On most landing pages, you will generally see two kinds of calls to action. The first call to action is the main call to action, which is where the business invites the customer to contact them, book a demo, or otherwise interact with the product or service directly in some way. The second call to action is usually forgotten, and that is a lead-generating PDF, also known as a transitional call to action.
Provide Valuable Content for Your Visitors
A Transitional call to action, a term coined by Building a StoryBrand author Donald Miller, are designed for prospects who may not be in a place to purchase right at this moment but that are still curious about the service you are offering or topics related to the current problem that prospect is having. One of our favorite transitional calls to action is a downloadable PDF. This downloadable PDF is typically located at the bottom of your website or landing page and should contain information that adds value for your potential customers.
Your lead-generating, downloadable PDF should have an interesting title that attracts potential customers and demonstrates its added value. It should hit on the pain point your prospect is experiencing and how the information contained in the PDF will help them resolve it.
Position Yourself as an Expert
Not only do downloadable PDFs provide value but they also establish you as an authority figure in your field and play an integral role in resolving whatever problem your potential customer is facing that has brought them to your website. Some types of downloadable PDFs to consider using for your transitional calls to action are articles, interviews, checklists, free samples, and coupons.
For example, if we were going to construct a downloadable PDF for Tulip Media, we would consider that we are a digital and print marketing company that provides marketing strategies to businesses using magazines, pay-per-click advertising, conversion strategies, website messaging, SEO, and more. Our transitional call to action, for example, could be “5 Mistakes You’re Making in Your Marketing that are Costing You Money” because this is a problem that our potential customers are often facing. Visitors to our website would see this information offered for free, hit the download button, enter their email, and we, in turn, would capture that prospect for remarketing purposes and work to convert them into a paying customer in the future.
Build Your Email List
By using a downloadable PDF as a transitional call to action, you create a segue for collecting prospect contact information that can later be used for remarketing campaigns. The most common strategy for doing this is to offer to email the downloadable PDF to your prospect and then put them into an email nurturing campaign. Communicate with these people on a regular basis to improve
your chances of them buying from you down the road.
As you build your email list, we recommend rolling out a short-term campaign for each potential customer. This should be six to seven emails that deliver not only the downloadable PDF that they asked for but also some more information about your product or service. Again, you want to be hitting on that pain point and then focusing on how your product or service can eliminate the pain point entirely beyond what is contained in the PDF.
At Tulip Media, the pain points a lot of our customers have is that they don’t have the time or resources to spend correctly in marketing. So, whether their goal is to create a magazine or convert online visitors using messaging and PPC, they come to us for our knowledge and to take on the heavy lifting of these processes for them.
At the end of the day, what we’re doing and what your goal should be is to create a conversion strategy that works for your customers. Utilizing downloadable PDFs as transitional calls to action creates a smooth and painless process for prospects while giving you all of the tools you need to capture and convert these people into paying customers later on.
If you need help developing your transitional call to action or constructing your downloadable PDF, we are always happy to help.