Whether you’re a marketer running a marketing campaign, or an online business owner trying to make your target audience interact, you must know the importance of the call to action (CTA). In this article, we will discuss everything you need to know about CTAs, so read on!
What Is a Call to Action (CTA)?
A call-to-action (CTA) is a button, link, or graphic that you place on your website and social media pages to entice visitors to take a specific action. CTAs tell users what you want them to do and help them decide whether they want to take the next step. Call to actions can be as simple as “Download Now” or as complex as a multipage wizard that walks a user through every step of the process. CTAs can be measured by click-through rate (CRT). CRT is the ratio between people who clicked on a specific link, or a CTA button, and the total amount of visitors to the site.
Here are some common types of calls to action:
- Learn More Links: These links often appear at the bottom of pages and lead to relevant articles or resources on your site. Learn more links are usually used when you want visitors to read more about a topic, but don’t necessarily want them to buy something.
- Buy Now Links: These links take visitors directly from your website over to the order page on your ecommerce platform, where they can complete their purchase without leaving your site. Buy now links are often used when someone has arrived at your site ready and willing to buy something immediately.
- Subscribe/Connect Links: These links give readers access to additional content or services for free (such as an email newsletter), but require them to enter their contact information before they can access it. Subscribing allows you to build a list of people interested in what you have to offer and keep them up-to-date on future products and services.
How Do You Write a Compelling Call-To-Action?
CTAs for selling products are relatively easy to write. All you need to do is use the right verbs in imperative. But when it comes to CTAs for blogs, they might be a bit more sophisticated. Usually they consist of phrases like “Read on!” or “Keep reading to find out!” But what should you write before that? Let’s take a look at some tips for writing effective CTAs for your blog.
- Use active voice and strong verbs.
When it comes to CTAs, you want to use language that is direct and to the point. Active voice and strong verbs are key in achieving this. For example, rather than saying “Make a purchase,” you could say “Buy it now!”
- Make it specific.
Your CTA should be specific to the content of your blog post. For example, if your blog post is about ways to save money on groceries, your CTA could be “Read on to find out how you can save money on groceries.”
- Make it benefit-oriented.
Your CTA should focus on the benefits of reading your blog post. For example, rather than saying “Read on for tips on saving money on groceries,” you could say “Read on for tips on how you can save money on groceries.”
- Use persuasive language.
Persuasive language is key in writing effective CTAs. You want to use language that will convince the reader to take action. For example, you could say, “Don’t miss out on these tips for saving money on groceries.”
- Keep it short and sweet.
When it comes to CTAs, less is more. You want to keep your CTA short and sweet so that it’s easy for the reader to understand and act on.
How Does FOMO Play Into CTAs?
FOMO, or the fear of missing out, is a powerful emotion that can be used to help drive conversion rates and optimize your CTAs. The fear of missing out is also one of the most common causes of decision paralysis, as well as the reason why people often procrastinate on important tasks.
So, how does FOMO play into CTAs and digital marketing? Urgency is one of the most powerful principles behind FOMO. People tend to act quickly if they think they may lose their chance at the product or service you’re offering. Urgency can help get more people to take action on your CTA. Aside from prompting the potential customers to purchase a product, FOMO could be used to make people continue reading. If you use a “Keep reading to learn more!” in the middle of the article, you may cause people to think that they are missing out on possibly important information.
Why Is Call-To-Action So Important?
CTAs play a vital role in regard to the so-called marketing funnel. The funnel consists of several layers, the basic three being: awareness, consideration, decision. Using a call to action can be crucial at each of these stages – it can introduce the customer to the product, inform about a sale, or prompt them to buy.
So in short, if you don’t use a CTA, your visitors will leave your site without ever taking action. This means they won’t buy anything or sign up for an email campaign – and if they don’t take these actions, then you won’t generate any revenue from your website.
What Makes an Effective CTA?
In order to make an effective call to action, you should keep the following in mind.
- Be simple and direct – Your CTA should express exactly what you want visitors to do. Avoid vague, confusing or indirect language such as “Click here for more information” or “Find out now.” Instead, use clear statements like “Request a free quote” or “Download our ebook today!”
- Be relevant – You can only expect people to take action if they care about what you have to offer and if they think it can benefit them. If they don’t want anything from you, they won’t click on your CTA button, no matter how well written it is! Make sure that your CTA is relevant to their needs and interests before asking them to take action.
- Be appropriate – Your CTA must match the content of the page where it appears. If someone lands on a website about cats, they don’t expect to buy sunglasses.
The Best CTA Button Design
Make sure that your CTAs stand out from other elements on the page by using contrasting colors or fonts (or both). If you’re using a standard button, make sure it’s clearly visible against any background color or image behind it. And if you’re using something more subtle like a link or menu item, make sure that it stands out against whatever else it’s placed near (such as other links).
Best CTA Examples
Below are the best CTA examples that compel the user to take action.
- “Sign up now and get 50% off your first purchase!”
- “Get a free consultation!”
- “Download our brochure to learn more!”
- “Join our mailing list for exclusive discounts!”
- “Follow us on social media for the latest updates!”
- “Check out our website for more information!”
- “Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news!”
- “Fill out this form to get started!”
A/B Testing and CTA
A/B testing is a marketing technique that compares multiple versions of a webpage to see which version performs better. The primary goal of A/B testing is to determine which version of a webpage or other marketing material (such as an email) is more effective at driving conversions.
A/B testing can be used in any situation where you want to compare two different approaches and measure their relative effectiveness. To A/B test your CTAs, create two or more versions of your campaign with different CTAs. Then, send each version to a different group of people and see which one performs better. To measure the performance of your CTAs, track how many people take the desired action in each group.