Every business has a bottom line, which generally involves getting customers ACROSS the line.
And businesses dedicate huge resources to marketing that journey for them: from the initial connection to relationship building, nurturing, and (if it all goes well) conversion from a potential customer to a customer.
It takes more than a little strategic effort to make it all happen. And the most important part of it all?
The actual invitation to walk across the line.
And CTA’s, or Call-to-Actions, is the only way to do it.
What is a CTA?
A call-to-action is a compelling, clickable button, link, banner, or icon designed to CALL users to action. It provides an obvious and direct value proposition to potential customers that leads them through a customer journey to purchase.
The value can be:
- A newsletter
- A Downloadable
- A Discount code
- Free shipping
- Subscribing
Whatever kind of conversion your CTA is designed for, it will (at the very least) help to add that potential buyer to your database and marketing funnel, which marks the beginning of your customer relationship.
CTAs are specific, easy to locate, descriptive, and focus on inspiring action.
Research shows that adding clear call-to-actions to your Facebook page alone can increase your clickthrough rate by a whopping 285%.
CTA Strategies
Not sure what CTAs will work best for your business?
With the right strategy, CTAs help you rank better in search engine results and can increase conversion rates by up to 120%.
A few standout CTA strategies include:
Lead Generation:
- SEO Meta Descriptions: The 160 characters in your SEO descriptions act as CTAs themselves. Describing your EXACT offering can help potential customers decide to click thru or not.
- Lead Magnets: offering something of value (for free) in exchange for their contact information. This could be an e-book or downloadable.
- Pay Per Click (PPC): Appears on a SERP, indicating a paid result. Unlike a regular search result, there’s more room in PPC for HTML links and metadata descriptions, which themselves can act as a CTA.
- Landing Pages: Landing pages prompt a single action, like signing up for an EDM. Usually, something is offered in exchange for this information, like a free download or trial – traditionally, it’s an offer with no need to spend.
1. Conversion:
- Save on Purchase: A percentage off sales, especially with multiple items, can hook people into buying from you. Sometimes people will pay a little bit more money on two items just to get the percentage savings.
- Free Shipping: Shipping can be a cost that deters us from spending more money. However, if we spend that money on an item, it can be very tempting to spend more money.
2. Brand Awareness:
- Like and share: most commonly used on social media to reach a greater potential audience through collaboration, prompting users to share.
- Enter to win: used to generate excitement and awareness by having people sign up to win and winner details, who will happily share with their friends, family, and audience.
- Free Trials: this prompts potential customers to opt into your database and to trial your offering without committing, aka. “try before you buy.”
How to Write Compelling CTAs
Your CTA strategy will depend on your ultimate business and marketing goals, but regardless of the goal, how and when you compel customers to strike takes strategic language and design.
Be Direct: A really great CTA catches your eye, feels personal, and calls you (pretty directly) to action. For example, if you want people to check out your Youtube, tell them to check out your Youtube Channel and don’t take them anywhere else with your links.
Action Language: Build your message around actionable language. For example, download now, Buy now, Ready to Buy now? etc. Action language calls your potential customers to make an immediate move now.
Make it Personal: Part of getting someone across the line is getting them to see themselves with your brand/product/service. Using YOU language helps customers to feel connected to the purchase and reinforces the commitment as positive.
How to Design Compelling CTAs
The Second most important aspect: Design.
Color: Studies show that color can increase a website’s recognition by 80% – use vibrant, bold, and contrasting colors for the CTA button to help it stand out on your site. Keep branding clear and aligned with this palette.
Placement: According to consumer behavior research, customers give a homepage 59 seconds before leaving. Keeping CTAs accessible, above the fold, and easy to spot is key to keeping them engaged.
Size: CTAs should be bold, clickable, and really, really obvious. Make sure your design allows space for sizeable CTA buttons and links that are easily accessed.
Ready to elevate your messaging and design with clear, clickable CTAs with purpose?
StellaPop can help you make it happen – NOW!
