Creating an Effective Offer and CTA

The main objective of inbound marketing is converting a visitor of your website into a customer. For some visitors the decision is easy because they are already prepared to buy a product or service right then and there. However, most visitors are viewing your site purely for research only. If the website is not appealing or relevant enough, then it is often skipped over or forgotten.

The Key: Incentives

The solution to this problem is creating an incentive to make a connection or a "lead". There are a few key steps in creating this connection via an incentive.

• Select an offer
• Create a Call to Action
• Create a Landing Page
• Test, Measure and Iterate

If your organization has an offer to give away for free then that is your best incentive. People love free things because the word "free" implies that there are no consequences. Without consequences the participant has nothing to lose by acting on the offer.Whether it is an e-Book, blog subscription, newsletter, or coupons the offer should be "free" to entice their interest in obtaining it.

The next step answers how the visitor will see and obtain the offer. This requires a Call to Action (CTA). If you have ever used the internet then you have definitely seen and probably used a call to action. A call to action is a button or link that attracts the users attention and directs them to the page in which the offer can be obtained. These CTAs can be found everywhere from emails to the internet. Since the most effective offer is free then it needs to be clearly labeled as "FREE" in order to attract the most attention.

After the CTA has been embedded into an email or web page then the next step is creating a landing page. (Example: Click the CTA Below.) The landing page is where the connection between visitor and organization is made. The connection is created through an exchange that occurs between the organization and visitor. The visitor receives a "free" something in exchange for filling our their name and email address on a form located on the page, nothing more. In return the visitor painlessly receives the offer they sought after. The connection established now allows you to monitor the visitors interests and remain relevant to them in the future. Another plus of the form is that it filters out those who are actually interested and those who are not. It is completely voluntary, thus saving you time and energy reaching out to those who aren't interested.

Once the connection has been established the people who were once visitors have now been converted into leads. From here the leads can be tracked, analyzed and nurtured in order to grow a relationship that will hopefully result in a closed deal.