Some websites just seem to “get” the best practices of inbound marketing, with plenty of interesting blog content, calls to action (CTA’s) throughout the site and landing pages that convert visitors to leads. In our use of the HubSpot platform for inbound marketing, we are able to take advantage of tactics that have been proven successful in studies of thousands of HubSpot campaigns. Here is a quick summary of a few ideas you can use to improve conversion rates in your marketing efforts.
Along with objectives related to brand building, generating leads is often a key goal of most marketing campaigns, regardless of industry. There can be a lot of moving parts in any lead generation campaign and it’s difficult to know how those parts fit together without testing. But there are several tactics that do tend to move the needle in successful campaigns.
Some of these ideas may seem rather common sense, but considered together they may provide you with a more complete checklist for planning. To make your marketing pitches irresistable:
1. Make your offer exclusive, scarce or in high demand.
The element of scarcity naturally drives demand up. Scarcity makes us want something even more if there isn’t enough to go around. Some ways to inject that feeling include:
- Limited time offers
“Get 0% financing before (date)”
- Limited quantity offers
This tactic works well in encouraging quick decisions because it’s hard to tell when an offer of a limited quantity will suddenly become unavailable
- Limited time and limited quantity
For example: Groupon deals end within a certain time frame and they limit the number of people who can buy a Groupon.
2. The bandwagon effect
Offering proof in numbers is another common ploy that works well, mentioning the number of people who have purchased, downloaded, signed up, donated, etc.
3. Leveraging buzz
When something has captured a certain amount of notoriety and public interest, it can have a snowball effect. By aligning your offer with that topic, you can elevate your offer’s attention power. For example, a few years ago Pinterest was capturing a lot of buzz as an emerging social media phenomenon. HubSpot created an eBook in 2013 “How to Use Pinterest For Business.” It quickly became one of the most succssful eBooks with more than 125,000 downloads to date. And by aligning with that topic, it reinforced HubSpot’s position as a thought leader in how to use social media for business.
4. Focus on creating an amazing title
You can have a great offer with a bad title, and no one will see value in it and convert on a form. With an amazing title, suddenly everyone wants what you are offering.
HubSpot ran an A/B test to see how two offers would compare in conversion rate and submissions. While both titles are good in some ways, notice how one blew away the results of the other.
5. Create offers for different buying stages
This is a basic principal of content marketing. Rather than just having a default “Contact Us” tab on your website, it is better to offer something that is of special interest to prospects at each phase of the buying cycle. For example, educational materials such as guides and ebooks tend to be relevant in the early stages, while free trails and demos tend to connect best in later stages.
More tips ... Calls to action and landing pages that rock
There are 25 more best practices we have noted in our content marketing work for clients. Download our complete guide here. Included are:
• Specific tips related to the formatting and placement of CTAs on your website
• Linking those CTAs to dedicated landing pages
• Designing effective forms
• Encouraging social sharing of your offers and many more proven tactics
