Hey Guys,
I wanted to share with you an old post about how to plan, design and execute great calls-to-action using Real-Time Personalization.
I’ve had the privilege of working with customers from some of the top hi-tech companies around the world to help them build their targeted, real-time campaigns. I’ve realized lately that they all have the same challenge when creating their online campaigns. The hardest part for them seems to be on how to focus their message for each audience and serve the appropriate content to this audience.
You have up to five seconds and an average of 3.5 clicks to grab your prospects’ attention on your website and give them the information they need. If you don’t give them what they want while they are engaged and on your website, you risk losing them going elsewhere.
As Google explains on their own website: “ Competition is just one click away.”
Based on my experience, the clearer you can make your prospects understand what it is they need to do and the more directly you can speak to them, the more successful your campaign will be.
Here are my three tips for a targeted and personalized campaign that will get your prospects engaged and shorten their time in the sales cycle.
Tip #1 – Focus On Your Target Personas and Objective
I’ve found that companies that clearly define their target audience have a much higher success rate with real-time campaigns. Ask yourself two simple questions:
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Who are you trying to reach?
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What do you want them to do?
Answering these questions is your first step to creating your personalized online campaign.
Let’s look at how one of our customers created a successful online campaign by clearly defining their target persona and objective. After opening operations in Japan, they decided to focus on building up awareness with CSO’s (Chief Security Officers) in that region. They wanted to increase registration to an upcoming regional event by targeting inbound prospects visiting their company website.
To directly target these prospects, the company created a VIP call-to-action for the event, focused on solutions to local regulatory challenges and translated the campaign banner into Japanese.
This campaign was extremely successful, with almost 50% clickthrough and dozens of registrants.
Tip #2 – Create a Clear and Specific CTA
I’ve also found that customers have troubles creating a short, targeted message that will attract their prospects.
Once you have your persona and the objective, you need to figure out the message you want to give to your audience. There are several parts to executing your campaign:
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Message – In 9-12 words, tell your prospects the added value they’ll receive from completing the Call-to-Action below. In the campaign below, you know that if you download the case study you’ll learn how the City of Las Vegas cut their Oracle upgrade by 50%.
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Image – Find an image that reflects the message you want to deliver. For example, a case study should show the logo of the profiled company. A video link should show an image of the video. Make the image clickable and have it send customers to the relevant page with the action you want them to take or content you want them to read.
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Call to Action (CTA) – Tell the prospect what you want them to do, whether it is to read the case study, register for the event or contact you. Make it extremely straightforward and very tempting. ( Hint: The more targeted the CTA is to the persona and the message, the more tempting it is).
The campaign below was successful in executing all three parts. It targeted a specific industry – the governmental sector- by giving prospects information related to their industry. Are you a prospect from the government? Learn about how our company cut time for upgrading the City of Las Vegas’ Oracle upgrade.
The campaign image was the Las Vegas seal. It was clickable and prospects were sent directly to read the case study. Their Call-to-Action was clear and targeted: (Are you from the government sector! Do you want to know more about how we can help you? Read about how we helped the City of Las Vegas).
Tip #3 - Leverage Your Content to Target Your Audience
Now that your audience is defined and you have a targeted message with a clear call-to-action, you need to figure out what content is most valuable to your prospects at their stage in the customer journey. Are you trying to educate them about your product and build awareness? Articles, press releases and webinar sign-ups are what you want to push. If they are hot leads that you want to really pull in, you should consider in-person event registration and product guides. This is the most crucial part of your campaign – and can really make or break its success. You have to really think about what content you have that will reel them in.
At this stage it is highly recommended to use the asset discovery tool and see which audiences are consuming the popular content.
In the example above, prospects from the public sector who weren’t yet ready to buy were directed to read a specific case study. That case study profiled a success story of a client in the public sector – the City of Las Vegas. It’s all about relevant content to the right people at the right time.
Feel free to comment or share your campaigns.
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