Are you ready to take your website to new heights and encourage client conversions? Do you want to captivate your audience and create optimised user experiences that will have them coming back for more? Then buckle up, because you need to learn how to prioritise a clear call to action (CTA)!
A CTA is that magical prompt that tells users what action to take next. It’s the secret sauce of any website or online marketing campaign. In this article, we deep dive into the importance of a clear CTA for financial advisers looking to build trust with prospective and ongoing clients.
Why are CTAs important?
CTAs are vital to creating effective websites as they (1) increase conversions, engagement, and user experience, (2) reinforce brand messaging, and (3) offer testing and optimisation opportunities.
1. Increases conversion rates, user engagement, and user experience
A clear CTA not only boosts conversion rates but also strengthens user engagement and user experience. Imagine a “book your free financial health check” button that’s impossible to miss! With a crystal-clear CTA, users are more likely to take action, helping to grow your conversion rates. Concerningly, 70% of small business websites lack a CTA, dramatically reducing their user engagement (Larson, 2019).
Lack of a call to action automatically affects that website’s relationship with clients and ultimately, their competitiveness and profit margins – Neil Patel
A transparent CTA also fuels user engagement by providing a direct path to action, such as inviting users to download your “top 10 investment tips” or join a discussion about the latest market trends. A well-defined CTA makes it a breeze for users to navigate your website, producing a quality user experience.
2. Reinforces brand recognition and consistency
An effective CTA improves brand recognition by crafting a consistent user experience across different channels. A uniform CTA throughout your website and social media profiles fortifies brand messaging and helps users recognise and remember your quality services.
Every interaction, in any form, is branding – Seth Godin
So, whatever your firm prioritises, ensure the message is consistent.
3. Offers endless testing and optimisation opportunities
A crystal-clear CTA allows you to test and optimise for improved conversion rates and user engagement continually. By experimenting with various CTAs, you can discover which ones are the most effective and make data-driven decisions about your online marketing campaigns. If you’re unsure how to manage this yourself, we suggest you contact your web developers.
Adding a CTA to your financial advice website
Before you plan your website, take a step back and really consider what action you want prospective clients to take through your site. To help prompt some ideas for you, we’ve provided some CTA examples found on financial advice websites.
- Sign up for a free consultation
- Download our financial planning guide
- Join our newsletter for exclusive financial tips and updates
- Schedule a free call with a financial advisor
- Learn more about our investment services
- Start investing in your future with us today
- Get a personalised financial plan
- See how we can help you achieve your financial goals
- Explore our retirement planning options
- Give us an obligation-free call today (even just providing your phone number is a CTA)
Notice that these suggestions aren’t simply “free consultation” or “buy now”. Instead, they deliberately start with a verb and are more engaging for prospective clients, whilst still being succinct, action-oriented, and benefit-oriented.
How many CTAs should be on my website’s homepage?
Ideally, your homepage should showcase one or two attention-grabbing CTAs. Too many CTAs can muddle the message and dilute the effectiveness of each individual CTA. Identify the primary goal of your homepage and craft your CTAs around that goal. For example, if driving sales is your top priority, make your primary CTA a “schedule a free consultation” button. Alternatively, if generating leads is the focus, opt for a “download our exclusive guide to SMSF” button.
Remember, your CTAs should be visually distinct and stand out from the rest of your homepage content. This will help ensure that visitors can’t resist clicking on them! Use language that is:
- Succinct – Hubspot’s 2021 study suggests that CTAs with 90-150 characters are the most effective.
- Easy to understand – the clearer your message, the easier you make it for your prospect to engage.
- Benefit-oriented – make the benefit to the user clear e.g., “Get your free consultation today”.
- Visible – use colour, size, frequency, and positioning to your advantage to gain your prospect’s attention.
Calls to action are the number one way to drive conversions on a given page. Without them, your traffic has no clue what you want them to do – Neil Patel
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
To give you the best chance at generating leads, we’ve also listed some common ways financial advice firms weaken the effectiveness of their CTAs so that you can avoid repeating them.
- Using generic CTAs: Using generic CTAs such as “learn more” or “submit” might not be specific enough to entice potential clients to act. It’s important to use CTAs that are clear and specific to the service or offer being promoted.
- Not placing CTAs in prominent locations: CTAs that are not placed in prominent locations on the website might not be visible enough to attract attention. Placing CTAs in a prominent location, such as the header, footer, or a pop-up, can help increase their visibility and effectiveness.
- Using too many CTAs: Overloading a page with too many different CTAs can confuse visitors and make it difficult for them to decide which action to take. It’s important to use a limited number of CTAs on a page, and to ensure that each CTA is relevant to the page’s content. For example, if a client is reading an article about retirement planning, a relevant CTA might be “schedule a consultation with a retirement planning expert”.
- Not optimising CTAs for mobile devices: Mobile devices account for a significant percentage of website traffic, and CTAs that are not optimised for mobile devices might be difficult to click on or interact with. Your web designer should consider using a larger button size and clear, easy-to-read text.
- Focusing on the CTA instead of the offer: A CTA is only effective if the offer behind it is compelling. Financial advice firms should ensure that the offer being promoted is relevant and valuable to potential clients, and that it is clear and well-communicated on the page.
- Prioritising flashy features: Don’t let your prospects get distracted by flashy graphics and moving parts and forget what your website is trying to do. Instead, consider your CTA as something to build to.
By avoiding these common mistakes and optimising your CTAs, your financial advice firm can improve its online performance and drive more leads and conversions.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that a clear and relevant CTA is the backbone of any successful website or online marketing campaign. So, when you’re designing your website or crafting an online marketing strategy, ensure you make your CTA a top priority.
Call to action FAQs
This is a meaningful distinction. Under the Corporations Act 2001, personal financial product advice is advice that takes into account a person’s individual objectives, financial situation, or needs. A CTA that implies a prospect will receive tailored, individual advice before any formal engagement has begun may misrepresent what is actually on offer at that stage, typically a general introductory conversation. CTAs like “get a personalised financial plan” or “start investing with us today” can blur this line.
Safer alternatives that accurately describe what a prospect is signing up for include “book a no-obligation discovery call,” “explore how we work,” or “download our guide to retirement planning.” The word “personalised” is particularly worth scrutinising. If what you are offering is an initial meeting, say that. ASIC’s guidance on advertising financial services is available in Regulatory Guide 234. Seek your own legal or compliance advice on the specific wording used across your website.
Yes.When a pop-up collects an email address in exchange for a resource download or newsletter subscription, the firm is collecting personal information and initiating a commercial electronic message relationship. Both the Privacy Act 1988 and the Spam Act 2003 apply. Under the Spam Act, you must have the recipient’s consent before sending commercial electronic messages, the message must clearly identify your firm as the sender, and every message must include a functional unsubscribe mechanism.
Consent obtained through a pre-ticked opt-in box is generally not considered valid consent under Australian law. The opt-in must be an active, affirmative choice by the person. Your Privacy Policy must also disclose that email addresses collected through your website will be used for marketing communications and describe how subscribers can opt out. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) administers the Spam Act and publishes compliance guidance at acma.gov.au. Seek your own legal or compliance advice on your specific setup.
A/B testing means running two versions of the same page or element simultaneously, showing version A to one portion of visitors and version B to another, then measuring which performs better against a defined goal such as clicks or form completions. For a CTA, you might test “Book a free consultation” against “Speak with an adviser today” to see which generates more bookings.
In practice, the simplest way to do this for an advice firm website is through Google Optimize (now integrated into Google Analytics 4) or through the built-in testing tools available in some website platforms. To get started, log into your Google Analytics 4 account, navigate to Explore, and review the data you already have on which CTA buttons are being clicked. Before running a formal A/B test, confirm with your web developer that your site has conversion tracking set up correctly, otherwise the test results will be unreliable. Without tracking in place, you are guessing which version wins rather than measuring it.
Any personal information collected through a CTA, whether a name and email for a newsletter or a contact form submission, is covered by the Privacy Act 1988. If that data is compromised through a breach, you are required to assess whether the incident is likely to result in serious harm to any affected individual. If it is, the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires you to notify both the affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as soon as practicable.
Where a firm cannot demonstrate that it had reasonable security measures in place at the time of the breach, such as encrypted form submissions, access controls, and regular software updates, the OAIC may find a breach of Australian Privacy Principle 11. This can result in regulatory investigation, enforceable undertakings, and civil penalties. From a practical standpoint, being unable to show your licensee, your PI insurer, or a regulator that you took reasonable precautions is a serious exposure. Review the OAIC’s guidance on the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme at oaic.gov.au/privacy/notifiable-data-breaches. This is general information only. Seek your own legal or compliance advice.
Professional indemnity (PI) insurance is designed to cover claims arising from errors or omissions made in the course of providing professional services. It does not cover cyber incidents, including breaches of data collected through website forms, lead magnets, or newsletter sign-ups. The costs associated with such a breach, including forensic investigation, legal review, client and prospect notification, regulatory engagement with the OAIC, and business interruption during recovery, fall under cyber liability insurance, which is a separate and distinct product.
This gap is especially relevant for advice firms that actively use CTAs to build a prospect database, as that database represents accumulated personal information with its own breach exposure. To assess your current position, ask your insurance broker the following two questions: “Does my professional indemnity policy include any cyber liability component?” and “Does my cyber liability policy cover breach notification costs for prospect data collected through my website, not just existing client records?” This is general information only and not insurance or legal advice.
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