How not to do a call to action
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Last week I talked about calls to action - and how you can make yours effective by just following a few really basic steps.
To refresh your memory, it was just three things:
Be specific
Use the microcopy to handle objections
Keep people engaged after they click for as long as humanly possible
The steps seem so basic, that it's surprising how often companies muck them up. But I see it all the time! So today I thought I'd work through a few examples of calls to action that could be a lot better.
Don't call us, we'll call you
This is so annoyingly common. For lots of companies, the best thing you can do on their home page is to sign up for a demo of their product. This shows a lot of buying intent - you're basically asking a salesperson to come pitch to you. You're a very hot lead!
But for so many companies, you put in your email address, then get a message to the effect of "we'll be in touch soon."
(I covered an example of that in this video - although I am pleased to announce that the company I talked about in the video no longer does this - they now let you book a demo immediately).
If I'm looking at a bunch of different solutions in this space, the one that promises to be in touch soon is going to lose out compared to the one that lets me see something immediately, or at least lets me schedule a demo (this shouldn't be hard with appointment booking software like Calendly - and heaps of CRM like Hubspot have this built in as well).
The bait and switch
This example (mercifully) not particularly common, but I had to share it because it's really something else.
This is the landing page for software called Segment. The CTA looks like this:
As you can see, you can put in your domain, and it says that they'll show you how Segment can help.
I would assume based on this that it's going to mock up Segment on my website, or something like that. Seems pretty cool!
Here's what actually happens once you press "Get started"
Yikes! So, if I really want the thing they promised me in the call to action, I have to book a demo.
This is not great. In general, you should really make it clear what people are signing up for before they click a button.
Segment could solve this in one of two ways:
1) Mock up Segment on my website (if that's actually possible), THEN ask me if I want to have a demo
2) Make it clear that I'm scheduling a demo before promising me something.
Otherwise, this is just really disingenuous. Don't do this - even if it works, people are coming to your meetings because they want to see the thing you promised them, not because they actually want to buy your product.
Get started - with what exactly?
This has got to be everyone's favourite button text on their calls to action: "get started".
It looks fine on the face of things, but in reality, what does it mean?
The answer: that depends on the company. For some companies, it means start a free trial. For others, it means schedule a demo. For others still, it means watch a video.
"Get started" means basically whatever you want it to mean - which is the same thing as saying it means nothing at all!
So I'm begging companies - please abandon this CTA phrasing, and replace it with something more meaningful. If you offer free trials, just write "start your free trial." If the button leads to a demo schedule, write "schedule my demo." And so on, and so forth.
That's all for now. Try not to make these mistakes, and you'll almost certainly be ahead of your competition.
See you next week
Sam
PS: Check out my latest video. I covered the practice of software companies putting screenshots of their product on their home pages. Bottom line? I'm not a fan. Take a look at the video on Linkedin.
PPS: As always, I can take a look at your home page and make it better, quickly for $799. Get the details and book yours on this landing page.
PPS: I mentioned Calendly above because I'm using it now. Great software! If you want to talk about a project - or just a copy/content/marketing problem in general - go ahead and book a 30 minute conversation.
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