we can expect in the coming year? What new hardware will make headlines? Which technology is going to gain more prominence?
Based on the results of a recent marketing trends poll conducted by Smartinsights (which asked users to share their views on marketing techniques that will have maximum commercial impact in 2016), here is a list of five of the top marketing trends as they relate to mobile marketing. They're in the order they were voted on by Smart Insights readers.
1. Marketing Automation
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A must-read for anyone responsible for SEO or Content Marketing
Importance: [rating=5] For all Webmasters, SEO Consultants, Content Producers and Web Designers
Recommended link: Google's new Search Quality Rating Guideline
Yesterday (November 19th 2015), we saw the release of an updated ‘full’ 160(!) page version of the Search Quality Rating Guidelines. Here's a sample:
With the adoption of Mobile Devices influencing the search landscape more and more, Google have decided to update its guidelines for Search Quality Raters.
This is big news since Google used to previously to keep these 'behind closed doors', but occasionally one would escape into the wild and be dissected. Back in 2013 Google published an abridged version as they looked to “provide transparency on how Google works” after previous leaks of the document in 2008, 2011 and 2012, then in 2014. However, as the use of…
Use these tools to help you market your business more efficiently using content marketing, SEO and Social media marketing
Whether you’re working on getting your start-up off the ground, or you’ve been working in the field for several years, every business could benefit from some quality digital marketing tools that will make processes more efficient and productive. One of the primary challenges of running a business is enacting effective marketing.
On average, mid to large size companies spend $958 million more than was actually necessary in their marketing campaign. This clearly shows that the majority of companies need to revamp their marketing strategies to make them more efficient, and one way to do just that is to use some of the following marketing productivity tools.
These are my personal set of marketing productivity tools that mainly focus on content marketing, SEO and…
The why and how of writing a business case for marketing investment
‘You’ll need a Business Case for that’ are the words that often strike dread to the hearts of those trying to seek investment in digital initiatives from their FD or CMO. The cynical amongst us suspect it’s delivered with the intent to kill off an idea through forcing us to ‘jump through hoops’ and ‘bureaucracy’.
But as a marketing or Ecommerce manager, the Business Case is actually your best friend! In this post I'll step you through what I have found in my experience is required for an effective business case which will get support from colleagues. If you're an Expert member of Smart Insights, I've also developed a Word template of a Business case for download.
Why have a Business Case?
Packed with solid preparation, a well-researched, well-considered document showing clear…
