CTAs - Marketing's Last Chance

CTAs - Still Useful After All These Years

How many of you use CTAs at the end of your marketing materials? 

How many of you even know what a CTA is?

The acronym "CTA" stands for Call To Action, and should be the last thing you leave your customers with when they are learning or reading about your company or business.

A Call To Action is a statement included at the end of a piece of marketing material that gives the person viewing the material the option of receiving more information. Whether the marketing material being viewed is a website, a downloaded document, a video, or some other type, a CTA should always be included at the end.

 A CTA can be as simple as a "For more information, email us at info@youraddress.com, or contact us at (xxx) xxx-xxxx" type of a statement at the end of a piece, or as complex as a form that can be filled out specifying exactly what additional information the customer needs, and whether they would like to schedule a meeting with a salesperson.

The key to CTA effectiveness though, is that simpler is usually better. Remember, you don't want to come across as being pushy.

Using CTAs

So why should you use a CTA? 

Why wouldn't you? 

Putting a CTA at the end of your marketing material is quick and easy. Using a CTA allows you to close the loop with a customer while at the same time helping you move the prospect through the sales funnel.

A CTA also shows the customer that you are interested in them and their situation, but are not trying to cram something (like a sales pitch) down their throat. Essentially, a CTA allows the customer to come to you when they are ready.

Warm Leads, Not Cold

And if a customer does approach you through your CTA, then you now have a warm, not a cold lead, as they are the ones that have indicated to you that they want more information or to speak with a salesperson. You have not coerced them, they asked you to come to them.

The Forgotten Tactic

Unfortunately, regardless of what type of content you're using, CTAs are a tactic that many marketers forget to use. Why? Probably because it is so simple and basic.

Truthfully, many marketers have become so focused on "digital this" and "online that", that they forget that some of the simplest, most basic marketing techniques still work, even in today's digital world. 

What's even more amazing is that CTAs work in both online and offline environments, as well as in print, digital, audio and video formats.

What more could a marketer ask for?

CTAs - Effective When Used

So remember, for a quick and easy way to help fill your sales funnel and increase conversions, be sure to use a CTA at the end of your content. 

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For more information and helpful marketing tips like this, please visit https://lnkd.in/ep4w6vw

© 2019 – Richard Hatheway, Catalyst Strategic Marketing

All rights reserved

 

All Marketing, All the Time

Overview

This blog provides insight on why business owners need to understand the critical nature of marketing to the success of their business.

Marketing and Your Business

Marketing.

Along with sales, it's one of the critical functions of any business. Perhaps even the most critical. Unfortunately, many business owners don't understand that. They think that as long as they're selling product, they're growing their business.

While that is true, it's only true to an extent. That’s because a sale is the culmination of everything that has gone before it. Whether that’s as simple as a walk-in customer who saw your sign and then bought an item off a shelf, or a customer who was enticed by an ad or coupon, or a customer who placed an order on your website, the final step is the sale.

And yes, all businesses want sales. Lots of them, in fact. But sales don’t happen without a lot of legwork and preparation.

Marketing Drives Sales

Marketing is critical to the growth and success of the business.

Why?

Because marketing drives sales.

Sure, without marketing your business may make some sales, but each sale is likely to have a different cause, so you’re not sure what drove that sale or what prompted that customer to buy your product. Essentially, you don’t really know what is working for your business and what isn’t, so you can’t repeat the steps to drive more sales. This method is basically a hit or miss, throw it at the wall and see what sticks approach.

That doesn’t work, it’s not repeatable and it’s definitely not scalable. You also really don’t know who your customers are. That’s why you should not only want to include marketing as part of your business operations and strategy, but you must include it.

Marketing is what raises awareness about a business, a product, a service. Marketing is what provides customers and potential customers with information about a product that they may not have previously known about, or provides reasons and incentives for them to try a product, buy a new product, or switch from one they’re currently using.

And just like in sales, marketing is not about doing just one thing and then being done. It’s also not about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting it to continue to be successful. That isn’t realistic.

Marketing includes all the creative aspects of your business, from the design of your logo and website, to picking colors and fonts for your packaging. From the blogs you write, to the posts and coupons you send out via social media, to the words you use in your emails. Marketing also includes the different ways that you approach and interact with your customers. This means that everything from your signage, to your store layout, to which methods and channels you use to communicate with customers is all considered part of your marketing.

Marketing is Much More

The more you become aware of what marketing includes, the more you will begin to see and learn other ways that marketing can help your business grow and prosper. So remember, for your business to continue to be successful, Marketing needs to be part of everything you do, all the time.

It really is “all marketing, all the time”.

© 2019 Richard Hatheway – Catalyst Strategic Marketing

All rights reserved.

Hunting Unicorns

Hunting Unicorns

Overview

The hiring process has gotten so complex that it has begun to overwhelm what should be a basic, straightforward activity – hiring a new employee. Couple that complexity with the desire to hire the “right” candidate, the absolutely “perfect” candidate (or in other words, what is known as a “Unicorn”), and what should be a relatively simple process has now become unwieldy.

Is it any wonder that the hiring process is now getting longer and longer and…

What Once Was

It used to be that hiring a new employee was a fairly simple process. You’d write a brief job description, post it somewhere, collect the applications and resumes you received, go through them, pull out the ones of interest, bring them in, interview them, eliminate the obvious ones who wouldn’t fit, bring the others back in for a second round, gather feedback, rate and rank the remaining candidates, maybe do a quick final round of interviews, then make a decision and make an offer. Sure, it used to take a few weeks, but it was still fairly straightforward.

No longer though.

Today, the hiring process at best can take several weeks, while at worst it can take several months! The hiring process now includes not only online applications, but also screening calls, phone interviews, panel interviews, in-person interviews, aptitude testing, skills testing, quantitative and qualitative testing, personality testing, psychological profiling, and more. Each day it seems as if a new test has been developed that must be administered to a candidate. Just in case…

It’s gotten so ridiculous that the average college student preparing for an SAT or GMAT has less to study for than the average candidate applying for a job.

And why is that?

It’s because HR departments, recruiters, personnel managers and hiring managers are scared.

Scared?

Yes, scared. They’re scared of making a mistake – the mistake being that, Gasp!, they’re going to miss hiring the perfect employee if they don’t review or interview every living, breathing human being who even looks at or considers applying for their open position. Scared that they won’t hire the absolutely perfect candidate! Scared that they won’t find the Unicorn!

Really?

Sadly, it’s true.

Dum, dum, dum, Daaah!!!!! (think dark, heavy music, Beethoven’s Fifth, here)

Now It’s Process Before People

Because those people involved in the hiring process are so scared, they’ve lost sight of the goal of the hiring process, which is simply to hire the best person who can do the job to help the business.

In other words, they’ve let process take priority over people.

Unfortunately, that process takes the form of CYA in many instances. So rather than making a decision with a candidate and moving forward, they continue hunting Unicorns.

Again, just in case…

Note that nowhere in a typical job description does it say that the person hired has to be perfect. The person doesn’t have to be able to perform each and every aspect of the job function on the first day of hire. They simply need to be able to learn and grow and do the job once they’re hired.

But process has apparently now taken over and common sense no longer applies. Because of this, the hunt for Unicorns continues to get more and more complex, which in turn causes the hiring process to spiral more and more out of control.

The reality is that every employer, regardless of industry, regardless of sector, regardless of size, location or technology, has their own way of doing things. Even if a business hires a person away from a direct competitor, the new employee still has to be on-boarded and then learn their new employer’s way of working and doing things. This means that the employee is not going to be perfect on Day One.

Gasp! What!?!

You mean the newly hired person won’t be the Second Coming of Jack Welch? The new employee doesn’t walk on water? He may actually have to learn something? He’s not a Unicorn?

Oh woe is me! What shall we do???

To quote an old TV commercial from the Sixties, “Sorry, Charlie.” That’s just how it is when you hire a new employee. It takes time to come up to speed, regardless of who you are or how qualified you are.

Delays in Hiring Costs Money

The hiring process is complicated enough as it is. With all of the steps that are involved, why should it take even longer? The longer it takes, the worse it becomes for the business.

Why?

First, because the longer it takes to go through the interview process, the more it costs. The hiring process requires lots of coordination, logistics and scheduling of people, both internal and external. All of that takes time, which in turn costs money.

Second, the longer it takes to hire a new employee, the longer it takes for the business to accomplish what needs to be done by the person they need to hire. The business therefore pays the price and suffers from delays in the hiring process. These delays may even cause the business to lose a competitive edge or fall behind in the marketplace. In other words, it costs the business money!

Finally, as it becomes known that your business is not looking for qualified candidates, but instead is just hunting Unicorns, the pool of qualified potential candidates may actually shrink. Candidates quickly get tired of the interviewing game and the associated delays and take themselves out of consideration. Or they may be hired by another company that moves faster and realizes that there is no such thing as a Unicorn. By moving too slowly, not only is a Unicorn never found, the best candidate may be lost as well. This causes the hiring process to drag on even longer.

When that happens, it means the hunt for a new employee has to start all over again!

Guess what? That costs money!

Let me say it again.

For each day lost in the search for a Unicorn, the business loses money!

Hunting Unicorns Costs Money

When we were all in about the 5^th or 6^th grade, we began learning a bit more advanced math. One of the mathematical properties that we learned was known as the Transitive Property. The transitive property proved that:

If A=B, and B=C, then A=C

The same thing holds true today for hunting for Unicorns:

A) If hunting Unicorns is extremely time consuming compared to hiring a qualified candidate

B) And the more time the hiring process takes, the more money it costs

C) Then hunting Unicorns costs more money than finding and hiring a qualified candidate

Summary

Let me put it in simple terms:

1) In the search for a new employee there is no such thing as a Unicorn

2) Hunting for Unicorns causes delays that impact the business

3) Those delays cost the business money

4) There are lots of qualified candidates that can do the job

5) Hire one of those candidates!

Now let’s just hope that all of those HR departments, recruiters, personnel managers and hiring managers will begin to understand that by hunting Unicorns, they’re actually hurting the business.

It’s simple.

© Richard Hatheway, Catalyst Strategic Marketing

All rights reserved