You want more sales online, but are not seeing the conversions you want. Despite your best efforts, content and persistence, you’re just not converting prospects to customers from your blogs, emails, social media or your website.
Finding a method that works with disparate channels can seem impossible, leaving you ineffective online and frustrated offline.
But don't despair, there is a way to fix this. With just a few simple changes, you could make your messages more effective and turn your marketing communications from a nuisance into something that your customers look forward to receiving. Here's how.
The problem with your messaging
If your marketing message is ineffective, you may be thinking about the content itself, the subject, the headings or anything in between. While each of these elements plays its role in your message they each overlook one critical aspect - whether you’re asking for your prospect’s business or not.
As the old saying goes, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. You need to ask for, or more specifically, tell your audience what you want. However, the way you ask and the frequency, location, and angle you adopt are essential in order to achieve success.
Let’s look at this new messaging approach that we like to call the valentine messaging method.
The Valentine Messaging Method
Whenever you ask your prospects to become a customer, you’re asking them to commit to you, your product, or your brand. As with all commitments in life, this decision is a serious one, with long-term effects for your customers - no wonder they’re naturally hesitant!
You wouldn’t expect a stranger to marry you just based on your first request - so why would your prospects behave any differently?
There is a courting process involved with nurturing your prospects towards a sale, much like there’s a process to dating someone before marriage. The further along the process your prospects journey, the more likely they will become customers. Despite this, you want to provide the option should your prospect decide the time is right and remind them that your company is ready for their commitment and business.
This is why frequency, location and style are critical.
Frequency
The majority of your content should usually take an educational and informative approach - which is why many of your prospects will be utterly unaware that you would like their business! This is why you need to ask for it, but, as with dating, you will turn your prospects off and come off as desperate if you ask too much.
The frequency of your call-to-action (CTAs) ultimately depends on how extensive your content is. The longer the content, the more CTAs you can spread out. Each CTA will ask for a different level of commitment at different times. We will discuss each of these in more detail under the "style" section below.
Example of CTA frequency on a home page
Despite this, you should always use a CTA near the beginning of your content - and it should typically ask for a sale or commitment (a primary CTA).
This initial CTA should be followed up by more content for those who do not convert. A little later down the line, you want to ask again - but this time, you want to ask for something with a little less commitment involved (a secondary CTA).
Should this CTA fail, the content continues and may go as far as asking for another CTA that involved even less commitment (a tertiary CTA).
Finally, once the content is done, you again ask for a solid commitment (a primary CTA).
In the context of our dating allusion, it would go something like this:
After we meet a new prospect…
Marketer: Hi! Want to get married?
Prospect: No.
Marketer: Ok! Read this to see what you’re missing.
Marketer: Want to go out on a date with me?
Prospect: No.
Marketer: Ok! Here’s why you should reconsider.
Marketer: Want to grab a coffee with me?
Prospect: No.
Marketer: Ok! I still like you though, so let me just help you with very little commitment.
Marketer: So, after all that, want to get married?
Prospect: Ok, let’s do it...
Of course, this is an overly simplified version of what you will be including in your own messaging, but it hits each note effectively to give you an idea.
Location
How many successful proposals happen at McDonald's? Probably not very many.
Location is just as important for your marketing efforts. Where you ask for the commitment is just as important as how you ask for it.
Your CTAs should always be visible on your content - whether it appears multiple times on your whitepaper, appears as a pop-up on your blog, or is included in the header bar of your website. It should also be prominent, standing out from the other options in bold, a different colour or style.
Clear and visible CTA at the top of your content
We recommend you include the following locations for your CTAs in your messaging at a minimum:
- At the top of your content - as a blog opens, website heading bar or an ever-present sidebar.
- In the middle of the content - a CTA button or pop-up that breaks the content up and catches interest.
- At the end of your content - a prominent CTA button, form or link that directs your audience on what to do next.
These are what we consider the bare minimum of CTAs for your content. Of course, the longer your content is, the more you will include throughout to break it up and recapture the interest of your audience as they consume your content.
Style
Asking someone to hang out, for a date or marriage are all proposals of different magnitudes. They also all have different likelihoods of success - which is what’s important for your messaging.
You should ask your prospects to convert throughout your content depending on which level of investment you think they may have. These different styles of CTAs are represented in primary, secondary and tertiary CTAs, each asking for decreasing levels of commitment.
- Primary CTAs ask for the ultimate commitment of a sale, quote or visiting the pricing page.
- Secondary CTAs ask for some form of commitment that still gives the prospect an opportunity to back out. These include demonstrations, further reading, consultations and webinars.
- Tertiary CTAs ask for a minimal to no level of commitment. These are often free downloads that don’t require a lot of effort to consume, like blogs, infographics, charts and videos.
The amount of CTAs you include will mainly depend on the length of the content. Typically, however, there should be two primary CTAs, 1-2 secondary CTAs and 1-2 tertiary CTAs sprinkled throughout your content in the form of links, buttons, and forms.
A good example of secondary CTA, which should be linked to a landing page or a pop-up form
Will you be our Valentine?
Getting your message across in an effective way takes time and work. It can be challenging to get it right every time, and we understand that you may not have the time or resources to perfect it for your audience and company. The first place to start is to find a guide who can help you achieve messaging that is on-brand, effective and interesting.
For the past 12 years, Demodia has refined marketing to generate more revenue for our clients, and we can do it for you too. Contact us now for a consultation. We will provide you a step-by-step approach to improve your brand story, so you can watch your conversion-rates and profits increase as customers uncover your true value.
