What is a call to action?

A call to action is a clear and concise phrase, generally presented as a visually appealing button, that suggests the next step to take on a web page, email, social media post or ad. They nudge us into action on a specific goal a company wants to achieve. If you’ve subscribed to a newsletter, signed up for a webinar or a free trial, or hit the “Buy Now!” button, you’ve encountered a CTA.

There’s no shortcut to bypass the need to A/B test and analyse the results for each CTA you present to your audience, however, the following tips will give you some ideas to get your audience clicking in all the right places.

How to write a call to action

A clear understanding your target audience, the stage they’re at in the customer journey, what their wants, needs and objections are, is key to finding the most appealing language and aesthetic to maximise conversion rates.

Consider what they’re looking for when they land on your page. Do they need help or advice? Are they looking for information to help them make a decision? Are they ready to make a transaction? Do they want to save money? Are they looking to satisfy an emotional need? What reservations do you need to address to get them to click?

What’s the benefit?

You’re unlikely to get good results by purely appealing to your reader’s love of a no-risk, no-commitment freebie and inserting a big red button into your page. Instead, answer the question “what’s in it for me?” A clickable CTA placed in relation to copy that expresses your value proposition and what your prospect stands to gain by taking the next step will be more effective.

What action do you want them to take?

How you define your call to action depends on where you expect your visitor to be in their customer journey with you. Every call to action has the potential to move a relationship forward. In the early stages that might be a free trial or newsletter sign-up. Further along it might be a consultation. Later on, after purchase, it might be the chance to upgrade or to join a customer conference.

Whatever the goal you want to achieve, your call to action should be clear, direct, brief, informative and let your audience know precisely what you want them to do.Most of all it must add value to the customer and to the relationship.

Call to action examples

Start with a strong verb and complete it with a maximum of two to five words:

• Add to Cart

• Sign Up

• Order Now!

• Download Our Whitepaper

• Subscribe Here

• Try For Free

• Reserve Your Spot

• Book A Callback

• Schedule A Free Demo

• Get Started

• Join Us!

• Read More

• Contact Sales

• Share On Social

In a B2B services context, the use of imperative language may seem to lack finesse. Bear in mind that these phrases typically appear on a button. You are not ordering your customers about, the psychology of pressing a button is that they are taking the action themselves. Almost like pressing ‘save’ on an application, clicking a call to action feels more like doing it yourself than being told to do it.

Consider Your Language

The phrasing and tone of voice of your CTAs can have an enormous impact. For example:

Your/My: You’ll often see the word ‘your’ in a call to action - ‘Create Your Account’, ‘Save Your Seat’ - as it suggests a sense of ownership or belonging. However, the more personal ‘my’ might work better for your audience.

Request a Quote: The process of gathering, reviewing and comparing quotes is a hassle. We all know that requesting a quote commits us to a process that involves dealing with salespeople, follow up calls and emails, and, potentially, the pressure to buy. So the word “quote” comes laden with the weight of a lot of negative associations. Visitors might respond more favourably to a CTA that avoids the word altogether and instead invites them to get more information or detailed pricing.

Urgency and FOMO

A sense of urgency and the fear of missing out - or FOMO - is a powerful motivator that compels a user to take immediate action. We’ve all had the experience of intending to do something specific online and losing our train of thought. Whether you add the word ‘now’ or create time-limited offers for your users, introducing a sense of urgency can help to avoid the distraction effect.

Clarity of Purpose

Speaking of distraction, take steps to make sure that the design of your landing page isn’t the cause of your prospect’s loss of focus. Keep things simple and give clear instructions. Each page on your website will ideally have one job to do and a single Call To Action leading your user to the next step. If you give people too many buttons to click, the likelihood is they’ll experience decision paralysis or get distracted and click none of them.

Overcoming Risk and Objection

Above all, remove as much friction from the process as possible and make it easy for your user to take action. Think of Amazon’s One-Click ordering. Busy people are far more likely to complete a checkout or booking process with as few steps as possible or fill out a form asking for the briefest of information.

Make sure you’ve taken the time to address any objections or reservations your visitor might have about taking action too. Mitigating perceived risks, for example about privacy, security, obligation or dissatisfaction, can help to boost your conversion rate.

A Word On Design

Compelling copy, an enticing offer, and a punchy CTA won’t overcome poor design. If your landing page is cluttered and lacking whitespace, or if your CTA’s font size is too small or there’s not enough colour contrast for the button to stand out, your conversion rate will suffer. If your page takes ages to load or provides your user with a frustrating mobile experience, you’ll fail to hit your targets. When your conversion rates are lacking, think about the design of your landing pages, the flow of information as well as the design and placement of your CTAs, in addition to reviewing your copy.

Never Stop Testing, Analysing, Reworking

Crafting a compelling CTA is a science and an art. What works for one segment of your audience won’t speak to another. A CTA tailored for one context might not work for another. Every audience responds differently. Even the smallest of changes can improve your click-through rate (CTR). A/B testing tweaks in language allows you to identify which CTA’s are more appealing to your audience. What works now might not always work. Innovation matters here as in all aspects of business. Calls to Action on your site might start well and then begin to go stale for frequent visitors. If you see conversions begin to tail off, try mixing things up.

A/B testing, or split testing, allows you to show different versions of a landing page, lead form or email to your audience so you can analyse the results and optimise based on actual data.

You can test any number of variables, for example:

• Headlines and subheadings

• Copy length

• CTA button or link text

• Supplementary text, e.g. privacy notices, GDPR compliance, click triggers

• Tone of voice

• Personalisation in the design or copy

• CTA Placement

• Element design such as font size, colours, button shape

• Images

Services like Google Optimise and Optimizely offer ways to test the effectiveness of alternative design elements for small organisations to major corporations.

Encore!

What could be better than a perfect call to action? Another one! Taking an action is a positive decision by your customer. There’s a good feeling about it. The best time to get a user to convert is they’ve already converted. This is the goal of a post-conversion landing page. Once they’ve clicked the call-to-action and filled in their information, follow them up with another offer. Maybe this is a product upsell or a request to become a newsletter subscriber. Whatever it is, there’s no better time to strike than while the iron is hot. If you don’t have an applicable postconversion offer, consider a thank you instead.

Whether you want your visitors to sign up to your mailing list, purchase a product or help extend your reach by sharing your content, it boils down to clear signposting and making the ask. Distilling your message into short, pithy statements designed to both capture your audience’s attention and convince them to take action is the key to an effective call to action.

Find out how 1827 Marketing can help

If you’d like to learn more about our software and services, use the button below to book a call. We’re always interested to hear about your B2B marketing objectives and to find out if we can help.