Join Brian Abracen in this practical webinar that will teach you how to effectively use calls to action to compel your supporters to perform desired actions immediately, whether that be donating to your cause, volunteering time or supporting your organization in another way. Brian Abracen is a Digital Direct Marketer with deep expertise on both the corporate and not-for-profit sides. Brian is Director of Customer Engagement at Intelex Technologies, and was Director of Customer Retention and Loyalty Marketing at Dealfind.com, as well as Senior Conversion and Retention Manager at FreshBooks. He has also held leadership and consulting roles in online marketing at Bell and Federation CJA.

1. Raise More Money with
Effective Calls-to-Action

2. Brian Abracen
TODAY’S PRESENTER

3. WEBINAR REMINDERS
• You can hear us, but we can’t hear you.
• Have questions? Type questions in the
Questions Log.
2

4. WEBINAR REMINDERS
Trouble hearing us?
• Turn up your computer’s
volume.
• Click Sound Check under
Audio in your
GoToWebinar Panel
• Select the speaker tab
and then turn the volume
on the speaker to the far
right for maximum
volume.
3

5. WEBINAR REMINDERS
• For the best webinar experience, close
all other applications.
• Yes! The links to the webinar slides and
recording will be emailed to you today.
4

6. WHAT IS CANADAHELPS?
• A public charitable foundation and registered charity.
• Through CanadaHelps.org, anyone can donate to any registered
Canadian charity online.
• We have facilitated over $400 million in charitable donations
online since our launch in 2000.
• 14,500 charities use us to collect donations and fundraise online.
• Over 850,000 Canadians have donated through CanadaHelps.
• For donors, CanadaHelps is a one-stop-shop for giving. For
charities, CanadaHelps is an online fundraising solution that is
affordable, easy and secure.
WELCOME TO GIVING MADE SIMPLE!

7. Canada Helps
July 16, 2014
Raise More Money with Effective
Calls to Action

8. The Attention Economy
 Distraction, distraction, dis... Ooh, I got a email!
 It only takes one click to lose them forever
 Everyone is competing for your click: Publishers,
businesses, non-profits, bloggers, you name it
 Non-profits need to learn to survive in this
attention economy

9. Yawn…

10. Common examples of CTAs

11. Lead them by the hand!
 Direct it where you want it to go
 Show them the way!
 Let them know what to do next
 Your goal...
 Get. The. Click.

12. What is it supposed to do?
 Drive traffic to a landing page
 This is where the data you want is collected
 Donation form
 Download form
 Quote request form, etc.
 No more calls to action on this page!
 The last step: the conversion happens here

13. What makes an effective CTA?
 Isn’t it just a button?
 No!
 Single changes in buttons can drastically
improve conversions
 A button sounds like a simple decision, but
there are a number of variables to consider:
 How big should the button be?
 What colour should I use?
 What should the text of the button read?

14. 8 tips for effective CTAs
1. Clear.
2. Obvious.
3. Actionable.
4. Contextual & Relevant.
5. Aligned with donor cycle.
6. Aligned with landing page.
7. Test.
8. Optimize landing page.

15. Pillars of a good CTA
1. Size
2. Colour & Contrast
3. Location & Position
4. Relevance & Urgency
5. Copy & Clarity
6. Quantity
Test them all!
 Find out what works for your audience

16. 4 CTA questions to answer
1. Why me?
2. Why now?
3. What for?
4. Who says?

17. Where should they go?
 Location and placement are key
 Test for optimal placement on the page
 Feature them in key areas across your website

18. On your website
 As we said, relevance is everything!
 Align your CTAs with the content of each page,
as well as the visitor’s likeliest stage of the sales
cycle. For example:
 Visitors on a How You Can Help page are probably further
along in the giving process and likely to be more interested
in selecting a method than they would if they were visiting
your About Us page

19. In your content
 Don’t stop nurturing potential
constituents who have already
downloaded your white paper or
watched this webinar
 Continue content marketing efforts with
embedded CTAs for middle-of-funnel offers in
the body of your content

20. In your presentations
 If you speak at industry conferences and events
you may be allowed to include a CTA for an
offer directly within your presentation
 Refer the audience to a dedicated landing page
web page that gives them further information
about your company
 Archive your presentation slides on your website
or a platform like SlideShare.com to get more
mileage out of your content

21. In your blog
 Somewhere within every blog post,
place a call-to-action that will encourage
people to:
1. Download some content
2. Follow your company on social media
3. RSS the blog
4. Subscribe to your newsletter or blog digest
email

22. In your emails
 My specialty!
 One of the great things about email is that it’s
perfectly normal to only provide one link or one
call to action in the entire email
 Since the goal of email is to get a click, chances
are good that it will be the one CTA your
audience sees
 Think about using a call to action right
in the subject line to inspire more opens

23. In your videos
 Include a call-to-action directly inside all
videos you produce
 If someone embeds your video onto their site
and others view it outside the context of the
video site, your CTA would remain intact
 You can also include a CTA in your video’s
description when you upload it to the video
sharing site.

24. In your videos

25. In other places
 Paid media
 Email signatures
 Social media
 Facebook
 Twitter
 LinkedIn

26. CTAs for Upcoming Campaigns
 Create CTAs related to your upcoming
campaigns, such as events and contests
 If your annual conference is coming up in a few
months, drive traffic to the respective
registration page from your other assets, such
as your blog, social media, paid ads, and so on

27. Improved CTA = more money?
 Not really.
 The CTA is part of a flow. It might be the first
click that your campaign attracts, but if your
landing page misses the mark, you’re going to
lose your audience.
Search CTA Landing

28. More might be better
 Maintain a mix of CTAs that spans across
different stages of your online donation cycle
 The more CTAs, the more opportunities to
convert visitors into donors
 Also, the sheer quantity of calls-to-action gives
you valuable data around their performance.
 Use these insights to optimize your strategies for
maximum lead generation.

29. Secondary CTAs

30. Communicating expectations
 Try using supporting text to let them
know what to expect

31. How do I know if it’s working?
 Measure it! Key metrics to track:
1. Click-through rate
2. Click-to-submission rate
3. View-to-submission rate

32. Have fun with it!
 Test and experiment with:
 Language and design of button
 Compelling copy
 Different offers
 Template changes

33. Test examples

34. Test examples

35. Great examples

36. Great examples

37. Great examples

38. Great examples

39. Follow me for more resources!
 Twitter: @brian_abracen
 I will post links to some great resources to help
you on your way to leveraging your CTAs into
raising more money.

40. MyCharityConnects.org
Educational and training opportunities
through MyCharityConnects
www.mycharityconnects.org

41. UPCOMING WEBINARS
www.mycharityconnects.org/webinars
CanadaHelps 101
Date: Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Time: 2:00-3:00PM Eastern Time
CanadaHelps: New Tools and Features
Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Time: 2:00-3:00PM Eastern Time

42. STAY IN TOUCH
youtube.com/canadahelps
@canadahelps
facebook.com/canadahelps
communications@canadahelps.org
1-877-755-1595