Tags – How to Write a Call-to-Action
A call-to-action (CTA) is a must-have digital marketing tool, no matter what your goal is.
Whether you want to grow your customer base, close a sale or turn website visitors into paying customers, a killer CTA will encourage your audience to take a desired action.
To put it simply, a CTA is a nugget of content that directs your audience to click a link and will directly impact your conversion rates.
Often you’ll see a hyperlink or a button like “download now” or “buy today”. But they don’t always have to be short. Sometimes it can be a little longer like “subscribe to our newsletter today for exclusive offers”. All the CTA needs to do is tell the reader what you want them to do next.
Here are our top 4 tips for how to write a call-to-action that brings results.
1. Use Command Words
Your CTA needs to be clear and concise.
Usually, the CTA is the smallest section in all of your content pieces and you only have a limited space to get your point across.
So, get straight to the point and use strong command verbs – tell your audience exactly what to do next and don’t beat around the bush.
For instance, if you’re running an e-Commerce site. It makes sense to use CTAs starting with “buy”, “order” or “shop”.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to get more people to sign up to your newsletter or promote a whitepaper, use words like “subscribe” or “download”. Or, maybe you want them to request more information, so words like “contact” or “find out how”.
Going back to the newsletter example, if your CTA just read “the latest edition of our newsletter is out now”, you may find your click-through rate is not as high as you expected. That’s because in this CTA, the audience is not told what to do; CTA’s need to be direct and informative.
2. Evoke Curiosity
If you’re able to make your audience feel curious, you’re more likely to get sales.
The idea is to tell people what you do and how, but not reveal too much about how you do it, leaving your audience wanting more.
Everyone feels curiosity – there’s something out there we want to know and if you can create a CTA that tells your audience what’s on the other side, the more likely they are to trust you.
A great way to build curiosity is through gamification, where your opt-in forms turns into a game and encourages people to engage by clicking on the CTA: think of the spinning wheels with different offers, but you have to enter your email address to take part.
3. Create a Sense of Urgency
Effective CTAs create a sense of urgency in their message. A great motivator is FOMO (fear of missing out) – and no one wants to feel left out.
Generally speaking, if people think they might miss on a one-time-only opportunity, they’ll for sure jump on the bandwagon.
It happens all the time. Think back to when your favourite clothing brand was holding a limited time sale. I’m sure you received tons of emails saying, “Shop today! Sales ends on Thursday”. And how many times have you tried to resist the urge of clicking on that link and spending your money?
See, it can be quite the challenge to ignore a prompt like that. Especially one that’s time-restricted.
4. Make it Stand Out
The design of the CTA also plays an important part and you’ll want it to stand out. Otherwise it will just be missed.
A few design elements that will help is:
- Use white space effectively
- Ensure the CTA button contrasts with the rest of the colours
- Make the CTA button big enough but not too in your face
- Optimise the button for mobile devices
Tired of boring, square buttons? Mix it up and test different button shapes: i.e. rounded buttons can make the overall graphic feel softer.
Final Words
The end goal in content marketing for everyone is to generate new leads and customers and writing engaging CTAs plays a major role.
Whilst the text used will make a difference in convincing people to click, you still need to pay close attention to the actual design and make sure it jumps off the page to improve your conversion rate.
Talking of leads and customers, here’s how you can improve your conversion rate:
Want to know more? Contact us today.
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