Things to Remember When Creating a Call to Action
Creating an effective call to action is no great mystery. There are several factors that go into the formula of creating compelling and powerful CTAs. Here are 5 recommendations that will help you with creating a call to action that people will actually click on.
Know Your Goal and Focus On It
Make sure that you keep your marketing goals in mind when creating a call to action. Whether it be raising awareness, sales, or brand exposure, make sure that your CTA works to get you to that goal.
While secondary goals can also be targeted, they should not be a priority. Keep your CTAs on point for maximum effectiveness. Order now, stop by, contact us… you get the point.
Keep It Short and Sweet
There’s no need to flex your creative writing skills. Keep your CTA’s short, sweet, and to the point.
Letting them run on for too long can distill the message of the CTA and drive down user engagement. Moreover, CTAs that are too long run the risk of losing a reader’s attention. It is believed that the average human has an attention span of about 8 seconds.
Keeping your CTAs under 10 words for clickable buttons is good practice.
Be Mindful of the Audience and the Medium
That being said, there are some situations where longer CTAs may be more effective than short ones.
For instance, social media posts tend to feature both short and long calls-to-action. Short calls-to-action are used to drive immediate action, whereas longer ones can be used as follow-ups to provide more detailed or persuasive reasons for taking a specific action.
Similarly, blog posts tend to also feature longer calls to action. Because long-form blog posts already demand and capture attention, they can be used to set up more long-winded and complex calls to action.
Use Action Words and Power Words
Try to use action or power words in your CTAs whenever possible. These are very direct and specific words that motivate the audience to take action. Using a strong command verb to begin your CTA and a strong power word to finish it is good form.
Actionable verbs like “try”, “buy”, “find”, and “access” seek to direct user action one way or another. Meanwhile, power words like “today”, “right now”, and “quickly” direct the user to take that action immediately.
Adding an exclamation point to the end of your CTA is a subtle yet effective way to amplify this effect.
Give Them an Immediate Reason to Take Action
One of the biggest advantages that digital marketing has on traditional marketing methods is the ability to immediately engage target customers. Within seconds leads that have clicked through a CTA can be nurtured with email follow-ups, access to premium content, and downloadable resources.
Your CTAs should give your audience an immediate reason to take action. By quickly giving them something in return for their co-operation, their decision to click through will be justified.
Emphasizing low-risk is another way that CTAs get their audience to take immediate action. If a visitor is made aware that they have nothing to lose by clicking your link, they will be more likely to do so.
Some CTAs attempt to instill a FOMO (fear of missing out) into their audience. Pressing the audience to take advantage of limited-time offers and promotions can also work really well to inspire immediate action.
Wondering if your website has good CTAs? Let us talk to you about how we would make it even better. Contact us to learn more.
