Do you know what a Call to Action is?

Don’t be shy, not many do. It’s sometimes referred to as a CTA and is defined as:

“An image or line of text that prompts your visitors, leads, and customers to take action. It is, quite literally, a “call” to take an “action.”

The ‘action’ you wish your customers to take could vary but it should certainly be something inspirational and assertive. CTAs also work better when combined with various other tools that deliver a strong integrated strategy,  sitting authentically within your chosen demographic. However, simply having a Call to Action on your website is not enough, it needs to be effective or you will just lose people. In reality, if you run a business and have a website that doesn’t bring people to that business, then there is no point in having that website at all. So the CTA on your website needs to be strong to work. 

Heres our 5 Top Tips for improving your CTA

1) Engaging copy

Straight off the mark, the writing has to be strong, engaging and really speak to your clients. Writing copy in active tense is often better and if you are writing a blog then it should ‘catch’ the essence of the article. Or the copy should simply provide a direct flow of thought to the next stage of purchase. Try and find the right words to create an urgency as well.

2) A good button in time

Having a clickable button icon is great for helping people take ‘action’. If your content has impressed them so much they may not even want to finish reading so consider including a Button halfway through the blog. It’s reported that 80% of readers on a webpage never scroll down so you need to catch them halfway through. It goes without saying that the visual design of the button should be eye-catching with bright colours to really stand out from the page. Take a note out of Netflix’s book:

3) Do not mislead

It may seem tempting to say anything to get the customers through your internet doors but trust us, this can be far more damaging in the long run. Your CTA needs to live up to it’s boasts. For instance, if you have customers come to a landing page (see below) but they don’t like it and leave the site immediately, then you will get what is called a higher bounce rate. This can jeopardise your website’s SEO ratings in the eyes of Google. Check out this great example from Evernote below. 

4) A specific landing page

A landing page on a website is where people find themselves on your website after clicking on a CTA.  This needs to make a strong positive and relevant impression. You need somewhere with a clear proposition that follows on from the CTA otherwise the customer will just go elsewhere. Anything that seems irrelevant or unconnected to the CTA can cause a high bounce rate which will only mislay your website popularity. Basecamp 3 breaks it down for you below:

5) Clear Value

So the benefit of what a customer gets from following through should be known to them by the time they click your CTA button. Added value is a term used to describe what a customer gets before paying any money. So if the product itself isn’t the value of a CTA, there must be something else to offer them. You will need to find that special something extra that your brand offers to bring customers onto your website.