Your wakeup call for bank website CTAs

10/28/20

Unless you’re Wikipedia, your website needs clear calls to action (CTAs).

FYI: you’re not Wikipedia. No, you’re both a B2C and B2B company, one that wants to connect customers to the optimal products and services you offer. Beyond that, bank websites should encourage prospects to become customers.

That’s where CTAs come in.

While most of your website copywriting will be informational in nature, it can be all too easy to forget that once a visitor reaches the bottom of a webpage, they are going to do something.

Maybe they’ll search the navigation for a different page. Maybe they’ll close their browser altogether. Or maybe they’ll find a strategic CTA to help them and you.

Consider this CTA FAQ:

What is a CTA?

Visitors to bank websites will navigate through the content in a variety of ways, some expected and some unexpected. Tutorial videos, financial calculators, expanding/collapsing accordions — all of these are acceptable user behavior.

But what do you want the visitor to do after consuming your content?

From an inbound marketing perspective, a CTA is your goal for visitor activity. To be blunt, your CTAs should bring the visitor closer to a conversion, leveraging text links, images, banners and buttons to take them to your preferred destination.

With CTAs, less is more because too many competing options muddy the waters. Always try to focus on one or two primary CTAs that pertain to that page’s specific audience(s).

Some familiar CTAs across all websites are “Sign up,” “Subscribe,” “Join,” “Share,” “Read more” and “Download,” though how financials use CTAs can be customized further.

What are some common CTAs for bank websites?

While banks and credit unions continue to digitize the conversion process, some products and services are more nuanced and, therefore, less conducive for “automation” on your bank website. In those instances, it’s appropriate to direct your online visitor to an offline resource.

Here are some examples:

• Link to more information — On higher-level pages, it’s often makes sense to drive visitors to subpages with more details. (Those pages, then, should have a lead-generating CTA if possible.)
• Link to the Contact Us page — This webpage typically contains a plethora of channels for connecting with your staff. It’s the broadest stroke for a CTA though often effective.
• Link to the Locations page — What’s better than a general contact? A list of references at the visitor’s nearest branch!
• Phone number/email links — Depending on your customer-service paradigm, it might be appropriate to connect visitors with a particular subject-matter expert for their request. (More on that below.)

What are some next-level CTAs for bank websites?

If you want your bank website to do more of the heavy lifting, we recommend these advanced CTAs:

• Product wizard — Walk prospects through a series of questions to lead them to the checking account or mortgage loan that’s best for them, and let the product wizard work its magic. (Just make sure your final page has a clear next/final step.)
• Staff element — Not every bank is comfortable displaying employees’ portraits and/or contact information, but those who want to add a personal touch while streamlining customer service, a callout with a friendly face can make a big difference.
• Lead-generation form — When it’s not practical to include the actual application for a product or service, consider a slimmed-down webform that captures the information you’ll need to help customers get on their way faster.
• Online application — Of course, if you are in a place where you can recreate your hardcopy documents as a webform, we strongly encourage it. Paginate long forms, encrypt the data and make sure each form goes to the appropriate recipient(s).

P.S. BrownBoots’ simple CMS can accommodate all of these elements.

The Age of Brochure Websites ended long ago. Beef up your bank website with enticing CTAs that convert prospects into customers.

Are your CTAs MIA? We can help!