Every communication from your company to your audience should include a call to action – an immediate response you want users to complete. The call to action has a very specific goal – to get the user to click, call or email and complete a conversion. Encouraging users to act with a call to action needs to strike a delicate balance between funnelling the user towards your goal conversion, and offering more useful information to keep the user interested.
Here are our key rules for an effective Call to Action:
Use an action-packed, urgent verb to start your CTA
Keep your call to action clear and concise – starting it off with a desired action will focus the user on your desired objective, and will also inform them of the next available steps now that you have captivated their interest with your content!
E.g.:
– For an e-commerce website – start your CTA with words like ‘buy’, ‘shop’ or ‘order’
– Promoting a newsletter or white paper? Start your CTA with words like ‘download’ or ‘subscribe’
– Want the user to request more information? Use ‘Fill out our form for…’ or ‘find out how…’
Using the example of a newsletter, a call to action like ‘our newsletter is available…’ is not as compelling as ‘subscribe to our newsletter’. A more directive call to action will see better goal conversion rates.
Give the user a reason to take the desired action
Basically, what’s in it for them? Will it help to inform them, will they lose weight, save money? This will also tie in nicely with your value proposition, or unique selling point (USP). Your value proposition is critical in the creation of new leads, so having the CTA tie in with this will increase the number of prospects. Tagging a compelling offer onto the CTA will give the user more of a reason to click or enter their details. ‘Subscribe to our newsletter today and get 50% off!’ for example. This also capitalises on FOF (Fear Of Missing Out), as you are adding a time constraint on to the offer and the user will feel a sense of urgency to take advantage of it, before it runs out!
Use numbers where possible
Try experimenting with pricing information in your CTA – consumers respond well to seeing numbers such a pricing, discounts, promotions etc. It helps them to decide whether it’s worth spending the money on items they want. If a user sees the pricing in the ad, and continues through to the next conversion stage, then you know that they are still interested in the product or service that you are offering – and the lead is already semi qualified. So you have a valuable click/query, and an increased chance of generating a conversion.
Don’t be afraid to get creative
You’ve held the attention of the user throughout your content, now you want to hook them in towards your goal conversion. It’s important that you keep your CTAs fresh, in the same way that you do your content. Write them in the tone of voice of your company to keep in line with your brand identity. There is no formula to creating the perfect CTA – it will be a case of trial and error, so keep mixing things up and see what works.
If you’d like some help on creating the right call to action for your business, or to write the content behind it, we can help! Give Bigwave media a shout. Visit our website or call us on 01392 492380.