How to Get the Most Out of Your B2B Website CTAs

Does your website motivate its users to take action? Compel them will these practical guidelines.
GoogleDrive_B2B_Website_CTAs

Website CTAs are one of the most important marketing tactics.

They’re the tool you use to get your website visitors to click through to the web pages your business really cares about — the money pages. Get them right and you can boost your company’s bottom line. Get them wrong and your marketing efforts won’t deliver the results you need. 

In this article, we take a close look at three examples of B2B companies that use website CTAs in an effective way, giving one example per site and explaining why it’s an excellent idea to take inspiration from these marketers. 

Page Placement Is Crucial 

Page placement is a pretty straightforward concept. It’s where you put your CTAs on your web pages, such as at the top or bottom. 

However, don’t be fooled by its simplicity. Page placement is one of the most important things you need to know about using website CTAs. Why? Because if you get it wrong, people won’t click on your CTAs and they won’t complete the actions you want them to. 

HermanMiller is a B2B brand that advertises and sells office furniture, something that’s relevant to any company with a workplace (all workers need a desk setup). The images below demonstrate how its web pages are a great example of where to place CTAs:

Credit: HermanMiller

The great thing about the placement of the CTA in this example is that it’s on the right side of the page. This may seem like a small detail but it’s a really important one. This is because it’s placed to attract the attention of the right side of your brain, the part that controls attention, reasoning and memory. In other words, it’s the part that makes your decisions.

Credit: HermanMiller

The screenshot above is taken from the page you’re directed to after clicking on the CTA in the first example.

What’s impressive about the placement of the three CTAs on this page is that the rationale follows the problem, solution, action principle — you need a chair, it provides support, this is where you can get it. The CTA is placed at the bottom of each product, so the user has had their pain point addressed before being directed to the product that addresses it.

While your website CTAs need to be created specifically for your business, following the example set by HermanMiller is a great starting point. All you need to do is to adapt this B2B company’s good practices in the right way for your business.

Get Your Microcopy Spot on 

Microcopy is the short content that’s used in association with products and services. In the context of website CTAs, it’s the text that tells your users what to do. And it’s commonly found on the buttons of many CTAs.

As you can imagine, writing great microcopy is an incredibly important skill to get right. Why? Because if you give your website visitors the right message, they’ll click on your CTAs. If you give them the wrong message then they won’t click on them.

iCompario is a B2B brand that compares and offers fuel cards, a product that’s beneficial to businesses that depend on transport (either delivering goods or traveling on company time). The screenshots that follow highlight how the brand uses microcopy in website CTAs to great effect.

Credit: iCompario

The microcopy on the CTA is clear (“Get a quote”) and directs the user without being forceful — it does what the site wants and lets the user know what they’re going to get once they click the button. Another point to note is the color of the CTA button. There’s no best color to use but orange is one of the most popular choices because it often stands out against the background of the page.

Credit: iCompario

The image above is taken from the same iCompario web page as the first image. Again, there’s a clear and direct CTA with simple microcopy (“read more about iCompario >”). The inclusion of an arrow at the end of the copy is a compelling touch as it makes the copy feel more active.

But the key microcopy lesson to take from this example has to do with the three text sections above the CTA. They tell the user how they will benefit from the product (“95% coverage”), timestamps the application process (“30 seconds”) and then gives them a vision of the future (the “perfect fuel card”). No space is wasted and a simple customer journey is mapped out for the user.

You’ll have to adapt these best practices in the right way for your company — e.g., it might be that orange doesn’t work with the background of your webpages — but the key takeaway is to make sure your microcopy is clear and direct and that your audience understands what they’re going to get when they click your website CTAs.

Use H2s to Instruct Your Readers

H2s are an HTML element that Google (and other search engines) use to understand what a web page is about. 

But it’s not just search engines that use this HTML element to learn more about a page. H2s are also a great way for site visitors to get a scannable view of what to expect. And if you use them correctly, they’re a great way of supporting your website CTAs.

Cerasis is a transportation management company that provides technology and solutions for companies that use shipping. The pictures below are brilliant examples of how they use their H2s to support the CTAs in their blog posts.

Credit: Cerasis

The H2 highlights an audience pain point (“Big Delays”) that’s solved by the copy in the CTA (“Giving Control back to the Shipper”). This approach gets the user’s attention and then starts them on a journey, setting them up for the solution provided in the CTA and pursuing a double-impact approach to the tactic of getting them to invest in Cerasis’s consultancy service. This is known as the perceptual set theory, a method where you’ve prepared your audience for the CTA and thus eased them into clicking on it.

Credit: Cerasis

The screengrab above is taken from the same webpage and it follows on from the previous H2, making it part of the same perceptual set theory tactic. Where the two differ is in the action that Cerasis wants from the user. In the first H2, the CTA prompted the user to listen to a podcast that shows Cerasis’s expertise in the area that’s causing problems for the user.

The second one follows this up by explaining that “Supply Chain Consultant Services” is the solution to this problem. This is then followed by a CTA in the copy underneath the H2 that directs the visitor to a consultant, “GlobalTranz here.” Essentially, Cerasis has taken the user down a mini sales funnel by using H2s and CTAs.

Though you may choose to employ this tactic slightly differently (it might be that you only use one H2 to support your ultimate website CTA), it’s certainly one that can add value to your business as it eases your users into the process of completing the action you have in mind for them.

Now Go Improve Your Website CTAs!

We’ve given you three great examples of how B2B companies and sites use website CTAs, accounting for how placement, microcopy and H2s all contribute to getting your users to click through to the money page you want them to land on.

So review your own web pages, see where you can introduce the suggestions we’ve made and then implement them! Then measure the results and see if more people are clicking on your website CTAs. We’re pretty confident they will . . .



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