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4 Ways to Use Calls to Action in Your Downloadable Materials

4 Ways to Use Calls to Action in Your Downloadable Materials

The magic moment in digital inbound marketing is when a website visitor completes a landing page form to download your content offer and converts into a lead. But don’t assume that your offer can’t attract even more leads.

If your content—ebook, case study, podcast, or whitepaper—is useful, entertaining and well-written, that lead may feel compelled to share it with colleagues. And that is when you can generate even more leads by drawing those colleagues to your website with additional calls to action and links to the landing pages for more offers.

Just as we use CTAs in blog posts and nearly a dozen other places to encourage visitors to become leads, you can use CTAs in your offers to attract new leads and drive deeper engagement with those who originally downloaded the content.

Here are four ways to include CTAs within your content marketing offers:

1. Place CTAs in the introduction

In an ebook, like this one outlining 15 Business Blogging Mistakes and Fixes, you may want to include an introductory section telling what the book is about, who can benefit from it, and a bit about the author.

Use calls to action on these first pages to link to your website’s resources page for more offers, to encourage social media connection with the author or your company, or to offer a demonstration or consultation. You could also include a CTA for your blog or for an email newsletter. By offering a number of different options, you can reach prospects at all stages of the sales funnel — both those who are just learning about your and your business and those nearing a purchase decision.

2. Use contextual links as CTAs

Within the text of your offer, there will undoubtedly be opportunities to offer subtle contextual links to additional offers about the topics that receive only a brief mention.

If you mention a topic about which you have a more complete offer, use a simple link from a keyword or phrase that will take readers to the landing page for that second offer. These simple links don’t interrupt the flow of your original content offer, but are easily seen by the reader who is looking for something more.

You can also take it a step farther by providing a listing of resources with more descriptive text, such as the title of the additional offers. These types of lists are especially good for providing more in-depth material about the topic of your original offer, including tools such as templates, worksheets or checklists.

3. Include image-based CTAs

Along with writing contextual links or other text-based CTAs into your downloadable offers, consider placing the same type of image-based calls to action you might use in the banner or sidebar of your blog.

These are more eye-catching and might grab the attention of a reader who is skimming the material. If the CTA is for a related offer that provides what the reader is looking for, you may snare a new lead.

4. Include CTAs in the closing pages

Never leave a conversation without offering just a little something more, and never end an ebook, case study, video or other content offer without include a call-to-action.

Use the final page of your offer to extend an invitation for a consultation, a blog subscription, a product demonstration, or the next content offer in your lead nurturing workflow. These CTAs provide an opportunity for an existing lead to move further through the sales funnel or for new visitors to become a part of your contact list and network.

Need more ideas for improving your inbound marketing lead generation? We have one for every day of the month: 30 Hot Lead Generation Tips, Tricks & Ideas.

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