SEO
A Call-To-Action Guide For Businesses
The CTA (call-to-action) is a make-or-break moment in your content strategy and lead generation goals.
Therefore, it is a critical copywriting component and essential in your B2B (business-to-business) marketing content and webpages.
Plenty of information is available if you want to learn about B2C CTAs.
However, B2B CTAs often lack resources for inspiration – and many brands in the industry don’t take the proper care to make them engaging, resorting to endless “learn more” and “book demo” CTAs.
In this guide, you will learn how to write a compelling B2B CTA, with four best practices to infuse into your copywriting and 10 examples from major brands that work to engage prospects and drive clicks.
4 Best Practices For Creating A B2B CTA
General guidelines can help when writing CTAs – whether you’re faced with a blank document, or looking for that last element needed to finalize a project and meet the deadline.
These four best practices will inspire your writing efforts and help you decide what to do when a B2B CTA is required.
Deliver Value To The Buying Committee
In contrast to B2C consumers, a buying committee often decides on B2B purchases. These must not only appease stakeholders when bringing a solution in-house but are also composed of members with differing priorities and concerns.
Thus, strategies that work well with B2C CTAs, such as “Fear Of Missing Out” (FOMO) and urgency, can come across as “clickbaity” or appear desperate in B2B. Value (and trust) must be proven for the investment to be approved.
Therefore, tailor your CTAs to your audience and focus on promoting the unique value of your products, first and foremost.
Utilizing marketing segmentation data and personalizing CTAs for buyer personas works even better to ensure your campaign’s selected values resonate with your target accounts.
Be Conversational, To A Point
In B2B, brands sometimes overdo the jargon and formality.
And while brand consistency and voice are important, it is crucial to be relatable and conversational in your CTAs.
For example, an SDR (sales development representative) that says, “Let’s book a time for coffee and chat,” is more approachable than “click here to book a sales meeting.”
Being to the point, however, is also important. As mentioned previously, you need to demonstrate the unique value of your CTAs.
Prospects are often short on time and won’t click if the value isn’t apparent.
Spark Curiosity By Addressing The Implications
A common copywriting technique is to address the implications of a problem, yet not deliver the solution on a silver platter.
In other words: Mention what can go wrong for the prospect, but reinforce that they need to click on the CTA to discover exactly how they can solve their challenges.
Like “cliffhangers” in literature and TV series, this technique can increase your click-through rate – but you must deliver on your promise.
Nothing disappoints more than a cliffhanger that doesn’t meet expectations.
A/B Test Your Copy And Design
Testing is key to determining which CTAs work for your audience.
You can always guess what will work best, but with A/B tests, you’ll know what is truly driving clicks.
It’s important to test copy, colors, design, and the placements of your CTAs, as well as additional elements such as surrounding imagery and copy leading up to the CTA.
Make sure to test only one element at a time so that you can associate the increase/decrease in clicks with a specific adjustment.
10 Examples Of Inspirational B2B CTAs
With these four best practices in mind, here are 10 examples of B2B CTAs that drive clicks.
They deliver value and stand out from the surrounding copy on their webpages.
1. “See All Plays” By Atlassian
Atlassian, a software tools platform, has this CTA on its homepage to invite visitors to check its team playbooks.
The copy is the following:
- Headline: Our Practices
- Subtitle: Great teamwork requires more than just great tools. Check out our proven methods, guides, and exercises that help make work better, and people happier.
- CTA: See all plays
The CTA is followed by a breakdown of four team playbooks by Atlassian, so the visitor has an overview of what they will see if they click.
This CTA works well because it not only presents enough information for the prospect to understand the value (methods, guides, and exercises to build great teamwork), but teases them with four breakdowns of what they will find in the plays.
Without the breakdown, the word “plays” would be vague and not draw attention.
Therefore, all elements combined spark curiosity and invite the reader to the next page, where they can read the instructions for all 30 playbooks.
2. “Get Started With eSignature” By DocuSign
The above example is a CTA that pairs well with its headline and subtitle:
- Headline: The way the world agrees
- Subtitle: More than a million customers and a billion users trust DocuSign with their critical and essential agreements.
- CTA: Get Started with eSignature
Paired with the social proof (“million customers” and “billion users”) and the wordplay headline (which alludes to the act of signing papers with mutual agreement), DocuSign entices the user to click the CTA and see what’s offered.
It leads directly to a landing page for a 30-day free trial that gets right to the point and delivers what DocuSign’s audience desires (to sign documents electronically).
3. “Go Big With Pax8” By Pax8
Cloud marketplace platform Pax8 does a spin on the regular “learn more” CTA with this intriguing line. For full context, it has a header and subheader before it:
- Headline: Where Business Goes Big
- Subtitle: Join the cloud marketplace that unlocks a universe of possibility.
- CTA: Go Big With Pax8
Plastered on a starry background with abstract imagery, the CTA works well to pique interest in what “going big” means. It links to Pax8’s “Why Pax8” page, which briefly explains its services and provides social proof with ROI numbers for its partners—indeed, what most expect when “going big.”
4. “Explore The Process” By project44
Logistics visibility platform project44 invites the user to discover the inner workings of its product with this CTA:
- Headline: GETTING STARTED Easy Implementation with Help at Every Step
- Subtitle: Our dedicated team of supply chain visibility experts are eager to help you implement project44 and get your carriers onboarded quickly.
- CTA: EXPLORE THE PROCESS
In an industry where time is of the essence, and major supply chain issues can arise from the smallest of delays, project44 appeases objections with onboarding by featuring a step-by-step rundown of what happens when acquiring the product.
There’s also a CTA to a demo so the prospect can see how the platform works and convert to a lead.
5. “See All Success Stories” By BlackLine
Accounting platform BlackLine showcases four client testimonials for social proof at the end of its Financial Close Management solution page:
Using “Success Stories” for the CTA rather than the regular “case studies” adds value to the point BlackLine is making with the four testimonials featured above it: that clients obtain provable, quantifiable ROI by utilizing the platform successfully.
It adds weight to the numbers and entices the user to click to learn about the success of these clients.
6. “See All 11 Reasons” By Apple At Work
Apple’s dedicated business page has this CTA under its Mac product to invite users to a page with plenty of eye candy and engaging language about why the Mac is better than other laptops in a similar price range.
- Headline: Mac
- Subtitle: Magic happens on Mac. Game-changing performance, simple IT, and excellent value are just some of the reasons Mac means business.
- CTA: See all 11 reasons
The odd number (11 instead of 10) calls attention, along with the fact that it is the only “list CTA” on the page, while most use the traditional “learn more” format.
Also, since Apple designed a unique page with illustrations and fun copywriting for showcasing the 11 reasons, it delivers on the promise of why the user should pick Mac.
7. “Learn More About Our Purpose” By Caterpillar
Manufacturer and construction company Caterpillar features this CTA on its Strategy & Purpose page for people to deep dive into the company’s purpose.
The copy is as follows:
- Headline: WHY WE DO IT
- Subtitle: For over 95 years, our products and services have helped improve the lives of people around the world(…)
- CTA: LEARN ABOUT OUR PURPOSE
This CTA works well because it aligns with the page’s name and drives the user to learn more after reading the copy under “Why we do it,” in a way that a simple “Learn more” wouldn’t.
In other words, the keyword “purpose” adds value to the CTA, making it more click-worthy for users who wish to learn more about the brand’s goals.
8. “Find Out How” By Honeywell
Honeywell – the conglomerate in aerospace, building, and performance materials – has this CTA on its homepage to invite users to its The Future page.
- Headline: The Future Is What We Make It
- Subtitle: Back to work. Back to play. Back to travel. Let’s tackle the world’s new challenges together.
- CTA: FIND OUT HOW
A video accompanies the CTA and copy in the background of flying cars, skyscrapers, factories, and production lines, which draws attention to “the future” Honeywell is envisioning.
These elements and the CTA engage the user to discover what this future is about.
9. “Ride Along” By Cummins
Engine and power corporation Cummins has this CTA on its Bus industry page to read a press release on an electric bus powered by its battery:
- Headline: Blue Bird Takes Flight
- Subtitle: An Indiana district received a Blue Bird electric school bus, powered by our PowerDrive 7000EV battery electric powertrain.
- CTA: RIDE ALONG
The “ride along,” with its storytelling element CTA, is inviting. Its double meaning encourages the reader to connect with the story of riding on the bus to learn about this technology.
True to the description, the press release tells the news of how a school in Indiana, U.S., acquired the bus as an environmentally-friendly solution.
1.0 “Experience Rosa Robotics” By Zimmer Biomet
Medical device company Zimmer Biomet has this CTA on its homepage for users to learn more about its Rosa Robotics line:
- Headline: ROSA® Robotics
- Subtitle: ROSA® Robotics is a multi-application platform that utilizes Zimmer Biomet’s leading implants and data technologies to redefine robotics by providing real-time insights to optimize outcomes.
- CTA: Experience ROSA® Robotics
Using the word “experience” – like CTA #9 above – leverages storytelling to connect with the imagination and curiosity of the user, as if they will take a deep dive into the inner workings of these robots.
It leads to a dedicated page with four robots for different uses (knee, partial knee, hip, and neurosurgery).
This CTA is a simple example of how exchanging typical “learn more” language with another action verb (such as experience) can make it more engaging and entice more clicks.
Final Takeaways
Based on the 10 examples of B2B CTAs above, here are my final takeaways on what works to make your copy stand out in this industry.
Infuse Your Unique Value Proposition And Branding In The CTA Copy
Some examples on this list not only state in the CTA the value it offers, but also a keyword associated with the brand and the action encouraged.
That’s the case in the “Go Big with Pax8” example.
It reiterates a theme used elsewhere on the website (going big) and adds the brand name in the CTA to associate both concepts.
You can inspire yourself with this example by adding brand keywords on the CTAs that lead to your product pages.
Replace “Learn More” And Other Generic CTAs With Interesting Action Verbs
While simple often works best, most B2B brands play it safe with their copywriting by utilizing “learn more” for their product CTAs.
This quickly turns stale, and your prospects will ignore the CTAs unless the headline is interesting enough.
However, if you use a different verb or turn of phrase (such as the “ride along” CTA by Cummins, example #9), then you will reel in attention and get more clicks.
Think how many products have something much more interesting to engage prospects rather than a simple “learn more.”
Action verbs help to connect the prospect to the benefits of a product or motivate them to actively take the next step.
Make The CTA An Invitation To A Story/Experience
The goal of any CTA is to muster an action – and inviting the prospect to enjoy a storytelling experience with your brand is engaging since it resonates with emotion during crucial decision-making.
It not only “breaks the ice” but makes your prospect attach positive feelings to your products, especially if they clicked on your CTA and enjoyed their experience.
Therefore, instead of saying “Read X,” why not, “Find Out How,” like Honeywell does in example #8?
More resources:
Featured Image: Motortion Films/Shutterstock
SEO
Content Pruning: Why It Works, and How to Do It
Content pruning sounds pretty appealing: delete a ton of content and see your organic traffic improve. But pruning has risks (like deleting useful pages and useful backlinks), and benefits are not guaranteed: So how does pruning actually work? And when…
SEO
8 Free SEO Reporting Tools
There’s no shortage of SEO reporting tools to choose from—but what are the core tools you need to put together an SEO report?
In this article, I’ll share eight of my favorite SEO reporting tools to help you create a comprehensive SEO report for free.
Price: Free
Google Search Console, often called GSC, is one of the most widely used tools to track important SEO metrics from Google Search.
Most common reporting use case
GSC has a ton of data to dive into, but the main performance indicator SEOs look at first in GSC is Clicks on the main Overview dashboard.
As the data is from Google, SEOs consider it to be a good barometer for tracking organic search performance. As well as clicks data, you can also track the following from the Performance report:
- Total Impressions
- Average CTR
- Average Position
Tip
But for most SEO reporting, GSC clicks data is exported into a spreadsheet and turned into a chart to visualize year-over-year performance.
Favorite feature
One of my favorite reports in GSC is the Indexing report. It’s useful for SEO reporting because you can share the indexed to non-indexed pages ratio in your SEO report.
If the website has a lot of non-indexed pages, then it’s worth reviewing the pages to understand why they haven’t been indexed.
Price: Free
Google Looker Studio (GLS), previously known as Google Data Studio (GDS), is a free tool that helps visualize data in shareable dashboards.
Most common reporting use case
Dashboards are an important part of SEO reporting, and GLS allows you to get a total view of search performance from multiple sources through its integrations.
Out of the box, GLS allows you to connect to many different data sources.
Such as:
- Marketing products – Google Ads, Google Analytics, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360
- Consumer products – Google Sheets, YouTube, and Google Search Console
- Databases – BigQuery, MySQL, and PostgreSQL
- Social media platforms – Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter
- Files – CSV file upload and Google Cloud Storage
Sidenote.
If you don’t have the time to create your own report manually, Ahrefs has three Google Looker Studio connectors that can help you create automated SEO reporting for any website in a few clicks
Here’s what a dashboard in GLS looks like:
With this type of dashboard, you share reports that are easy to understand with clients or other stakeholders.
Favorite feature
The ability to blend and filter data from different sources, like GA and GSC, means you can get a customized overview of your total search performance, tailored to your website.
Price: Free for 500 URLs
Screaming Frog is a website crawler that helps you audit your website.
Screaming Frog’s free version of its crawler is perfect if you want to run a quick audit on a bunch of URLs. The free version is limited to 500 URLs—making it ideal for crawling smaller websites.
Most common reporting use case
When it comes to reporting, the Reports menu in Screaming Frog SEO Spider has a wealth of information you can look over that covers all the technical aspects of your website, such as analyzing, redirects, canonicals, pagination, hreflang, structured data, and more.
Once you’ve crawled your site, it’s just a matter of downloading the reports you need and working out the main issues to summarize in your SEO report.
Favorite feature
Screaming Frog can pull in data from other tools, including Ahrefs, using APIs.
If you already had access to a few SEO tools’ APIs, you could pull data from all of them directly into Screaming Frog. This is useful if you want to combine crawl data with performance data or other 3rd party tools.
Even if you’ve never configured an API, connecting other tools to Screaming Frog is straightforward.
Price: Free
Ahrefs has a large selection of free SEO tools to help you at every stage of your SEO campaign, and many of these can be used to provide insights for your SEO reporting.
For example, you could use our:
Most common reporting use case
One of our most popular free SEO tools is Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT), which you can use for your SEO reporting.
With AWT, you can:
- Monitor your SEO health over time by setting up scheduled SEO audits
- See the performance of your website
- Check all known backlinks for your website
Favorite feature
Of all the Ahrefs free tools, my favorite is AWT. Within it, site auditing is my favorite feature—once you’ve set it up, it’s a completely hands-free way to keep track of your website’s technical performance and monitor its health.
If you already have access to Google Search Console, it’s a no-brainer to set up a free AWT account and schedule a technical crawl of your website(s).
Price: Free
Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar is a free Chrome and Firefox extension useful for diagnosing on-page technical issues and performing quick spot checks on your website’s pages.
Most common reporting use case
For SEO reporting, it’s useful to run an on-page check on your website’s top pages to ensure there aren’t any serious on-page issues.
With the free version, you get the following features:
- On-page SEO report
- Redirect tracer with HTTP Headers
- Outgoing links report with link highlighter and broken link checker
- SERP positions
- Country changer for SERP
The SEO toolbar is excellent for spot-checking issues with pages on your website. If you are not confident with inspecting the code, it can also give you valuable pointers on what elements you need to include on your pages to make them search-friendly.
If anything is wrong with the page, the toolbar highlights it, with red indicating a critical issue.
Favorite feature
The section I use the most frequently in the SEO toolbar is the Indexability tab. In this section, you can see whether the page can be crawled and indexed by Google.
Although you can do this by inspecting the code manually, using the toolbar is much faster.
Price: Free
Like GSC, Google Analytics is another tool you can use to track the performance of your website, tracking sessions and conversions and much more on your website.
Most common reporting use case
GA gives you a total view of website traffic from several different sources, such as direct, social, organic, paid traffic, and more.
Favorite feature
You can create and track up to 300 events and 30 conversions with GA4. Previously, with universal analytics, you could only track 20 conversions. This makes conversion and event tracking easier within GA4.
Price: Free
Google Slides is Google’s version of Microsoft PowerPoint. If you don’t have a dashboard set up to report on your SEO performance, the next best thing is to assemble a slide deck.
Many SEO agencies present their report through dashboard insights and PowerPoint presentations. However, if you don’t have access to PowerPoint, then Google Slides is an excellent (free) alternative.
Most common reporting use cases
The most common use of Google Slides is to create a monthly SEO report. If you don’t know what to include in a monthly report, use our SEO report template.
Favorite feature
One of my favorite features is the ability to share your presentation on a video chat directly from Google Slides. You can do this by clicking the camera icon in the top right.
This is useful if you are working with remote clients and makes sharing your reports easy.
Price: Free
Google Trends allows you to view a keyword’s popularity over time in any country. The data shown is the relative popularity ratio scaled from 0-100, not the direct volume of search queries.
Most common reporting use cases
Google Trends is useful for showing how the popularity of certain searches can increase or decrease over time. If you work with a website that often has trending products, services, or news, it can be useful to illustrate this visually in your SEO report.
Google Trends makes it easy to spot seasonal trends for product categories. For example, people want to buy BBQs when the weather is sunny.
Using Google Trends, we can see that peak demand for BBQs usually happens in June-July every year.
Using this data across the last five years, we could be fairly sure when the BBQ season would start and end.
Favorite feature
Comparing two or more search terms against each other over time is one of my favorite uses of Google Trends, as it can be used to tell its own story.
Embellishing your report with trends data allows you to gain further insights into market trends.
You can even dig into trends at a regional level if you need to.
Final thoughts
These free tools will help you put together the foundations for a well-rounded SEO report.
The tools you use for SEO reporting don’t always have to be expensive—even large companies use many of the free tools mentioned to create insights for their client’s SEO reports.
Got more questions? Ping me on X 🙂
SEO
Study Reveals Potential Disruption For Brands & SEO
A new study by Authoritas suggests that Google’s AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE), currently being tested with a limited group of users, could adversely impact brand visibility and organic search traffic.
These findings include:
- When an SGE box is expanded, the top organic result drops by over 1,200 pixels on average, significantly reducing visibility.
- 62% of SGE links come from domains outside the top 10 organic results.
- Ecommerce, electronics, and fashion-related searches saw the greatest disruption, though all verticals were somewhat impacted.
Adapting to generative search may require a shift in SEO strategies, focusing more on long-form content, expert insights, and multimedia formats.
As Google continues to invest in AI-powered search, the Authoritas study provides an early look at the potential challenges and opportunities ahead.
High Penetration Rate & Industry-Wide Effects
The study analyzed 2,900 brand and product-related keywords across 15 industry verticals and found that Google displays SGE results for 91.4% of all search queries.
The prevalence of SGE results indicates they impact a majority of websites across various industries.
The research analyzed the typical composition of SGE results. On average, each SGE element contained between 10-11 links sourced from an average of four different domains.
This indicates brands may need to earn multiple links and listings within these AI-curated results to maintain visibility and traffic.
The research also suggests that larger, well-established websites like Quora and Reddit will likely perform better in SGE results than smaller websites and lesser-known brands.
Shifting Dynamics In Organic Search Results
With SGE results occupying the entire first page, websites that currently hold the top positions may experience a significant decrease in traffic and click-through rates.
When a user clicks to expand the SGE element, the study found that, on average, the #1 ranked organic result drops a sizeable 1,255 pixels down the page.
Even if a website ranks number one in organic search, it may effectively be pushed down to the second page due to the prominence of SGE results.
New Competition From Unexpected Sources
The study revealed that SGE frequently surfaces links and content from websites that didn’t appear in the top organic rankings.
On average, only 20.1% of SGE links exactly matched a URL from the first page of Google search results.
An additional 17.9% of SGE links were from the same domains as page one results but linked to different pages. The remaining 62% of SGE links came from sources outside the top organic results.
Challenges For Brand Term Optimization & Local Search
The study reveals that SGE results for branded terms may include competitors’ websites alongside the brand’s own site, potentially leading to increased competition for brand visibility.
Laurence O’Toole, CEO and founder of Authoritas, states:
“Brands are not immune. These new types of generative results introduce more opportunities for third-party sites and even competitors to rank for your brand terms and related brand and product terms that you care about.”
Additionally, local businesses may face similar challenges, as SGE results could feature competing local brands even when users search for a specific brand in a regional context.
Methodology & Limitations
To arrive at these insights, Authoritas analyzed a robust dataset of 2,900 search keywords across a spectrum of query types, including specific brand names, brand + generic terms, brand + product names, generic terms, and specific product names. The keywords were distributed across 15 industry verticals.
The study utilized a consistent desktop browser viewport to quantify pixel-based changes in the search results. Authoritas also developed proprietary “alignment scores” to measure the degree of overlap between traditional organic search results and the new SGE links.
While acknowledging some limitations, such as the keyword set needing to be fully representative of each vertical and the still-evolving nature of SGE, Authoritas maintains that the insights hold value in preparing brands for the new realities of an AI-powered search ecosystem.
Why We Care
The findings of the Authoritas study have implications for businesses, marketers, and SEO professionals. As Google’s SGE becomes more prevalent, it could disrupt traditional organic search rankings and traffic patterns.
Brands that have invested heavily in SEO and have achieved top rankings for key terms may find their visibility and click-through rates diminished by the prominence of SGE results.
SGE introduces new competition from unexpected sources, as most SGE links come from domains outside the top 10 organic results. This means businesses may need to compete not only with their traditional rivals but also with a broader range of websites that gain visibility through SGE.
As Google is a primary source of traffic and leads for many businesses, any changes to its search results can impact visibility, brand awareness, and revenue.
How This Could Help You
While the rise of SGE presents challenges, it also offers opportunities.
Taking into account what we’ve learned from the Authoritas study, here are some actionable takeaways:
- As SGE favors in-depth, informative content, businesses may benefit from investing in comprehensive, well-researched articles and guides that provide value to users.
- Incorporating expert quotes, interviews, and authoritative sources within your content could increase the likelihood of being featured in SGE results.
- Enriching your content with images, videos, and other multimedia elements may help capture the attention of both users and the SGE algorithm.
- Building a strong brand presence across multiple channels, including social media, industry forums, and relevant websites, can increase your chances of appearing in SGE.
- Creating a trustworthy brand and managing your online reputation will be crucial, as SGE may feature competitors alongside your website.
Looking Ahead
While the long-term impact of SGE will depend on user adoption and the perceived usefulness of results, this study’s findings serve as a valuable starting point for businesses and SEO professionals.
By proactively addressing the challenges and opportunities SGE presents, you can increase your chances of success in the new search environment.
Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock
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