In the world of inbound marketing campaigns, a conversion path often refers to the process by which an anonymous website visitor becomes a known lead -- or takes another desired action on your website.
A typical conversion path is comprised of a content offer, call-to-action, landing page, thank-you page, and sometimes a kickback email.
In order to convert into a lead, a visitor sees a content offer of interest to them (that’s your remarkable content), clicks on the call-to-action button to access that content, and is then taken to a landing page. On that landing page, the visitor can provide their information on a form or via a bot in exchange for access to the offer itself. Upon submitting that form, the now-lead is taken to a thank-you page where they receive the offer.
While this is a straightforward approach to conversion, it’s important to note that it’s not the only way. At HubSpot, we’re constantly looking for new ways to reduce friction in the conversion path via experimental efforts like our interactive blog lead form. (See below.)
This form removes the landing page step in the traditional conversion path by allowing blog readers to convert on and download a piece of content without ever leaving the post they are reading.
This is a great example of a small step that greatly reduces friction in the flywheel, making it easier (and faster) for visitors to access and recognize the value of our resources.
While it’s important to be constantly innovating and rethinking your approach to conversion, we’ll walk you through the basics below to give you a clear path forward for now.
A call-to-action (CTA) is an image or line of text that prompts your visitors, leads, and customers to take action. It is, quite literally, a “call” to take an “action.”
When creating a call-to-action to support your campaign conversion path, consider the following:
Use actionable language. When you’re designing CTAs, effective copy all boils down to using action-oriented, second-person verbs. Use verbs like “discover, unearth, find” instead of ones like “be smarter.”
Align CTA copy with landing page copy. When you’re creating CTA copy, you also want to make sure your CTA copy and your landing page copy align. The name of the thing you are promoting -- whether it’s a free ebook, whitepaper, template, guide, crash course, or presentation -- should align with the name of it on the landing page.
Create a highly contrasting design. Calls-to-action shouldn’t blend in with the rest of your website design. While fonts and colors should align with your style guide, the way you combine these elements should make the design pop from the rest of the page.
Personalize CTAs for different segments of your audience. Create more context by tailoring CTAs to appear differently for specific audiences. For example, your visitors can see one thing, your leads can see another, and your customers can see something else altogether. (Note: This type of personalization will require marketing automation software.)
While having a landing page in place is a necessary step in the creation of an inbound marketing campaign, your landing page needs to do more than just exist. To drive results, you need to design a page that is intentional and action-oriented.
To help you get started, here are seven landing page best practices to guide your efforts:
Limit navigation. Limit the number of exits from your landing page so that your visitors are focused on filling out your form. A key part of this is to hide your website navigation elements on landing pages.
Deliver value. When designing your landing pages, get straight to the point. People came to the page for a reason, so make sure you address that reason clearly and succinctly by highlighting the value of what you’re offering and how it addresses their needs, interests, or problems.
Optimize the form. You want to make it as easy as possible for a website visitor to become a lead, but if your form is too short, then those many more leads might be much lower quality. Find the perfect length for your needs by conducting a few A/B tests. Using complementary and contrasting colors is a great way to call a visitor’s attention to exactly where you want it.
Incorporate social proof. Consider embedding tweets from users who have downloaded your content and said complimentary things about it, or ask if you can quote someone who sent a nice follow up email.
The second stop on the conversion path is the thank-you page, or the page where your visitors will actually access the offer. Much like the landing page, the thank-you page should be intentionally designed to deliver the offer and encourage more engagement with your business.
Here are a few takeaways to consider when putting together your campaign thank-you page:
Start with a confirmation. Let your visitors know that their submission went through and that you’re thankful for their interest.
Explain how to access the offer. Be really clear about how the offer can be accessed, whether that means download instructions, a link to bookmark, etc.
Provide a secondary offer or piece of content. While you have their attention, introduce an offer designed to further qualify the lead -- like a demo, coupon code, or consultation.
Reintroduce your navigation. While you want to hide the main nav on your landing page to keep visitors focused on the conversion point, reintroducing the nav on the thank you page provides visitors with more to explore.
Let’s recap. At this point, your visitor has visited a landing page promoting your campaign offering and submitted their contact information via a form. Then, they were directed to a thank-you page where they got their hands on the actual offer and were presented with a secondary piece of content.
Now there’s only one thing left to do to complete the conversion: send the kickback email. A kickback email is typically triggered via marketing automation after a visitor submits a form on your website. The purpose of this email is to deliver a link to the content they requested so they can access it at any time via their inbox.
As you can tell, the goal is to keep these emails simple. To help you get a handle on what this should look like, reference these best practices:
Serve up the goods. Again, the purpose of this email is to deliver the content offer so the recipient doesn’t have to go searching for the PDF file every time they want to access the resource. Keep it simple by providing them with the offer straightaway.
Add social sharing. Encourage those that have already downloaded your offer to share it with their network by providing social sharing buttons at the end of your email.
Introduce a secondary call-to-action. Don’t be afraid of optimizing your kickback emails to encourage secondary conversions, when appropriate. This can be done by including calls-to-action for high-value marketing offers that will move your leads further along in the sales cycle, such as a consultation with your sales team or a free trial of your product.
To help you master each of these conversion path milestones, we recommend leveraging the additional content below.
I Want the Landing Page Optimization Guide
I Want the Website Page Lookbook
I Want the Call-to-Action Templates
