Are you struggling to guide your audience from simply viewing your web or marketing content to taking the actions that turn them into leads or buyers (filling out forms, contacting you, purchasing, etc…)? If you see prospects visiting your website or opening your emails without taking the next step to purchase, it’s time to start building better calls to action.
In this article, we’ll explain what a ‘call to action’ is, where to use them, and how to create a kick-ass call to action that actually works.
What Is A Call To Action?
A call to action (CTA) is a marketing tool that prompts users to take a specified action. Usually presented as a headline, short copy description, and button element, CTAs are designed to advance prospects into the next stage of your lead generation or sales path.
Where To Use A Call To Action
CTAs are a crucial aspect of any successful marketing funnel. After being attracted by your eye-catching headlines and drawn into your engaging marketing content, your audience needs to be given the opportunity to take the next step in their journey to becoming a customer, client, subscriber, etc…or else you may have just wasted a page visit on someone who would have taken action, but didn’t have the choice.
So where do you put your calls to action? Here are the most common areas to encourage users to progress through your marketing funnel:
Strategically scattered across your website
If the primary goal of your website is to generate and convert leads, then it needs to be full of strategically placed CTAs. The exact placement of these CTAs will be dependent on your content layout, but there are some general standards that tend to receive the best results. We like to use an alternating “before, during, and after” approach when deciding on optimal CTA placement to capture visitors who are in various stages of the buyer’s journey.
- Before | There may be some instances where visitors have landed on your website knowing exactly what they want, are already in the purchasing, subscribing, or contacting mindset, and are ready to take action right away. When this is the case, it’s best to immediately present these visitors with a call to action before making them dig through your website content to find what they’re looking for. Web page headers are a great spot for these CTAs, and we like to make them as simple and straight-to-the-point as possible, often designing them as actionable buttons under clear and informative headlines.
- During | While some of your visitors may come to your site ready to take action, others might need just a bit more persuasion. These users will spend some time scrolling through your site to make sure you can help them reach their objectives, but many of them will be scanning your content, rather than digging deep for information. You can often see success from presenting these visitors with a call to action during this stage. Try placing a CTAs in the middle of your web pages, after small sections of content, or even as a pop-up that appears after the visitor has scrolled past a certain milestone on the page. These CTA placements can act as a positive interruption that test the reader’s readiness to move along in the purchasing phase and nudge them in the right direction. If they don’t bite on this CTA, don’t worry, you have another one coming.
- After | If your visitors didn’t engage with your header or mid-page CTAs, it’s likely that they simply wanted to do more research before taking action. Now you can present them with another call to action after they’ve had the chance to digest your content. We’ve noticed that even though these CTAs take longer for the user to get to, they often have some of the best performance numbers, as the type of visitor who makes it to these CTAs tends to be someone who is interested enough to spend more time engaging with your website content.
In your email campaigns
Don’t forget to include CTAs in your email marketing campaigns! Whether you’re sending out a monthly newsletter, or reaching out to prospects, give your contacts an option to act right away when your content resonates with them. Make every outreach touch an opportunity for an inbound lead.
Tip: Big bold buttons are great for your email newsletters, but if you want your prospecting emails to have a more personal touch, we recommend displaying your CTAs as link text to avoid that “mass marketing” feel.
On your social media posts
Another great spot for CTAS is in your social media posts. Even if you’re simply posting a photo to your account, it can be useful to include content or a link that directs your followers somewhere so you’re not wasting a valuable touch point.
Various social media platforms handle your ability to post links differently, so make sure you’re familiar with those practices (Instagram captions, for example, don’t allow clickable links, so you’ll need to remember to write content that instructs your viewers to click the corresponding link in your profile).
How To Create A Call To Action That Works
So you’ve mapped out where you want to include your calls to action, but how do you create one that attracts and converts?
Present an offer or objective that is beneficial to the user
In order for your users to want to take action, they need to get something in return. A CTA that just says something to the effect of “give us your contact information,” offers no benefit and isn’t very tempting to click. Entice your users by concisely explaining the offer to them…whether that’s a free consultation, a downloadable ebook in exchange for their email address, or simply the ability to take the next step to getting your product or service.
Use language that makes it clear what step the user is taking
People are rightfully cautious about clicking website buttons or links if they aren’t sure where it will lead them (even if it doesn’t seem nefarious). When designing your CTA buttons, use direct language that makes it obvious what the next step is.
For example, if the goal of your button is to send users to a page to sign up for your email newsletter, just using “our newsletter” as your button text doesn’t provide the visitor with enough information about the action they’ll be taking. It may seem obvious, but a successful call to action doesn’t allow for any doubt. Spell it out for them with a button that says “sign up for our newsletter.”
Evoke a sense of urgency, necessity, or curiosity
Be persuasive in your CTAs by considering how you want your audience to feel when presented with the choice to take the next step in their journey.
Urgency | Is your offer only available for a limited time or number of people? If so, utilize your visitors’ fear of missing out- FOMO- and let them know that they may miss their chance to act if they don’t do so immediately.
Necessity | Support your call to action with a headline or content that speaks to (or reiterates) your prospect’s pain points and encourages them to eliminate those pain points right now by taking action.
Curiosity | Sometimes it’s best to withhold some information and allow your prospects’ curiosity to get the best of them. Instead of publishing all of your helpful knowledge on your website or other marketing materials, offer some items for download in exchange for your reader’s contact information. “Fill out this form for access to X,” can provide you with a valuable new name in your contact list, while satisfying your prospect’s curiosity to learn.
Don’t let design be an afterthought…make that CTA stand out
The goal of your call to action is to stop your visitors in their tracks and entice them to click through it, so don’t be shy about making it pop out on the page (while following modern design practices and keeping it looking clean…let’s not get too crazy here and scare people away).
How do you design a CTA that stands out?
- Use colors that contrast with the other colors on your page (while sticking to your company branding guidelines).
- Use bold text in the headline that leads to your call to action
- If your call to action includes body text, keep it short and sweet
- Take advantage of negative space to frame your button and make it stand out (don’t overshadow your button with text, graphics, or images). Let your call to action breath.
- Make your button large enough that your visitors can see it coming before they get to it, but not so large that it’s overwhelming.
So now you have a call to action that converts visitors. What’s next? Take advantage of marketing automation to nurture your new leads and turn them into customers!
Still have questions, or need help creating your awesome calls to action? Click the button below to contact us today for a free consultation, and ask us anything!
