You’re excited because you have a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program to engage the community. Or, as a race director, you think more people will sign-up because you’ve got a way for people to compete, race, and also do social good. However, you notice that your calls-to-action (CTAs) don’t get the traction you expect. Let’s explore some of the things you should do to tighten things up.
We understand that CSR programs created around sustainability and green living to raising funds for a good cause with a walkathon or even a sports team require that you ask people to do something. In other words, you want people to like or comment on your social media. Alternatively, you may want them to take action on your website. Ultimately, you want your supporters to go through the marketing funnel and convert to contributing champions. That’s why your CTAs are essential for any CSR program.
So, let’s explore four things you need to do to ensure that your calls-to-action convert your supporters.
Get a Call-to-Action On Every Page of Your Website
A fundamental thing that you want to do on your website is to ensure every page has a CTA. In other words, you don’t want supporters who land on your site to search for how to support your CSR program or get involved. Your site exists to inform people and also to have them take action. One thing that your sports business or group should consider is that your ‘About’ page is likely one of the pages that gets the most traffic. However, you will also have others, such as your Home page, Products, or Services.
A straightforward thing to do on your mobile and responsive site is to place CTA buttons on all pages. And, if you don’t put them on all pages, make sure to place them on the highly visited ones at least. Also, make it a point to experiment and variate your calls-to-action across your site. Check out Hubspot’s examples of CTAs that perform well.
Consider Placement for Getting People to Act
Something that often happens is that CTAs get lost. Web design and social posts should take the “less is more” approach. Think about it. In the digital world, people have massive amounts of messaging and data they sift through daily. And, they could be supporting other CSR programs. So, the best thing to do is to place your call-to-action right after your most compelling information. For instance, for your site, break up the CTAs throughout a page if you happen to have a lot of visual content.
For social media, learn how to best place your calls-to-action depending on the platform. For instance, you could place links in bios for Instagram, but also you want to share that information on your post. Take a look at this article about how to craft a branded CTA on that platform perfectly. For Facebook, take a look at this piece using your Facebook Page cover photo.
Make Sure You Are Smart About CTA Design
Although everyone has their sense of aesthetics, not everyone is a professional designer. One thing that could easily happen, particularly on your website, is that your CTA could get lost. What do we mean by that? An example is color. Your CTA buttons on your site or CSR campaign pages could blend into your page, and not stand out. Therefore, your site and your social must have the eye of someone with a sense of design before publishing.
We know that many sports groups and small businesses prefer to create sites using elementary site builders. While that may make sense for you, you should consider it carefully when doing your site. How a website or campaign gets laid out, the colors and visual appearance can make your CTA pop, or disappear into the background. In short, you need to create a useful site by design.
Always Test Your Calls-to-Action
As we know, experimentation is essential in the digital age. And, yes, that even means down to your CTA. Whether it’s social media platforms or on your website, you have to test calls-to-action continually. There are a few things you should try for your CTAs. For example, you want to test color (it matters!). However, you also want to try using different shapes and white space.
You also want to test your CTAs on the copy, of course. Hubspot recently published a good primer on A/B testing your calls-to-action for design and text. And, don’t forget that although you want people to support your CSR program and you also want to drive sales, you can’t always be selling. On social media, for instance, people care about social proof. So, consider using it in conjunction with your CTAs.
In sum, success for your program depends on your calls-to-action. So, continually test, explore, and remember that nothing is in stone. Everything should change and get swapped out if something else works better.
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