We’ve all seen them—colorful boxes or “buttons” found on websites, email campaigns, online ads, and social media campaigns that instruct us to Buy Now, Schedule an Appointment, or Contact Us. In digital marketing, a Call to Action (CTA) is an inducement to take a specific action. It is a prompt to lead the viewer to do something, such as make a purchase, make a call, or read more.
It might sound simple enough to come up with a short CTA phrase, but finding the right Call to Action for your specific product or business can be challenging and with the many demands on a business owner’s time, it’s no wonder they often don’t take the time to think through such a tiny detail. However, including a CTA on your website or digital ad is as important as asking for the sale or closing the deal in face-to-face sales. Some sources put social network ad spending for 2021 at $49 billon, so spending a little time crafting the right CTA can make a big impact on Return on Investment.
As you’re rethinking your use of CTA buttons, consider these helpful tips:
When a potential customer visits your website or views your digital ad, don’t make them guess what to do next. Make it easy for them to take the next step.
Place Order
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An enthusiastic, exciting CTA generates enthusiasm and excitement for the potential customer. Create a sense of urgency to make it more likely they will take the next step and click the button.
Buy Now for 20% Discount!
Book Your Dream Vacation Now!
Everyone likes to think they got a deal.
Call Now for Your Free Consultation
Use design, size, and color to make an impact. Some colors are more successful than others. Provide color contrast so the CTA button doesn’t get lost in the content. Make it stand out. Rather than a simple shape, the CTA could be a picture or graphic as long as its purpose as a CTA is obvious.
The Call-to-Action button should be easy to find and repeated several times on every page of your site and in the header. Different transitional CTAs can be used for each page, but keep a consistent direct CTA in the header.
A Direct Call to Action, such as Buy Now or Place Order, is for those who are already convinced that they want to purchase your product or do business with your company. They are ready to get started right away. However, there will be many potential customers who just aren’t ready. They need to know more.
According to business author Donald Miller,
“No matter how good you are at design and copy writing, not every visitor to your website is going to click your “buy now” button, a.k.a. your Direct Call to Action.”
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The Transitional Call to Action offers them something of value in exchange for an email address, so a transitional Call to Action is the perfect way to generate an email-nurturing campaign. In order to do that, you must first gather an email address.
The website example below shows how Get to Know Us can be used as a transitional CTA while Get Started offers a direct CTA.
Here’s another example of a transitional Call to Action perfect for collecting email addresses:
Some CTAs work better on different devices, so the same CTA that works for mobile users might not be as successful for desktop users.
Rather than the traditional, Learn More, be creative. You might consider these alternatives:
For creative alternatives to the traditional Download Now, consider these:
A Non-Profit organization might use:
The example below shows a creative version of the Download CTA:
At Write Now Marketing, we know today’s business owners have huge demands on their time. Thinking through the right Call-to-Action button for your website, email campaigns, and social media campaigns doesn’t have to consume your already busy day. We can help. This is what we do every day—help business owners grow their business. This includes your online presence and customer engagement. The best part is that we provide free website consultations!
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