Integrating your marketing

Here’s how to get more qualified leads by simply adding a CTA to your major pieces of content.

Guides, eBooks & Whitepapers CTAs

Providing a call to action for a major piece of content like a guide, eBook, or whitepaper is typically a small paragraph or advertisement at the end of the content. This article will provide examples of how B2B companies are successfully using different types of calls to action on  guides, eBooks, and white papers.

SproutSocial uses a combination of text based advertising with a button asking readers to Start Your 30-day Trial. The interior pages of their guide are white with black text while the call to action page stands out with a black background, white text, and a bright green button.

Integrating your guides

Hubspot uses a background image with some simple headline text and a bright blue button asking readers to START YOUR FREE TRIAL. Again, the interior pages of their guide are white with black text, making the CTA page contrast with an image as the background.

“By aligning your call to action to your topic, you increase the likelihood of converting readers.“

KISSmetrics uses simple text with a button similar to SproutSocial, but they include a headline and connect both the text and headline to the topic of the guide. In the first example the guide is called How to Optimize Your Growth with Kissmetrics and the call to action is KISSmetrics Gives You the Insights You Need to Optimize Your Marketing.

Custom Integrating your guides

In the second example the guide is called The eCommerce Marketing Guide and the CTA is KISSmetrics is the perfect analytics tool for eCommerce stores. By aligning your call to action to your topic, you increase the likelihood of converting readers.           

Unbounce takes their connection one step further by aligning their eBook CTA to their landing page. Here is the call to action from their eBook, THE CONVERSION MARKETER’S GUIDE TO LANDING PAGE COPYWRITING.

Integrating your landing pages             

And here is the landing page you go to when you click the button.

Integrating your guides to custom landing pages

 

The more connected and aligned your content is, the more conversions you will achieve.

Thus far, the calls to action have all prompted prospects to start a free trial, but there are a number of other CTAs you could use. Here are a few examples of direct, clear CTAs:

 

 

Call to action examples

The key to finding the best call of action for your business is to try a variety of CTAs to see which one performs best. When testing a variety of CTAs, if you can get a number of prospects to convert on a free trial and then the same amount of those prospects to become paying customers, then that’s a great option.

You might find that you ultimately get double the paying customers when your prospects view a demo first rather than try a free trial. If you use marketing automation, it would be easy to split test two versions of a guide with different calls to action.

You might even find that you get a lot of conversions, but the majority are not qualified. In that case you could use marketing automation to provide two different versions with separate CTAs. Qualified leads could Marketing Statsreceive a version with the See A Demo call to action while unqualified leads would receive a version asking them to download another eBook that may better apply to them.

This method would keep sales from getting tied up with unqualified leads while continuing to build your brand retention with prospects that aren’t yet qualified but may have influence or be qualified in the future. In case you need motivation to create multiple CTAs, Forrester Research found that companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost. In contrast, according to MarketingSherpa, 61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to Sales; however, only 27% of those leads will be qualified.

Major content including guides, eBooks, and whitepapers isn’t just one of your most powerful lead generation tools, it often takes a significant investment in time and resources to develop. Ensure that this investment lives up to its full potential by focusing heavily on its most important aspect, the call to action.

This blog was one section from a guide that will provide you with a lightweight iterative framework for integrating and coordinating your marketing to provide you with more qualified leads. Get the full guide by clicking the image below:

Content Marketing CTA