Discover why employee advocacy on social media is so important — and how it can boost your reach, driving more prospects to your content on LinkedIn.

Why employee advocacy?

When it comes to B2B social media, you shouldn’t just be relying on your company channels to drive content views, engagement and to get your name out there to prospects. Every business has a secret weapon: its own employees.

LinkedIn has found that nine out of ten brands (at least plan to) make use of employee advocacy. And why? The simple answer is that we’re all more likely to trust a person over a company on social media, especially if that person is someone we know.

In fact, even when sharing exactly the same content, employees see twice the click-through rate than their company channels — driving more views to your core content.

And, if you’re still not convinced by the return you’ll get by embarking on an employee advocacy programme, consider this: almost two-thirds of employees in a formal programme credit employee advocacy with attracting and developing new business.

So we can see that employee advocacy really works. And, it benefits both your company and your employees themselves, by not only driving people to your brand but also by improving your peoples’ own standing as experts in their field. So everyone’s a winner. But, when it comes to LinkedIn, what sort of content should your employees be sharing for maximum impact?

What content works best?

Brand new data from LinkedIn has revealed that, when shared by people rather than companies, SlideShare presentations receive 44% more shares than any other type of content.

At asabell, we’re huge advocates of SlideShare for its easily-digestible yet information-packed presentations that are proven to have big benefits for your SEO and can easily be repurposed for use elsewhere in your social media strategy. We always break down slides as images, tweet out stats from our presentations and create articles with our presentations embedded, for maximum results.

At the end of the day, think about what you’d be likely to share if you saw someone post on LinkedIn. You want to share content that is useful for others in your network, looks great and that helps you to be seen as a thought leader. That’s why SlideShare fits the bill when it comes to employee sharing.

So, here are the key types of content your employees should be sharing on LinkedIn, and their expected outcomes:

1. Articles

To drive company page views on LinkedIn: articles result in 3% more company page views than any other type of content.

2. Videos

To increase company page followers: not only do videos result in 6X more engagement than any other type of content, they also generate 7% more company page follows per impression.

3. SlideShare presentations

To expand the networks of your employees (which will further increase your reach when they share your content): SlideShare presentations produce 10% more profile views and 2% more connections per impression.

How can I get my employees sharing?

Importantly, you need to help your employees to understand the benefits of employee advocacy, both for the business and for their own profile.

The main takeaway from the research for me is that diversity of content is crucial; your employees’ connections just won’t engage with the same types of content all the time. So you need to be creating a range of great content that your people will want to share with their networks.

And, while this blog has focused purely on LinkedIn, employee advocacy shouldn’t stop there. Wherever your people are active on social media, they should be sharing your content and being your biggest advocates. Help them out as much as you can by producing great content, and reward the best sharers to encourage ongoing commitment. By making employee advocacy part of your culture as a business, you’ll see big results.

Get in touch if you’d like to find out more, or would like to see how we can help you with your social media strategy.

Let’s blow away the smoke and mirrors, and reveal how we use psychology in B2B content marketing to influence decisions in your favour.

Now you really see how it’s done…

When you see a street magician make a twenty-pound note appear out of your nose, you know some skilful sleight of hand has taken place. You don’t know how it was done, but you’re pretty confident you haven’t been walking around with a twenty-pound note up your shnozzle.

Effective B2B content marketing works in much the same way — significant skill has gone into creating the communication piece, you’re just not exactly sure how or why it works.

In this series, we’re taking the lid off some of the psychologically-based tools we use in B2B content marketing, showing you why the content we create for you is so effective.

Robert Cialdini identified six principles of persuasion, and we’ve been using our magic wheel of chance to determine the order in which we explore what they have to offer.

In our first instalment, the golden clicker tick-tick-ticked to a stop on reciprocity and authority. And, on our second lucky spin, it landed on social proof, and commitment and consistency. In this, our final instalment, a bit of careful nudging made sure it landed on the principles of liking and of scarcity.

You seem just my type: liking.

This principle isn’t a complicated one by any means. It’s based on the idea that the more you like someone, the greater the chances of you doing what they suggest. So how do we decide whether we like someone?

The first stage is almost instantaneous: we make a rapid assessment of what we have in common with the other person, based on external characteristics like age, sex, race and socioeconomic status. And that initial decision to like can be reinforced if the people we’re assessing pay us compliments and cooperate with us.

In short, liking is all bound up with our perceptions of safety. Feeling safe encourages us to interact and communicate. This, in turn, increases our chances of finding things in common. And identifying joint interests builds rapport, reinforcing our decisions to agree with what’s suggested. Job done.

So, in a B2B context, seize every opportunity to establish common ground with your target audience. Research your target audience and work to bring out your similarities: choose your language carefully to make it clear that you have a shared operating environment and, in your personal dealings, seek out opportunities to find emotional and attitudinal connections.

Don’t miss out: scarcity.

Scarcity plays on another fundamental of human nature: we attribute more value to something that we believe is limited. Basically, we want what we can’t have. To put a more academic spin on it, opportunities seem more valuable when they are harder to obtain.

We don’t want to miss out, and this motivates us to take action. So all those ‘last few remaining’ type offers do really work and, in a B2B environment, you can clearly see how this is applicable to sales.

Make psychology work for you.

Fancy knowing more about how we employ behavioural economics to maximise the effectiveness of your B2B content marketing? Just get in touch, or catch up with part one and part two in this series.

Even the best need a hand to achieve their goals. Find out how you can help your sales teams smash their targets, through sales enablement.

How to lend a helping hand.

Throughout the history of fiction, even the greatest characters rely on having the right tools to get the job done. Where would Harry Potter be without his wand? Or Luke Skywalker without his lightsaber?

And, as awesome as your salespeople might be, there are always ways to help them win new business. That’s why we’ve put together a comprehensive list of the sales-enablement tools you can give them to turn prospects into customers.

Nine tools for sales success.

1. Cheat sheets.
   The simplest way to keep your sales team on message is to hand them a script. Armed with a short breakdown of key messages, info and FAQs, your people will have all the answers your clients want — boosting their faith in your expertise.
   
2. Data sheets.
   You’ve just come out of a great meeting with a prospect (who’s super psyched about your pitch), but you’re keen to stay at the front of their mind. Enter the data sheet — a short rundown of your key info that gives potential clients a useful reference point once you’ve left the meeting.
   
3. Presentations
   You might think you already have this covered, but you’d be surprised at how many presentations we see that fall short of what an audience is looking for (and this’ll go for your competitors as well). That’s why a short, succinct presentation can really engage your prospects and help you to stand out.
   
4. Sales emails.
   The best way to get a prospect on board is by building a personal relationship between them and your people. But, first, you have to capture their attention. And an email (or a short series of emails) that offers the exact solution to your audience’s problems will do just the job.
   
5. Internal training emails.
   There’s no point in collating a range of content to connect with customers if your sales team don’t know what’s going on. Internal comms, such as emails, are the key to making the most of any part of your sales-enablement campaign.
   
6. Intranet campaign pages.
   Along with cheat sheets and training emails, creating a bank of resources that your sales team can refer to, whenever they need, will help you share your key messages and win sales.
   
7. User videos.
   Your prospects don’t want a constant barrage of info from your salespeople. They want the time to explore their options. But this doesn’t mean you can’t present your best offer. With a collection of user videos, you can give potential customers all the info they need — without having to keep them on the other end of the phone.
   
8. Calling days.
   A great way to boost your sales is to hold a calling day — setting specific targets, offering incentives and creating an atmosphere that brings your people together to achieve more.
   
9. Full-on sales-enablement campaigns.
   Ok, so not technically a tool itself, but still worth a mention. With a full campaign, you can bring all of the previous elements together to form a cohesive message and make sure your people have everything they need to succeed.

Tool up and start selling.

With the right tools for the job, your people will smash their sales targets (and then some). Get in touch to find out more about how sales enablement can work for your B2B business.

Sometimes you know the decision is right for your B2B client and you just want them to say ‘yes’. Here’s how psychology can make that happen.

The wheel of chance.

In this series we’re exploring how you can use the principles of persuasion to get the results you want in your B2B marketing. It all sounds a bit Svengali, but by understanding and using psychology in your communications, you really can influence your audience towards the choice you want them to make.

When we spun the magic wheel of chance in our first instalment it stopped on reciprocity and authority. This time, the golden clicker has tick-tick-ticked to a stop on the principles of social proof, and commitment and consistency.

The community thumbs up: social proof.

Social proof plays on our fundamental uncertainties about our own opinions. How sure are we that we are right? And the bigger the decision, the greater the pressure to make the right choice — and the more likely we are to question our own judgement. So we look for reassurance.

The psychologist who developed the six principles of persuasion, Robert Cialdini, stated that “The greater the number of people who find an idea correct, the more the idea will be correct.”

Translate this into the B2B environment, and we see decision makers looking for reassurance to mitigate the risk inherent in their decision, by looking for evidence that people like them agree with their choice.

Social proof is the theory that people will adopt the beliefs or actions of a group of people they like or trust. So, in a B2B context, a case study from a satisfied customer with a similar business profile to the decision maker will provide social proof. Positive feedback via social media, client testimonials on your website, prominent display of well-known names that you work with — all these can also provide the social proof that could tip the decision your way.

When crafting your B2B content you need to remember that the decision to buy often involves a series of agreements within an organisation. Your initial point of contact may not be the person with the power to sign-off purchase, so you need your content to act as a persuasion tool, creating social proof all the way along the decision-making journey.

Being steadfast: commitment and consistency.

The principle of commitment and consistency revolves around — and makes the most of — the fact that people don’t like to back down from something they’ve agreed to. Humans like to follow pre-existing, values and actions. So, once committed to an action verbally or in writing, this becomes part of our self-image — and we’re much less likely to damage that perception by going back on our word.

So in B2B decision making, encourage your target audience to commit to something relatively small and (usually) free of charge as a first step. This might be giving their email address in order to receive a newsletter or to download a white paper, or agreeing to some form of taster activity, such as a proof-of-concept exercise. This small start then forms a commitment that you can build on to get agreement to larger requests that the decision maker would have found it very hard to say ‘yes’ to initially.

Make psychology work for you.

Fancy knowing more about how we employ behavioural economics to maximise the effectiveness of your B2B content marketing? Just get in touch, or catch up with part one in our series.

And watch out for the final instalment, coming soon.

Explore the science behind content marketing and discover how the principles of behavioural economics make your messages compelling…

It’s all in the mind.

If marketing was just a matter of telling people to buy your stuff, then we B2B marketers would all be out of a job.

Thankfully, for all of us, both client and agency side, it’s more complicated than that, involving delving into the psychology of what makes people tick and understanding how to apply this insight to your business’s messaging.

The formal title for this is ‘behavioural economics’, and it looks at how we can grasp and leverage the psychology of human behaviour to achieve the effect we want. Fundamental to this are the six principles of persuasion developed by Robert Cialdini, and these provide a handy way to assess how effective your communication is.

Lots of types of marketing unwittingly use these principles — as do we all in our daily lives. But consciously implementing the principles of influence makes sure you are getting maximum return from your marketing.

We’ve spun the magic wheel of chance, and in this blog we’ll be focusing on two of the principles: reciprocity and authority. And, at a later point when the needle clicks slowly to a halt, we’ll explore social proof, commitment and consistency, liking and scarcity in future blogs.

Give and take: reciprocity in action.

Reciprocity refers to the phenomenon where, because someone does something for you that they perceive to be of value, you’re naturally inclined to do something back for them: it seems ‘you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours’ is programmed into our psyches.

The important thing here is that sense of value. To trigger reciprocity, people need to feel what you’re offering is useful to them. And in the world of content marketing, this means sharing expertise, opinion or practical help that your target audience wants to respond to — and this is where you can foster the relationship and increase the likelihood of doing business.

You offer a relevant white paper, blog or ‘how to’ info (the list goes on and on), and the recipient reciprocates with their contact details, a share on social media, a recommendation or even a sale.

Commanding your audience with authority.

Your B2B audience is primarily looking for expertise and education to inform their roles and decisions. A smidge of entertainment, too, doesn’t go amiss. But your most effective communications will involve imparting knowledge to achieve credibility through establishing authority.

People’s decision-making looks for authority signals to reinforce the fact that we’re making the right choice. So we’re more likely to be influenced by those we perceive as authoritative.

Although building up a position of authority via thought leadership takes time, there are shorter-term ways to wield influence that you can implement across your content marketing. It can be as simple as bylining your blogs to your subject matter expert, and including a link to an author bio to reinforce their credibility. Or getting your C-suite involved on social media, so your messages are coming directly from those with the most perceived experience.

Work on establishing an association between your business and authority figures — analysts, experienced practitioners, well-known brands that use your product or services, trade bodies — and reassure your audience that you’re a safe bet.

Make psychology work for you.

Fancy knowing more about how we employ behavioural economics to maximise the effectiveness of your B2B content marketing? Just get in touch. And watch out for part two in this series, coming soon.

Emails are an essential part of any B2B content marketer’s toolbox. So here are our five top tips to make sure yours grab attention and get results.

Emails rule the content roost.

While email might not be a platform run from a swanky Silicon Valley office, it’s still one of the best ways to connect with your customers and prospects. In fact, email is 40 times as effective in bringing in new customers as Facebook or Twitter. Impressive, eh?

It makes sense though; B2B marketing emails are such a versatile form of content. And it’d be a real shame if you didn’t use them to their full potential. So how do you go about landing the right message in your audience’s inbox?

How to keep those click throughs coming.

Here are our five top tips to get customers and prospects clicking through to your content.

1. Solve a problem for your audience.
   Chances are you’re more than familiar with the ‘mark as read’ option in your email browser — and so is your audience. They’re far more likely to open and act on your email if you promise them a key piece of insight or provide an answer to a question they’ve been asking themselves.
   
2. Pick a message and stick with it.
   If we asked you to RSVP to an invitation that talked about two separate parties, would you know how to respond? The same principle applies to emails. Avoid having more than one call to action and you’ll see way more click throughs.
   
3. Keep the copy clear and concise.
   You know how many emails you have to get through in a day? Well, it’s the same deal for your prospects. So, to get them paying attention to your message, keep it short and sweet — something they can read before they flick onto the next email.
   
4. Craft a subject line that grabs attention.
   You can write the best email ever created. But if no one opens it, all your effort was for nothing. That’s why you have to, have to, have to put together a compelling subject line that shows your audience why they can’t afford not to open your email.
   
5. A picture speaks a thousand words — if it loads automatically.
   Definitely use images in your emails — no one fancies working their way through a boring old text email. However, be aware that most email browsers stop images from loading automatically (for security). So use descriptive alt-tags that show prospects they can trust the content you send them.

It’s ok to ask for help…

As ever, your shorter pieces of content can be the toughest to get right. But follow these simple tips and you’ll be crafting emails that convert your prospects to customers in no time.

And, if you feel you need a hand with it all, give us a shout. We love writing a good email or two…

By Amy Andrew, Writer.

Email marketing has evolved from SPAM to highly-personalised messages. Read on for more about the history of this effective way to connect with customers.

1971 — the year that started it all.

There was a lot happening around the world in 1971. China was admitted to the UN, Disney World opened, women in Switzerland were granted the vote, Disney World opened, Quatar became independent from the UK, Disney World opened.

Okay, you get the point. And in among all these huge changes, a gentleman called Ray Tomlinson sent the first email. Given that people were very concerned about issues like coining the term “Thatcher the Milk Snatcher” and fathoming decimalisation at the time, he didn’t garner the public attention he arguably should have.

Taking it to the masses — 1978.

Just seven years later, a certain Gary Thuerk had a bit of a brain wave. A marketing manager at Digital Equipment Corp, he got the ball rolling for commercial email by sending the first mass email.

Maybe it was an action triggered by the fact the world’s population had just hit 4.4 billion (so he had a lot more customers to speak to). Or maybe Gary just fancied trying something different after the last mass print catalogue mailing. Whatever the reason, it resulted in $13 million worth of sales for DEC machines. And that meant it wasn’t long before others started to cotton-on to the potential of this new communication medium.

Increased spread, or dread? SPAM arrives — 1998.

A lot of important things happened in the 1990s (some seriously cool members of the asabell team were born, for starters). And the decade kicked off email marketing with a bang when the internet was born in 1991.

The next invention this over-achiever of a decade produced? The smartphone — in 1992. Then, in 1996, it was time for the launch of Hotmail — the first web-based email service, and the platform which introduced personal email accounts (before that, you had to have a business or a University one).

Add these together and what have you got? The potential for anyone with access to a computer and internet connection to receive an email. And receive them they did. Email marketing soared and the aim of the game was to get as many emails on people’s screens as possible. In fact, just two short years later, this supposed boon for business was turning into a crisis for customers, as SPAM was born.

The noughties, or should that be naughtys?

Yes, with SPAM and associated viruses sweeping through inboxes around the world, lawmakers began to play the age-old game of cat and mouse with technology. The US and Europe led the way with anti-spam legislation, and naughty marketing companies began to feel the pinch.

It was also around this time that companies like AOL and Windows Live began to feedback on SPAM complaints and set up recipient feedback schemes. It looked like this could be the end for mass email marketing…

The 2010s were about personalisation.

Luckily for smart marketers who still wanted an engaging way to connect with customers via email, there was hope. Way back in 2001 the first behavioural email (triggered automatically by a user’s individual behaviour) had been sent. It’s a more personal form of email, as it’s targeted to the particular customer, reminding them, for example, of products they recently looked at.

This is one of the advances that meant personalisation became a key factor in email campaigns in the 2010s. After all that SPAM legislation, the rise of savvy users and the wealth of customer data available through various platforms, it was time for marketing to focus more on targeted campaigns. Hence the ‘Hi Amy, how’s that winter weather treating you? Remember that Caribbean holiday you were browsing yesterday…?’

No, we didn’t forget the smartphone.

But the real significance of this technology for email marketing wasn’t fully capitalised on until almost fifteen years later. Along with personalisation, phones are the other hallmark of today’s email marketing. In 2011, the year Apple announced that it had sold over 100 million iPhones, over 75 per cent of iPhone users accessed emails via this device.

And by 2012, more than 40 per cent of all marketing emails were opened on a mobile device. Suddenly, it became very important to make sure that your emails rendered effectively on a phone — or you were going to miss out on communicating with almost half of your market.

What does that mean for your marketing?

Today, email marketing is a great way to connect with customers, and 72 per cent of marketers say that it helps to develop loyal and active customers. Nowadays, a wealth of information about customers and their preferences means email lists can be easily segmented into relevant categories. So marketers can send highly-targeted emails that always hit their mark. In fact, conversion rates as high as 50 per cent can be seen across marketing email campaigns that take advantage of behavioural automation.

So, to find out more, and be part of the ever-evolving world of email marketing (like your customers), get in touch and see how we can help

Inbound marketing is all about creating content that prospects will proactively seek out. And to do that, you need to offer them something pretty special…

Enter the eMagazine.

eMagazines are digital collections of quality content that are as glossy as their printed counterparts, but come at a fraction of the production cost.

They give your prospects something to read that’s entertaining, looks awesome, and, importantly, brings your messages to the fore.

Right now you’re probably thinking: that’s all great, but how do I actually create something that’ll resonate with my audience? And what should I eat for lunch?

Well, for lunch, we’d emphatically suggest pizza — because, pizza.

And as for crafting a compelling eMagazine, we’ve got some tips that’ll get you off to the best possible start.

The dos and don’ts.

Do…

• Think glossy magazine and use eye-catching images. Make sure these images are high-quality so there isn’t a pixel out of place and you get the clarity that’ll grab attention.
• Include a wide range of content — an eMagazine is your chance to both show off and to showcase every aspect of your organisation.
• Think about how you can keep design consistent. Create some spread templates and reuse them, as printed magazines do; it’ll help your content feel warm and familiar.
• Decide how often you’re going to publish — and stick to it. No one wants a disappointed readership.
• Use material you already have. Case studies, interviews, photo shoots, white papers and brochures all have elements that lend themselves to eMag content.
• Shout about it — let your customers know there’s a new great read out there. Use your social channels, drop prospects an email or pick up the phone.

Don’t…

• Treat it like a blog; it’s bigger than that — you can use articles, but only in conjunction with images and other forms of content.
• Be afraid to push the design boundaries — this is your chance to add imagery into the communications mix, so make the most of the opportunity. Your design could create fresh and welcome perceptions amongst prospects.
• Include things for the sake of it. Beware of padding things out; you risk diluting your overall message.
• Forget about it once it’s done — your eMagazine is a great tool to share with customers and prospects in most situations — until the next issue comes out.
• Think it’s restricted to an online presence — you can print it out, too.

So, what are you waiting for? Get writing — your prospects will appreciate it, we promise.

And if you need more help creating a connection with your prospects, then get in touch — we’d love to talk to you about your B2B marketing strategy. And pizza. We’re always happy to talk about pizza.

By Amy Andrew, Writer.

Making an entrance isn’t just for parties. Make sure readers choose your article ahead of the competition’s by creating a stand-out title. Here’s how.

So, you’ve written your article. It’s thrilling. Maybe even ground-breaking. But without a great title to represent it, people are far less likely to read it. So, here are our tips to help make sure that they can’t resist:

Forget about it.

Yep, ignoring the fact you have to do something is a pretty strange way of getting it done. Could you imagine the #fitspo fitness motivational posts? Instead of “do it”, we’d live in a world of “don’t bother”.

But, weird as it sounds, getting on with your writing and forgetting about the title is often a good way to make sure your headline is on point (when you do get round to it).

Instead of stressing about your catchy title from the beginning, start by simply noting a short topic sentence (sometimes called a ‘working title’) at the top of your piece. This is designed to help you, not engage your readers. It’s a great big reminder of what you’re trying to achieve through the piece you’re writing.

For example, for this blog, my working title was ‘five tips for writers: how to create a title that will grab their attention’. It’s not sexy, it’s not clickbait, it’s not clever. But it’s a simple reminder of what this blog needs to say.

Grab some friends.

It’s time to call in the reinforcements and have a collective thought shower. A useful way to go about it is to discuss the piece and have a think about key words; then throw about ideas, create a mind-map, doodle on your notepad, write a list, whatever works for you.

The aim of the game is to get as many catchy phrases and great words jotted down as possible. Best case scenario, you come out of the meeting with a catchy title. But more often than not, you’ve got plenty of material to work with to create one.

The practical side.

Just like that right!? Just, you know — ‘create one’…

Gulp

It’s not as daunting as it might sound. But there are some practical considerations to take into account.

The first is to be accurate. This relates to respecting your readers, which I’ll talk about a little more in tip four. If you lie to them in the title, you’ll lose their trust.

What else?

• Try having fun with alliteration.
• Keep it short (between six and eight words typically generates the best click-through).
• Use strong language.
• Include numbers and lists where possible.
• Interesting adjectives are your friends.
• People like a good pun.
• Try a little hyperbole (but remember not to stray from the truth). Think: ‘Our greatest business solutions yet’ as opposed to ‘A new business solution’. It’s more compelling.
• Make your reader part of a club (again, more on this one in tip 4: ‘know your audience’).

Some other good tips, which are dependent on what you’re writing about, include: using your title to solve a problem (‘How to manage business accounts’) and letting the reader know if your piece contains unique data (‘Study reveals why eating ONLY one piece of chocolate is impossible’).

Know your audience.

You need to know what is likely to be compelling to your readers. Including a funny reference to One Direction probably won’t have any impact on the bank your business is pitching to.

If you don’t intuitively know your audience, there are ways to get an insight. Google Analytics can reveal your best-performing pages and outline what your readers like. You can also track onsite queries and use Google AdWords Keywords to find out what terms are popular.

Also, get out there and see what they’re talking about. Online, at the boardroom table, around the water cooler, in the queue at Tesco, on the dancefloor. Whatever audience you’re trying to capture, find out what matters to them, and shape your title (and your writing) around that. It makes you part of their group, and many of us can’t resist an in-joke, so it’s a great way to get people clicking.

But be careful. Those keyword searches I mentioned earlier? They’re great, but you can get into a black hole of trying to make a bunch of keywords work as a title. And this can end up distracting from the flow of your writing. If you’ve got a catchy title, that follows the tips I’ve outlined above, don’t worry too much about trying to wrap it around a keyword generator.

Or, you know, relax and let us write one for you. Here’s how to get in touch.

By Amy Andrew, Writer.

Get your readers clicking. Find out how to put together a great call to action (CTA) and seriously increase your conversion rate.

A good CTA takes up a tiny amount of time, money and space, yet it punches well above its weight, improving conversion rates by up to 30 per cent.

It’s a quick, easy and cost-effective way to convince your audience to do something: whether that be clicking a link or downloading a file. By writing great CTAs, you can re-generate older content in minutes and make sure your new stuff is irresistible to readers. Here’s how:

Six steps to create a great CTA.

1. Make it actionable.
   Imperatives and the second-person are your friend. Get customers’ attention by using ‘you’. And make it clear what they should do with imperative verbs (the bossy ones) — think ‘download this’, ‘click that’, ‘get it?’.
   
2. Motivate me.
   Give your reader a reason to act. They’re asking ‘what’s in it for me?’, so it’s important you tell them, clearly. ‘Download something’ would be a less motivating CTA than, for example, ‘Downloading this will make your job easier’.
   
3. Consistency is key.
   Whatever your CTA refers to, give the offer/proposition a name and stick to it. If you call it a download on your landing page, call it a download in your blog, and in all CTAs. Otherwise people either:
   
   
   1. get confused
   2. don’t trust you.
      
      Either way, they’re not clicking on your link.
      
4. Add some urgency.
   We’re all busy, so you need to make the most of people’s desire to get things done quickly. The internet, after all, is hardly a place for thoughtful contemplation. The word ‘now’ is your friend.
   
5. Look at me.
   Websites that are consistent and well designed, encourage trust. But it’s important that CTA buttons also stand out. So make it pop (and look clickable). Buttons are stereotypically red for a reason.
   
6. Testing, testing 1, 2, 3…
   Not sure if your CTA has what it takes? Ask your audience. A/B test multiple CTAs to find the one with the best engagement. (This can also help you personalise CTAs based on different groups in your audience — but that’s a blog for another day.)
   
   As you can see, these steps are pretty simple. They’re also inexpensive and can be done straight away. So don’t be deceived by their size, CTAs are powerful little things.

Click now for even more conversion tips.

(See what we did there!?)

References:
Ginny Soskey (2013). The Complete Checklist for Creating Compelling Calls to Action. Available: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/call-to-action-optimization-ht#sm.001sng5wp11k7fqcw4q2g8zrtcrit

Heidi Cohen (2013). How to Improve your Social Media Calls to Action. Available: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-improve-your-social-media-calls-to-action/

Hubspot Academy (2016). How to create an A/B variation test for Calls-to-Action (CTA).
Available: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/cta-user-guide-v2/how-to-create-an-a-b-variation-test-for-calls-to-action