Do You Know How a Good CTA Can Make You Rich?

You are a marketing campaigner and your task at hand now is to create an ad and engage as many potential customers as you can. A typical situation at work, isn’t it? So, what you do have to focus on is crafting a perfect CTA or Call to Action. It is a cornerstone of marketing as it will inform the customers clearly about what they can expect from your advertisement.

Try to remember when you last signed up for something online or bought something you had not planned. Think about a reason why you did that. You will surely recollect that each of such signups or purchases was a result of an outstanding call to action. You were carefully guided through the buying process or the process of signing up with the help of an effective CTA.

And the most amazing thing is that you haven’t noticed that strategy!

CTA: What is it?

Try to guess how long a span of attention of an average person is.

Half an hour?

A quarter of an hour?

Several minutes?

No way! It is 8 seconds! You haven’t read it wrong: eight seconds and that is all!

So, during that limited time you have to grab the potential clients’ attention in an advertisement and turn those customers into leads. Sounds impossible, hah? However, it is doable. You just have to know how to handle that properly. And that is where a good Call to Action will serve you right.

A Call to Action (CTA) is a multi-purpose prompt and an actual tool of marketing communication which incites potential customers to do something. Most often it is used in the form of a link or a special button.

Having reviewed the best practices and the effective ways to design, position, and word a CTA, you can develop a call-to-action strategy for your advertising campaign.

CTA: Useful Tips and Hints for Marketing Campaigners

What is the easiest Call to Action that comes to your mind? For sure, it is ‘Buy now!’. It is the most common one, but is it the most effective?

Here are the tips for those who want to message the customers with the phrasings that will cause the most desirable responses.

1. Start a CTA with a verb of strong command

Get directly to your point! What you need is to inform the audience about your expectations and about what you want them to do. Don’t beat about the bush. An informative and direct message will let people understand what you need from them.

 

	CTA strong verbs
e-commerce website	Shop, order, buy, purchase, etc.
newsletter promotion	subscribe to, download, etc.
Questionnaire, surveys	find out, fill out, etc.

 

2. Provoke thrill, emotion, and strong interest

You cannot deny that dull things will never provoke any enthusiasm in your customers. Give them a little kick and excite them with your ideas! Make them feel a bit happier, more hopeful and enthusiastic! If your CTA is “download today and get 20% off”, you will both help them get some benefit and add colors to their average day.

Apart from that, a minor change in punctuation symbols can work magic. An exclamation mark at the end of a CTA can hugely increase your customers’ eagerness to click on your ad. You say “Start planning your vacation now!” and you provoke great interest and enthusiasm in people who were wrapped up in work just several minutes ago.

3. Don’t forget to explain!

Your audience needs to know what they will get if they perform the action that you want them to do. They have to be aware of all possible benefits if they follow you. You will increase the clicks on your ad if your CTA contains a clear explanation of what in the advertisement is good for the customers. When you say something like, “Make a call now to save up to 50%!”, or “Subscribe to our newsletter to get a permanent 10% discount!”, your audience will not only know what you expect from them but also why they should do that.

As Easy as ABC: Formulas of Effective CTAs

1. Offer something for free

You can convince a person to get your products or services easier if you offer some extra stuff free of charge. Note that an amazingly effective CTA should contain a verb with a focus on a reward. “Get an ebook for free if you pay now!

2. Present your product as a solution to the problems

Try to understand what can stop your audience from being successful. They do want to achieve much, but there is a number of obstacles on their way: poor jobs, frustration because of the health problems, and so on.

It is high time to help your potential customers and introduce your services or products! “Download the book and learn how to write effective texts in no time!”

3. Ask questions and show that you are interested

Make your CTA personalized! Ask your potential customers about their needs, desires, wants, and special requests. Use the verbs which raise your visitors’ interest in your products. Focus on their plans, objectives, and goals. “Need the smartest gadget ever? Find it in our store today at the best price!”

4. Build trust and credibility

Use recommendations of some influential people to emphasize the benefits of your product. The customers need to understand what for they should use it, and you can rely on credible recommendations and advice. Such CTAs as “See why Julia Roberts washes her hair only with this shampoo!” work really well. First of all, they arouse people’s interest and curiosity. Secondly, you show that your product is trustworthy and people are more inclined to buy it.

5. Use client testimonials in the CTA

If the customers tell that their experience of working with you was satisfying, it is one of the most convincing methods of engaging others. A CTA based on positive testimonials is a great option. “See for yourself. It’s the best product I have ever used.”

CTA: Positioning and Design

Having a convincing wording is not enough to make a CTA really effective. You also have to take care of its proper design and positioning to double the effect.

– Use contrasting colors of the font as they are much more effective. CTA should stand out to be different from the rest of the webpage.

– Find the most suitable position of your CTA. See if the CTA makes sense in the chosen context.

– Double check if your CTA is relevant to the webpage content.

– Strategically place several CTAs throughout the site.

CTA in Marketing: When and Where

Marketing communication is no longer possible without good CTAs. However, you may ask when and where it is most appropriate to use them. Your interest is understandable as even the most effective tools can lose their effect if used inappropriately. Make sure your CTAs are not cluttered and place them so that they could be clearly seen on blogs, websites, or even emails.

• On the blog.

A blog is a great method of bringing new clients and turning them    into potential leads. It means an effective CTA will be relevant here to recommend an offer, some related content, or some measures to be taken. It can help you implement marketing strategies and help       your customers make choices and decide on the products. It is a good idea to finish each blog post with an effective CTA related to the covered topic. Besides, it is useful to place a CTA in the blog sidebar so that your visitors could easily see it. You have only 8 seconds of attention span, remember?

• On the website.

You can turn your website visitors into business leads using CTAs on your website. Ask them to fill out the form, offer them a free trial of your seminar or book, suggest buying some product, or promote a special event. A good CTA can help you do everything to attract new clients.

• In the email.

Focus on a key message that you want to send and turn your email into an outstanding call to action. While writing it, keep in mind that the reader will only scan your email and it should be easy and quick to find out what you want them to do.

Make Your Marketing Successful with Effective CTA Phrases

Let’s make it clear.

You want to get as many leads as possible as their interest in your products and your business will probably turn them into your loyal customers.

So, you have to choose your target audience and try to capture their attention and then follow-up engagement.

Let’s try to summarize which phrases in CTA can help you achieve your goal and generate the desired leads.

Examples of Effective CTAs:

• Try for free for two weeks.
• Get your first purchase with 30% off!
• Sign up with no credit card required!
• Download the guide and make your business successful!

You may also keep your business rock-solid and nurture leads with implementing email-marketing strategies. However, to do that you will have to build your email list with new recipients. What can be better for encouraging your website visitors and readers of your blogs to provide their email addresses than an effective Call to Action. Then the users will either give their email addresses on the landing pages or the website directly.

Examples of Effective CTAs:

• Join our email list and get superior deals and exclusive offers!
• Subscribe to our blog and learn new tricks daily!
• Sign up for an email newsletter and be well aware of all the latest updates!

Use of Action Words in the Button Text of  CTA

You still remember that conversion of your visitors into leads can take place only if you keep encouraging them with effective calls to action that provide guidance and direction to the visitors.

Thus, the main focus should be on the first verb. Have a look at the list of most useful verbs for your lead generation campaigns.

• Start!

Fill your visitor with positive emotions and help him feel that a signing up process will not take him long. The implication is that a visitor can merely click on the button and obtain access to the desired services or products. “Sign up for the first trial for free. Start NOW!”

• Build!

Encourage your visitors and help them believe that they can start creating something innovative and useful. Provide them with the necessary tools and assure that they can fulfill their plans and accomplish the set goals. “Build a community you need!”

• Stop!

Your visitor should avoid something as it will only harm him. You know that and want to warn him and prevent negative consequences. “Stop wasting time and money on expensive but useless strategies!”

• Join!

Make your visitors feel as if they are actual participants of your game, a part of some company or a giant team. “Join our new network!”

• Discover!

Tell your potential customers that just a click separates them from getting to know how to accomplish a certain task. “Discover how to make a purchase with 1-day delivery!”

• Learn!

Knowledge is power. Acquiring new knowledge gives more power and control over the situation. Having interest in some product, one can make an informed conscious decision only with all the details available. Indulge your clients’ curiosity by offering them a chance to get to know more. “Learn more about excellent jeans now!” Don’t forget to be specific! Using a phrase ‘learn more’ will be too vague and ineffective if you do not specify the subject of that learning.

CTAs That Won’t Work: Extremes

If CTA is Too Weak or There is No CTA at All

One of the worst mistakes in getting direct responses is missing a call to action and assuming that the potential customers will guess what you want them to do.

One of the mistakes is abundance of floating elements which do not let the users concentrate and grab the message. Another common mistake is a weak call to action which does not hint at any benefits, does not try to resolve the problems, and does not let the users understand why they should click on the button. “Pick your village out of the list.” So what? A call to action should be compelling and intriguing with a lot to offer, not only to want from others.

If CTA is Too Strong

It may happen that a CTA is presented as a pop-up which does not let you enter the website until you provide your email. It serves as a pay-wall and it does not bring out any positive emotions at all. “Join now!” This message is clear, but at the same time if I do not join you won’t let me see the page. Then my evident reaction in 90 % of such cases will be OK, no problem! I don’t like such pressure. I would never like to be forced to do anything just because you insist. That is why: Sorry, not this time! This Call To Action is too strong, and it does not work.

There have been a lot of changes over the years, and CTAs are changing continuously. However, their main idea and the goal remains the same.

The right message should appear at the right time for the right people.

Ultimately, you will optimize and test CTAs you need, and you will find out which of them work for you. Thus, you will make an impact with a personalized compelling call to action and obtain a number of benefits!

Have you learned anything new about effective CTAs? Share your insights with us!