6 Tips for Creating Better Calls-to-Action for Financial Advisors
Getting prospective customers to make the next step in the buyer’s journey is a difficult task. An effective, creative call-to-action (CTA) can help motivate prospective customers to take that next step. A CTA is an image or line of text that prompts your visitors, leads, and customers to take action (Hubspot). The ideal call-to-action is engaging, converting a potential client’s interest into action.
A CTA can come in many forms: a contact information form, a button, a link to another page. The CTA provides readers the option to get some other piece of exclusive content, something suited to help move them closer towards a sale. Most CTAs will ask for contact information, as sort of a “price” for that next piece of information. A few examples of call-to-actions for financial advisors might be.
“Book Your No Charge Consultation Now”
“Free Portfolio Risk Analysis”
“Learn More”
“Subscribe Now”
Calls-to-action are essential in content marketing. Without them, the prospects would not be able to take the next step in the buyer’s journey. There are several key things to remember when designing a CTA. The following 6 tips will help you make more effective calls-to-action:
1) Keep It Short
The message you send in your call-to-action, both in the copy and on the button itself, should be short, clear, and to the point. It should explain the benefit the audience will get for clicking on the CTA. Only relevant information should be provided. Focus on the message at hand. Emails with a single call-to-action increased the number of clicks by 371% and sales 1617%.
2) Precise Messaging
Your call-to-action should have a very clear message. It should be very specific and related in some way to the content the CTA is attached to. Do not offer more than one benefit. The copy should be impossible to get confused about, using clear wording and getting right to the message.
Design-wise, the CTA itself should be very clear, standing out from the rest of the page and making it enticing to click on. By reducing clutter around the CTA, Open Mile, a logistics management company, increased their conversion rate by 232%. Your goal is to motivate action. It will take a thoroughly researched, well designed effort to do that. Don’t rush through the effort of creating the perfect message.
Selling financial advice is a sensitive task and your CTA should reflect that. Spend a little extra time to determine what will take someone to the next stage of the buyer’s journey. When crafting your call-to-action you should constantly be considering your market. Why might they need your offer? Are they looking to buy a home and need advice for drawing a loan? Are they seeking to diversify their investment portfolio? You should understand what they want, and craft the messaging of your CTA around that.
3) Landing Pages
When the reader clicks on the CTA, they should be taken to a dedicated landing page for that call-to-action. Don’t take them to your homepage. With no messaging on how to follow up on the CTA they will be confused. They will probably leave your website and find their information elsewhere.
By creating a dedicated landing page for each call-to-action on your website, you will be able to send a more precise message, crafted specifically for that audience. The landing page should be simple, with very few outbound links, except one to navigate back to your homepage. Don’t over clutter the page. It has a very specific purpose, let the page be as specific as possible.
Landing pages work. A study by Hubspot found that companies with 40+ landing pages get 12 times the number of leads than those with less than 5. By offering a landing page for every CTA, you ensure that the offer is right for that person. Create one for people looking to save for a home, create one for people looking to retire, create one for every product you offer. Every campaign you run should also have its own landing page. It will be worth the effort.
4) Don’t Try To “Sell”
Your CTA should not be the final step to making a sale. It should not feel like a sales pitch at all. The reader should feel as if though clicking on the button will benefit them, not benefit you. Depending on which stage of the buyer’s journey the customer is in, you might not even want to ask for contact information. Your goal should be to educate, not to sell. Sell them when they are ready.
Your industry and services are a complex transactions. Inbound marketing efforts for financial advisors should be focused on educating them on their interests, challenges and why they may need your services. The absolute end goal of digital inbound marketing (and any other form of marketing) for financial advisors getting prospects in your office. Sell your clients in person by letting them come to you.
5) Design Aesthetics
There are many design choices to make in regards to CTAs. You can choose a simplistic design, utilize distinctive colours, or use whatever design concepts you wish. In reality, as long as the call-to-action is clear and easy to see, the design of the page is up to you. The important thing about designing a CTA is choosing an attention grabbing button, with a message that engages the audience. You want to tempt them to find out the new information, or to take the next step in the buyer’s journey.
One piece of advice though: placing the call-to-action below the fold will increase conversion rates 20%. People prefer to click on things that have been explained already. A CTA at the very top of the page can be intimidating and not make much sense yet to the visitor. The design of your CTA and landing page should reflect the overall stylistic choices of your website.
6) Additional Resources For The Next Step
After the reader has given you their contact information and gotten their hands on that next juicy piece of content, you might be celebrating. But unfortunately, your job is not done.
There will need to be more calls-to-action, to motivate that customer to take the next step. Your goal should be to create resources, planned out to walk people through the buying journey from visitors to clients. If you help guide them through the buyer’s journey, you will know who is interested in your particular services.
It is important to have content for every stage of the buyer’s journey. No matter where on the buyer’s journey a particular visitor is, you need to have content that can walk them to the next stage. Always be educating, moving people towards a sale.
