If your company sells a software product, your B2B lead generation efforts have a direct call-to-action: you want potential customers to request a demo. As such, your customer journey is intended to get your target audience to that end-point for a smooth marketing to sales hand-off.
However, in marketing professional services or a consulting firm, your ask may not be as clear-cut.
When there is no “request a demo” form at the end of the yellow brick road, what is the right call-to-action?
Create opportunities to demo your expertise
For most professional services and consulting firms, you’re selling your team’s experience and expertise.
As you guide potential clients through the customer journey by educating them about industry trends and being generous with advice and expertise, what’s the next step in the relationship?
Here are five call-to-actions to engage potential clients when the time is right:
- Sign-up for your newsletter
- Register for an educational webinar
- Send a LinkedIn connection request
- Answer a LinkedIn poll or question
- Set up a discovery call
We often warn clients not to promote the request a demo form too early in the relationship. You don’t ask someone to marry you on the first date.
However, marketers can also find themselves on the opposite end of that spectrum, offering a weak or non-existent call-to-action. Failing to offer potential clients a direct way to engage with your company after they’ve made the effort to read your content is a missed opportunity.
Optimize your CTA
Testing and optimizing CTAs is a crucial component of your content marketing strategy. This is particularly important for organizations that don’t offer a product and need a compelling alternative to the ubiquitous request a demo form.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with clever wordplay and never forget the power of an action verb.
Contact us to let us know what CTAs have worked for your professional services or consulting firm.
