Using Video as a Tool for Social Media Marketing

I'd like to share with you a great article I read recently titled:

"26 Ways To Use Video For Your Social Media Marketing"  

This article shows you how to capture your audience.  You discover "26 ways to use video to improve your social media marketing".  The clue is in the heading!  

Click here to read article in full/

I found the following 5 items to be key items for me, I hope you find them of benefit to you:

1. 

Video lengths.

No one wants to make a social media video and find out afterwards that it is too long.  The below list should be useful to you:

• Facebook: 120 minutes
• Twitter: It recommends keeping videos under 30 seconds
• Instagram: 60 seconds
• Snapchat: 10 seconds
• Vine: 6 seconds.

2.

Grab your audience's attention early.

To do this, you have 10 seconds!  If you haven't caught their attention by then, sadly you have missed the boat.  It is so important for you to get to the point with your video as quickly and concisely as possible.  Keep it simple.  There should be one point to every video and one point only.  Include your logo (instant recognition).  Once you have their attention, you're half way there.

3.

Optimize for Search.

Adding keywords or a key phrase is a definite plus and this goes for just about everything you post on social media.  Think "Headlines and Descriptions" on your video using keywords and/or phrases to help users find you.  Don't forget, the right headline with the right keywords will not only find you and make viewers curious but it will also increase your rankings in the sites search engines. Another way of boosting search results is by adding the relevant "hashtags" on Twitter and Instagram.

4.

Sound.

Be it with or without sound, your video needs to be visually interesting.  To help you to achieve an audience without sound use contrasting, bright colours, use captions instantly once the video starts.  If you are using sound for your video, needless to say the sound quality needs to be good.  Make sure your video has little if not any background noise.  The last thing you want is someone losing interest in your video because the sound quality is not up to scratch.  

5.

Track engagement, views and clicks.

This is not just important, it is essential.  It enables you to see how your video is performing (needless to say if it is not performing well then you need to change your contents!).  Your goal here
is to achieve lots of shares, clicks and engagement.  Facebook, Twitter and YouTube  provide this. 

A third of all online activity is spent watching videos, so get rolling ..... 

Lunch with the Digital Experts

We are SO excited to announce a very special lunch coming up at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre. Rob Cass of GPP Global, will facilitate a seminar and workshop on Using Digital to Drive Sales here on Wed 29th June from 12.30-2.15.

Rob's work has taken him all over the world working with well known brands such as Zara, Gant and Unilever. This unique lunch event will include an exclusive live broadcast from digital experts at Unilever and Gant sharing their secrets to digital success.

The second part of the lunch is all about focusing on your business, using a bad-good-great framework, Rob will lead you through an action plan tailored for your business.

The cost is €50 and you can book your place by emailing dungarvanec@gmail.com

Beat the Spam Filter - Things to Bear in Mind

Last week we talked about trigger words and phrases and how the wrong subject line can see your carefully constructed emails idling in their recipients’ Spam folders, never to be seen. Knowing which words and phrases are likely to earn you the proverbial red card is the easiest way to avoid this. However, Spam filters are becoming more and more sophisticated and there are a number of

reasons, besides the inclusion of key offending phrases, that this unfortunate fate may befall your emails.

Not to worry however, as DEC will be running a series of articles on Spam filters and how to get past them. This is the second of the series, and I'd like to talk a little about why spam filters are important, as well as giving you some examples of behaviour that may cause you to end up on the wrong side of them. 

Remember Who the Enemy Is

As a marketer, it’s easy to see spam filters as the enemy and an obstacle to our own ends. Before you get too annoyed with them however, here are some things to bear in mind:  In 2011, the estimated figure for spam messages was around seven trillion, and conservative estimates suggest that spam comprises 80-85% of all the email in the world. Spamming remains economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and the costs, such as lost productivity and fraud, are borne by the public and by Internet service providers, which have been forced to add extra capacity to cope with the deluge.

Moreover, spamming really lowers the bar in advertising and trivialises your efforts to deliver quality, useful content that your audience will want to read. We have a responsibility as marketers to keep our standards high and tackle this problem rather than contribute to it. The rewards of striving to always deliver valuable content are two-fold; we raise the bar for legitimate advertising and we build a great reputation with our customers so that they actually read and engage with our emails in future.

“But *my* content is always valuable!”

I'm not saying that one or two faux pas in your mail-out puts it into the same category as those dodgy “Meet Singles in Your Area!” emails we all get from time to time. But even if I'm to judge solely from the spam folder of my own personal email account, it would appear that an awful lot of legitimate marketers don’t realise how “spammy” their emails actually are. The key, really, is to avoid jumping the gun and shouting at your audience. It sounds like a no-brainer, but we are all guilty of

jockeying for notice from time to time- we know that our recipients likely receive hundreds of marketing emails every week and are desperate to have ours noticed in the chaos. Understandable, but it’s precisely this whiff of desperation which tips off the spam filter and lands us in trouble.

Here are a few classic mistakes marketers make which inadvertently “spammify” their emails:

1.       USING ALL-CAPS

Inside voices, people! Nobody likes to be shouted at. Using all caps in your subject line might get people’s attention, but this looks spammy and can really rub people the wrong way. In fact, a study by

the Radicati Group found that more than 85% of respondents prefer an all-lowercase subject line to one in all caps. This might sound like a no-brainer, but when you consider that 69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line, you'll want to stay away from triggers like this as much as you can.

2.       Exclamation marks!!!!! 

These are another seemingly obvious thing that can make your subject line or email look unprofessional. It’s a faux pas of writing as well as marketing to try to make punctuation do the job

that words are supposed to do. If your words are not enough to get readers excited about our content, it’s time to get back to the drawing board.

3.       Using video or Flash in emails

Most email providers automatically disable rich media like Flash or video embeds anyway, so it’s not worth trying. Instead, use an image of your video player (with a play button) that links to the rich media on a website page.

4.       Including attachments

If you want to send your recipients something like a PDF or a Word document, don't attach the file to the email -- otherwise your email could get blocked by spam filters. Instead, upload the attachment to your website and link to the file location in your email using an effective call-to-action button. This will minimize the chance of it being blocked by spam filters and decrease the load time of your email.

      5.       Spelling and grammatical errors

That Radicati Group study I mentioned earlier also found that for 80% of respondents, spelling and grammatical errors are the worst offence possible. But in addition to being unprofessional, these errors are also a spam trigger. Everyone slips up from time to time, so always run a spell-check as well as proof-reading your emails yourself.

      6.       Too many images

Emails jam-packed with images, or which contain excessively large images, tend to end up in the spam folder as filters can’t read images. This happens especially if the email is heavy on images but contains little text.

7.       A few other things worth mentioning:

·         URL shorteners are often used within emails to hide malware so are a big red flag to spam filters.

·         Designing a HTML email in Microsoft Word is another mistake; the code is sloppy and scores highly within spam filters.

·         Sending tests multiple times to recipients within a company can also get you into trouble because of firewall issues.

8.       …And of course, avoid trigger words and phrases.

See last week’s article for information on how trigger words work and our list of top offenders.

Adapted from this Hubspot article.

Beat the Spam Filter! Trigger words to avoid

Writing a great marketing email can be a difficult feat at the best of times. Audiences are becoming ever more cynical, inundated with hundreds of emails a week from companies claiming to offer something that will improve their lives in some way. So when you have managed to draft the perfect email to share your message with your potential customers, the last thing you want is for it to end up sitting in their spam folder, never to be seen- let alone opened. Thankfully there is a wealth of information out there to help you come up with an engaging subject line that won’t doom your hard work to obscurity.

Spam filters are becoming more and more sophisticated but you can beat them if you know how they work and what to avoid. There are a lot of reasons an email will be redirected into a Spam folder on arrival but when it happens, it’s usually because the subject line contained a trigger word or phrase. Most spam filters work on a point-based system so that having just one offending phrase won’t trigger rejection- except for some phrases which the filter considers irredeemable. SpamAssassin 2.43 for example assigns default points for these top offenders: 

Reverses aging Compare rates ‘Hidden’ assets Compete for your business Free investment Promise you Stock disclaimer statement Free Preview Multi-level marketing Compare rates

The above phrases are almost certain to nab you a one-way ticket into the dreaded spam folder, but even if you avoid them, other suspect words and phrases can add up. Here are some of the top offenders for each category of business email. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

(Just for the record, avoid the word “Free” in your subject line at all costs!)

Commerce: “As seen on”, “Shopper”, “Clearance”

Employment: “Additional income”, “Be your own boss”, “Compete for business”

Financial – General: “Affordable”, “Credit”, “Cheap”

Financial – Business: “Credit cards”, “Hidden Costs”, “No investment”

Financial – Personal: “Out of debt”, “Child support”, “Your income”

General: “Satisfaction”, “Freedom”, Lifetime"

Greetings: “Dear [name]”, “Friend”, “Hello”

Marketing: “Increase your sales”, “Marketing solutions”, “Member”

Medical: “Hair loss”, “Diagnostics” “Snoring”

Numbers: “Join millions”, “Guaranteed”, “100%”

Offers: “”Deal”, “Per day” “Trial”

Calls-to-Action: “Compare”, “Sign up”, “Apply Now”

Descriptions/Adjectives: “Congratulations”, “Amazing”, “Certified”

We’ll be running a series of articles on Spam filters over the coming weeks so watch this space for more tips on how to make sure your emails reach their intended target!

Adapted from Hubspot's great article here 

Using Snapchat to Boost Your Business

In the five short years since its inception, Snapchat has defied its humble origins to become one of the world’s leading social media platforms. Launched in September 2011 from the living room of co-founder Evan Spiegels’ parents’ house, the app resonated with millennials in particular for its simple but unprecedented concept: Once viewed, gone forever.

Living in the Age of Social Media means that most of us are keenly aware of the lasting power of material shared online. For an entire generation of people who have suffered at least mild embarrassment when confronted with the ghosts of statuses past, Snapchat was a revelation. Over the years it has built on that single popular feature to offer a range of services such as Stories, video-sharing and instant messaging. Snapchat now enjoys over 100 million daily active users and 7 billion video views per day, with many major brands getting in on the action and turning to Snapchat to boost their marketing campaigns. The limited life-span of its posts makes Snapchat a valuable tool for creating exciting and urgent calls-to-action for your customers.

Unfortunately, unless you are part of Generation Y and were therefore weaned on technology, Snapchat is known for being somewhat user-hostile.  Here’s a guide to getting the most out of Snapchat in your marketing campaign:

Getting Started

One of the most important things to understand before embarking on your Snapchat marketing journey is that your audience here are a different breed to your Facebook or Twitter followers. Snapchat’s user base may be growing and expanding beyond the teen audience who were responsible for its initial success, but its culture of casual communication still prevails and will likely continue to do so. The fact that Snapchat’s users are not typically looking for professional content means that a marketing campaign here can’t necessarily be approached in the same way as on Facebook or Twitter. Don’t let this put you off though- this in itself creates opportunities to reach a new audience, and in some ways Snapchat marketing requires less effort than other social media platforms. For a start, Snapchat’s casual environment and the fleeting nature of Snaps means that people tend not to be quite as condemnatory of posts as they can be on other social media platforms. It goes without saying that you should strive to be professional in all your business posts no matter what platform they are on, but Snapchat presents an opportunity to show your customers the fun side of your organisation which will in turn humanize your company and help build customer loyalty.  

Creating a follower base

When launching a Snapchat account, many businesses use promotions to garner an initial following to build on. New York-based frozen yoghurt chain 16 Handles are known for being the first company to successfully implement a Snapchat marketing campaign. In early 2013 the brand launched their “Snappy New Year” promotion where they encouraged users to participate by visiting select locations at certain times and snapping photos of their friends enjoying their frozen yoghurt. In return, snappers received a coupon for anywhere between 16% and 100% off which they then had just 10 seconds to show the cashier. Although 16 Handles didn’t measure the results of their campaign, the exposure they received in the media for their strategy and the amount of businesses flocking to Snapchat since then speak for themselves.

As well as running promotions and giveaways from your Snapchat account, use your other, more established social media accounts to promote Snapchat. The time limit on snaps means that you’re unlikely to reach as many people if they aren’t forewarned of an upcoming offer. Let your Twitter and Facebook followers know that you will be making an exciting announcement on Snapchat at an appointed time, and encourage them to add their friends as well. You can use a simple hashtag to track new followers, as sports ticket provider Chat Sports did with great success back in June 2013.

Chat Sports used Snapchat to offer their community a chance to win tickets to a game. To enter, users had to have five friends add Chat Sports on Snapchat. Then those friends had to send a unique image to Chat Sports with the username of the fan who wanted to win the tickets and the hashtag #gimmietickets. The result was 150 responses in 48 hours.

If you run a smaller business, you might not be able to offer expensive giveaways like Chat Sports did, but don’t let that put you off; merely HAVING a Snapchat account will earmark your company as being on-trend and fun.

Tip: If you are a small or local business, there are so many ways you can use Snapchat to create a sense of community with your followers and get them to engage with your snaps and your business. If you’re a restaurant, for example, you could send out teaser snaps of specials each day coming up to lunchtime. If you’re a retail outlet and you want to promote a new product line, offer discounts or freebies to the first ten people to send snaps of them using your product. If you offer a service instead of a product, you can still get in on the action- if you’re a dentist, for example, you could offer a free clean to first ten people to send you a snap of their smile! You get my drift. The possibilities are endless and the only thing limiting you is your imagination.

Once your Snapchat account is properly established it can become your main platform, and you can use your Snapchat content on your other social media profiles as well. In this way, Snapchat needn’t become too much of a draw on your valuable time and will actually simplify the running of your other social media accounts.

Continually promoting your Snapchat account on Twitter and Facebook should help to draw in followers, but what to do with them once they are there?

Creating Content

The key to creating content that your followers will want to open is to offer them a view of your company through Snapchat that they can’t get anywhere else. People love to get behind the scenes, and this is mutually beneficial as it is so easy on Snapchat to humanize your brand. Post snaps of day-to-day occurrences, your team, and office moments such as staff birthdays or new equipment, and keep it fun and light-hearted. Don’t worry if your snaps don’t look too polished; in an interconnected communication framework like today’s social media environment, being real can trump being perfect. You can use the Stories feature to create fun compilations of the goings-on at your company. You can also schedule Snapchat events throughout the week to keep people coming back.

Tip: Traditional marketing wisdom says that to establish a brand, you must drill the same message into your audience over and over to reinforce a narrative of what you want people to associate with your company. Snapchat turns this convention on its head because the draw of Snapchat is novelty. The only way to make your brand's Snapchat worth caring about is to make it change every day- make your brand an evolving story.

Promotions, as mentioned earlier, are a great way to encourage continued engagement with your posts. Previews, similarly, are a great way to establish a buzz of excitement, especially with the time limit on snaps creating a sense of urgency. The New Orleans Saints implement this strategy to its full potential by regularly sending out stories that include behind-the-scenes footage, a look at kits for the game and images of new Saints products.

One of the easiest and most effective ways of keeping up-to-date on Snapchat and encouraging engagement with your posts is to participate in every live event that you can. Thanks to the advent of hashtags, social media is becoming an integral part of participating in live events and there are a number of benefits to getting in on the action. Your followers will become accustomed to “seeing” you at events, creating a sense of familiarity with your brand which in turn encourages customer loyalty. It also shows your followers that your brand is up-to-date and on trend. Live events are easy because you needn’t be physically present at the event to take part. If you are, even better, but live-snapping is great because it allows you to create a presence at social events even if you are just sitting at home watching them on TV.

You can also keep things current and exciting by running “takeovers” of your Snapchat account. Chipotle, for example, grabbed their followers’ attention by announcing that the band Walk the Moon was going to be taking over their Snapchat account for a day. Many brands team up with celebrities or popular figures and let them be “in charge” of their account, sharing exclusive insights to get people talking. Like promotions, this may not always be feasible on the same scale as the examples listed here; If you’re a small-town coffee shop, Kim Kardashian is probably not going to come and take over your Snapchat account for the day. But if you use local talent- whether it be community figures or popular local musicians/artists- as influencers, they will appreciate the publicity and you will be able to boost your brand. In this way, you can build up your reputation with minimal effort, all the while supporting your local economy which will in turn help to grow your business. Win/win.

Tip: Beat the character limit! Snapchat’s 31-character limit is strict even by today’s social media standards. If you’re finding the limit too constricting, you can simply Copy & Paste text from your clipboard and the limit will not take effect. Remember the time limit though, and don’t include so much text that your snaps lose their impact. This currently only works on Snapchat for iOS.

When you’re not snapping your latest merchandise, promotional offer or local guitar-playing heartthrob, you’re going to need filler posts. We’d all avoid them if we could, but when you are trying to establish or maintain an online presence, you have to be.. well, present. We all have slow news days where we find ourselves grasping for relevant material to post on social media so that we don’t fade into obscurity. Fortunately, filler posts are easy on Snapchat, which is built on the desire for novelty and instant, fleeting gratification. For this reason, Snapchat users tend to be less critical and so you can post pretty much anything as long as it’s not offensive and you can connect it to your business. So snaps of your cat using your merchandise are fair game on Snapchat. In fact, they’ll probably do very well!

In conclusion

If you’re still unsure of whether there’s any value to using Snapchat for marketing purposes, consider some statistics. There are currently over 100 million daily active users on Snapchat and 7 billion video views per day. If Snapchat isn’t a part of your social media strategy, you could be missing out on the opportunity to connect with dozens of people who fit into your target audience. However, there’s more to bridging the gap than just downloading the app. If you’d like to know more about Snapchat for marketing, watch this space- Dungarvan Enterprise Centre will be expanding on this area soon!

Do you use Snapchat as part of your marketing strategy? Tell us about your experiences in the comments section below!

Clever Call-to-Action Buttons - How Do You Use Yours?

24 Compulsive and Clever Call-to-Action Buttons

In the field of web design and user experience, Call-To-Action (CTA) refers to those elements within a web page which call on the visitor to take action- more specifically CTA usually refers to the clickable buttons we employ on our webpages to ask visitors to sign up, download or add items to their cart. These buttons, obviously, need to draw the visitors’ attention and are typically eye-catching, colourful and surrounded by plenty of space. However, the trick to designing an effective Call-To-Action button which will maximise conversion opportunities from your site is to tailor your CTA to your specific needs. It’s important to guide your visitors through the buying journey with simple and effective calls-to-action. In case you’re not sure, here are some examples of notably effective Call-To-Action buttons which you can’t help but click:

1)      Evernote

Evernote’s straightforward design and page layout mean that the two most important messages users receive on opening the site are “Remember Everything”, Evernote’s slogan, and their call-to-action asking users to sign up. The minimalist colour scheme means that the green button really pops, too.

2)      Netflix

Netflix’s offer of “Join free for a month” on their shiny red CTA button is tempting enough, but with many people having wised up to the fact that these free sign-up options are often difficult to cancel. Netflix deals with this by clarifying that users can “Cancel anytime” right above their sign-up button, which has no doubt boosted sign-ups in itself.

3)      Dropbox

Dropbox has always embraced simple design with a lot of negative space. Even the graphics on their homepage are subtle and simple. Evidently this works, as the blue “Sign up for free” button really jumps off the page. Since the CTA and the Dropbox logo are the same colour, it's easy for the visitor to interpret this CTA as "Sign up for Dropbox."

4)      Huemor

Huemor is another company whose website design incorporates fun into the user experience. Go to their homepage and you’ll be greeted with a rocket hovering over a “LAUNCH” button with the inscription “DO NOT PRESS” beneath it. Anyone want to try guessing why this works?

5)   Madewell

Madewell has always enjoyed a high standard of website design. Its bustling, interactive homepage lends itself to fun CTAs and Madewell has delivered on this. When you arrive at the Madewell homepage you are greeted with a suggestion as to what you are looking for-usually based on their new arrivals or a current sale- and two options: “Yes, take me there” or “Hmm… What’s next?” I like that the Madewell approach acknowledges that the visitor may not be there for their current promotion yet cheekily assumes that he/she will want to stick around. Its’ unusual CTA also creates the impression that the user is being catered to and given more options to choose from than your standard “Enter or leave” homepages supply. Well played, Madewell!

6)      Prezi

Prezi have also adopted a minimalist approach to their website design. The relatively plain screen with infrequent bursts of colour ensures that users’ eyes are drawn immediately to what’s important: The bright blue “Give Prezi a try” CTA.

7)   Focus Ireland

Focus Ireland is one of Ireland’s busiest charities, and this is evident in the fact that its main page is very, well... focused. The two black-on-yellow CTA’s at the bottom of the page are obviously the most important: “I need help”, or “Donate now”.  An obviously secondary “Find out more” CTA is also available if you don’t find either of those options urgently pressing (Okay, I’m finished with puns now!). It’s certainly nice that anyone in trouble is immediately directed towards help on visiting the site, but interestingly, the fact that the “Donate now” button appears alongside “I need help”, as well as being the same size, colour and design, subliminally reminds the visitor about the direct link between donations and helping people. Clever!

8)      OfficeVibe

Slide in CTA’s are particularly effective because unlike pop-up CTA’s, they don’t annoy the user, and this is a crucial part of convincing visitors to stay, thereby converting them into customers. OfficeVibe’s slide in CTA is particularly effective as it slides unobtrusively across the screen while viewing OfficeVibe articles and offers, in highlighted text, to help the user to “become a better manager”.

9)   Pinterest

The team at Pinterest are primarily focused on attracting new members if their homepage is anything to go by. There’s an inconspicuous “Log in” CTA toward the top right hand corner of the window, and other than that the page is overwhelmingly concerned with sign-up options. Pinterest would prefer, naturally, that you log in using Facebook (they can then pull in Facebook’s API data and get more information about you than if you log in using your email address); the primary CTA is a large, Facebook-blue “Continue with Facebook” button.

10)      Dego Interactive

Dego Interactive’s website represents one of the rare instances where a CTA is inconspicuous yet still begs to be clicked. The website’s main page is attractive without making too big a deal of itself, and to draw attention to their “Start Trip” CTA they have cleverly installed a bobbing orange arrow to ensure that you can’t miss it.

11)      Full Bundle

Full Bundle are a company whose website embodies great marketing techniques, and their CTA is no different. Being a web-design company, it’s important that they showcase their work from the moment a potential customer arrives at their site, and with their fun interactive homepage they have risen to the challenge remarkably well. Whenever you’re done blasting colourful shapes around your screen (I spent more time doing this than I’m willing to admit), the next obvious place to go is to the CTA- the “Our Work” button which, apart from the menu tucked away in the corner, is the only button on the screen.

12)      Panthera

Panthera, a non-profit conservation organisation, knows their market: How better to recruit big cat lovers than with an offer to “Join the pride today”? This CTA appears on the main page on a background which consists merely of a photograph of lionesses and cubs lolling under a blue African sky. It couldn’t be more simple, or more effective.

13)   Treehouse

A lot of company websites out there offer users the opportunity to start a free trial. But the CTA on Treehouse's website doesn't just say "Start a Free Trial"; it says "Claim Your Free Trial." The difference in wording may seem subtle, but think about how much more personal "Claim Your Free Trial" is. Plus, the word "claim" suggests it may not be available for long, giving users a sense of urgency to get that free trial while they can.

14)   Visit Humboldt

Whoever designed the Humboldt County website knew exactly what its strong marketing points were. Log onto visithumboldt.com and you’ll be greeted with a full-screen montage of Humboldt’s startlingly beautiful landscapes. Centre-screen and a constant above Humboldt’s lush woodland and stunning coastline is the greeting- Welcome to Humboldt County- and their Alice-in-Wonderland themed CTA which invites the visitor to “Follow the Magic”. What’s not to like? What's more, once you click into that CTA, the website turns into a sort of choose-your-own-adventure game, which is a fun call-to-action path for users and encourages them to spend more time on the site. Now, anyone for a holiday?

15)   Spotify

Spotify, the music streaming service, makes no bones about the fact that it wants you to go premium. The “Play free” button, which is the option that most Spotify users continue to avail of, is almost an afterthought on the homepage. The rest of Spotify’s efforts as far as their main page is concerned have gone into endorsing their premium package.

16)   OKCupid

The brilliance of the OKCupid interface is in the fact that it keeps it simple. Its Spartan home screen asks its visitors to enter only their gender and orientation before clicking on the green CTA button. This is important as the implication is that you needn’t enter too much personal information before you “Continue”, which surely helps to draw in shyer visitors to the site before guiding them through the sign-up process.

17)   Blogging.org

Seconds after arriving at blogging.org’s homepage, new visitors are greeted with a pop up. While this is not a new feature on websites (nor is it one that users tend to like to see), blogging.org has cleverly added something new to the formula to help ensnare new visitors: a timer set at two minutes begins counting down on the pop up, which announces a limited time offer for users to avail of free WordPress installation as well as some other perks. All you have to do is enter your name and email and click the blue CTA which says “Click here to get started”. It may be an obvious ploy, but it still plants the idea of scarcity in visitors’ minds and has probably caused many to sign up on the spot.

18)   Mint

Mint’s CTA is effective because, similarly to Netflix and OKCupid, the text on the CTA is somewhat non-committal: “Check it out” sounds less like pledging your custom than it does dipping your toes to see how you feel before making a decision. Users are far more likely to click on a CTA which doesn’t seem likely to hold them to it!

19)   APPSTEMPLATES.com

This website’s call-to-action is unusual in that it showcases the value you'll get for clicking. Not only does this button contain a “sale” sticker which promotes a sense of urgency but it shows how much money you’ll be saving ($60). The supporting "join the club now" copy makes you feel like you're missing out on something and this site, like Dego Interactive, gets bonus points for having the arrow pointing to the CTA.

20)   Ugmonk

If you’ve never heard of an exit CTA by name, you’ve certainly come across them. Exit CTA’s are those irritating little pop-ups that appear just when you’re about to click out of a website to ask you if you’re sure you want to leave. Annoying as these usually are, Ugmonk at least seems to have found a more agreeable way of implementing them. When Ugmonk predicts that you’re about to leave (I had only begun to hover near the “Back” button) a pop-up appears offering a 15% discount off your first order, which is apparently only valid for 48 hours. Your options are two CTA’s- one a bright, bubbly green which says “Yes please, send me the coupon”, the other a dull grey affirming that you are neither interested nor interesting. So, which will it be?

21)   Kooba.ie

Kooba is an Irish web design and online marketing company and they know very well how to make their own website a shining example of their work- in fact, viewing their work is one of the CTA options. Their homepage opens by claiming Kooba to be “experts in digital craft” and in “crafting memorable online experiences for (their) clients”. This is where their clever CTA’s come in. After their bold assertion of expertise, the visitor is guided through two options: “See the proof” is bright orange and the obvious choice of action, and then “Start your project”- surely the only conceivable choice of action after you’ve been both told and shown that Kooba is the best?

22)   Hosting Ireland

Hosting Ireland provides web hosting solutions and doesn’t forget for a second to keep its eye on the task at hand. In fact, the very first CTA you meet upon logging on to their website is a simple search bar. All you do is key in your preferred choice of domain name and Hosting Ireland will tell you right away if it’s available. This CTA is effective because it seems innocuous- why wouldn’t you type in your domain name, just to see if it’s available? But once you have engaged with the site you are much more likely to make a purchase, and your buying options are presented in CTA form as soon as you click “Search”.

23)   T.C. Pharma

Red Bull’s parent company manufactures a myriad of energy drinks and electrolyte beverages as well as functional drinks and snacks. However, the T.C. Pharma marketing team know that many people who are familiar with Red Bull are unaware of the corporate giant behind it, and so they have used the image of their best-known product to great effect on their homepage. Your CTA choices, after being made aware that this is the website of “the company behind the world’s leading energy drink”, are “Find out more” or “View products”, as though the website designers acknowledge that you may be visiting T.C. Pharma for the first time.

24)   Hipmunk

Hipmunk is a travel website which finds the user deals on flights and accommodation. Its animation-based design is fairly simple- it’s Hipmunk’s calls-to-action which are really worth a mention. Its clever form design allows the user to quickly search for what they need based on the four tabs at the top: flights, hotels, cars and packages. The form itself alters depending on which tab you choose, and the icon on the “Search” button changes from an airplane to a hotel, car or package depending on which tab you choose for extra clarity during your visit to the site. It’s the little details that make or break a great CTA!

Which websites do you think have the best CTA’s? Let us know in the comments section!

This article has been adapted from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/great-call-to-action-examples?utm_campaign=blog-rss-emails&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=27089140