How to Create CTAs to Address Stages of the Buying Process

Do you have multiple offers on your website that address the different stages of buying process?  Instead of using the same style and copy on every call-to-action (CTA) for all stages you may want to consider designing the CTAs differently to optimize click-through-rates depending on what stage of the buying process the prospect is in.

In order to create different CTAs for different stages, let’s review the different stages of the buying process.

• Awareness – someone is looking for a solution to a problem they have and realizes your business could help them solve the solution
• Consideration – a prospect realizes that after further investigation of your business’ solution that you can help
• Intent – the prospect would like to use your solution to solve their problem
• Purchase – the prospects buys your solution and becomes a customer

When creating a call-to-action for each stage why not pretend that everyone visiting your website is only in one stage of the buying process.  Let’s first look at awareness.

Awareness

When creating CTAs for the awareness stage remember that this will be for a top of the funnel offer.  Someone is on your website looking to solve a problem, the CTA should relay information that you have a solution to that problem. These should be educational in nature and cast a wide net to capture as many prospects as possible. Some examples CTA offers could be:

• White Papers
• Ebooks
• Industry Guides

Consideration

When someone is in the consideration stage of the buying process they are looking for more information on your solution. They are also looking for further proof of how your solution can help their specific problem. Before you create the CTA assume every visitor coming to your website is in the consideration stage, how could you further prove your value?  Maybe some offers showing how you’ve previously resolved customer’s problems? How about these: 

• Case Studies
• A document comparing your solution to your competitors which highlights the advantages in your solution

Intent

Anyone in the intent stage is as close to buying your solution as possible.  They are almost browsing your website for a phone number to call to buy your solution. You can create some CTAs that encourage the prospect to have you contact them, such as:

• Request a demo
• Schedule your appointment
• Request an assessment

It’s important to tailor your CTAs to the different stages in the buying process to encourage action by clicking the CTA. No one looking to educate themselves on your business and solution is going to click on a CTA that reads “Buy Now.” Help them understand what they’re doing by customizing your CTAs to speak to the different buying stages. This should keep leads in your funnel and allow those leads to get deeper in the buying process.

Do you have a CTA that works better than another? Any reason you may think why?