raise more money with effective calls to action
DESCRIPTION
Join Brian Abracen in this practical webinar that will teach you how to effectively use calls to action to compel your supporters to perform desired actions immediately, whether that be donating to your cause, volunteering time or supporting your organization in another way. Brian Abracen is a Digital Direct Marketer with deep expertise on both the corporate and not-for-profit sides. Brian is Director of Customer Engagement at Intelex Technologies, and was Director of Customer Retention and Loyalty Marketing at Dealfind.com, as well as Senior Conversion and Retention Manager at FreshBooks. He has also held leadership and consulting roles in online marketing at Bell and Federation CJA.TRANSCRIPT
Raise More Money with
Effective Calls-to-Action
Brian Abracen
TODAY’S PRESENTER
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WHAT IS CANADAHELPS?
• A public charitable foundation and registered charity. • Through CanadaHelps.org, anyone can donate to any registered
Canadian charity online. • We have facilitated over $400 million in charitable donations
online since our launch in 2000. • 14,500 charities use us to collect donations and fundraise online. • Over 850,000 Canadians have donated through CanadaHelps. • For donors, CanadaHelps is a one-stop-shop for giving. For
charities, CanadaHelps is an online fundraising solution that is affordable, easy and secure.
WELCOME TO GIVING MADE SIMPLE!
Canada Helps July 16, 2014
Raise More Money with Effective
Calls to Action
The Attention Economy
Distraction, distraction, dis... Ooh, I got a email!
It only takes one click to lose them forever
Everyone is competing for your click: Publishers, businesses, non-profits, bloggers, you name it
Non-profits need to learn to survive in this attention economy
Yawn…
Common examples of CTAs
Lead them by the hand!
Direct it where you want it to go
Show them the way! Let them know what to do next
Your goal... Get. The. Click.
What is it supposed to do?
Drive traffic to a landing page
This is where the data you want is collected Donation form
Download form
Quote request form, etc.
No more calls to action on this page! The last step: the conversion happens here
What makes an effective CTA?
Isn’t it just a button?
No! Single changes in buttons can drastically
improve conversions
A button sounds like a simple decision, but
there are a number of variables to consider: How big should the button be?
What colour should I use?
What should the text of the button read?
8 tips for effective CTAs
1. Clear.
2. Obvious.
3. Actionable.
4. Contextual & Relevant.
5. Aligned with donor cycle.
6. Aligned with landing page.
7. Test.
8. Optimize landing page.
Pillars of a good CTA
1. Size
2. Colour & Contrast
3. Location & Position
4. Relevance & Urgency
5. Copy & Clarity
6. Quantity
Test them all! Find out what works for your audience
4 CTA questions to answer
1. Why me?
2. Why now?
3. What for?
4. Who says?
Where should they go?
Location and placement are key
Test for optimal placement on the page
Feature them in key areas across your website
On your website
As we said, relevance is everything!
Align your CTAs with the content of each page,
as well as the visitor’s likeliest stage of the sales
cycle. For example:
Visitors on a How You Can Help page are probably further
along in the giving process and likely to be more interested
in selecting a method than they would if they were visiting
your About Us page
In your content
Don’t stop nurturing potential
constituents who have already
downloaded your white paper or
watched this webinar
Continue content marketing efforts with
embedded CTAs for middle-of-funnel offers in
the body of your content
In your presentations
If you speak at industry conferences and events you may be allowed to include a CTA for an offer directly within your presentation
Refer the audience to a dedicated landing page web page that gives them further information about your company
Archive your presentation slides on your website or a platform like SlideShare.com to get more mileage out of your content
In your blog
Somewhere within every blog post,
place a call-to-action that will encourage
people to:
1. Download some content
2. Follow your company on social media
3. RSS the blog
4. Subscribe to your newsletter or blog digest
In your emails
My specialty! One of the great things about email is that it’s
perfectly normal to only provide one link or one call to action in the entire email
Since the goal of email is to get a click, chances are good that it will be the one CTA your audience sees
Think about using a call to action right in the subject line to inspire more opens
In your videos
Include a call-to-action directly inside all
videos you produce If someone embeds your video onto their site
and others view it outside the context of the
video site, your CTA would remain intact
You can also include a CTA in your video’s
description when you upload it to the video
sharing site.
In your videos
In other places
Paid media
Email signatures
Social media Facebook
CTAs for Upcoming Campaigns
Create CTAs related to your upcoming
campaigns, such as events and contests
If your annual conference is coming up in a few
months, drive traffic to the respective
registration page from your other assets, such
as your blog, social media, paid ads, and so on
Improved CTA = more money?
Not really.
The CTA is part of a flow. It might be the first
click that your campaign attracts, but if your
landing page misses the mark, you’re going to
lose your audience.
Search CTA Landing
More might be better
Maintain a mix of CTAs that spans across different stages of your online donation cycle
The more CTAs, the more opportunities to convert visitors into donors
Also, the sheer quantity of calls-to-action gives you valuable data around their performance. Use these insights to optimize your strategies for
maximum lead generation.
Secondary CTAs
Communicating expectations
Try using supporting text to let them
know what to expect
How do I know if it’s working?
Measure it! Key metrics to track:
1. Click-through rate
2. Click-to-submission rate
3. View-to-submission rate
Have fun with it!
Test and experiment with:
Language and design of button
Compelling copy
Different offers
Template changes
Test examples
Test examples
Great examples
Great examples
Great examples
Great examples
Follow me for more resources!
Twitter: @brian_abracen
I will post links to some great resources to help
you on your way to leveraging your CTAs into
raising more money.
MyCharityConnects.org
Educational and training opportunities
through MyCharityConnects
www.mycharityconnects.org
UPCOMING WEBINARS
www.mycharityconnects.org/webinars
CanadaHelps 101
Date: Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Time: 2:00-3:00PM Eastern Time
CanadaHelps: New Tools and Features
Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Time: 2:00-3:00PM Eastern Time
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