Want to turn more visitors into customers? A compelling call-to-action (CTA) is the key to boosting your click-through rate and driving conversions. We explore 7 powerful CTA tips to help convert visitors into customers.
What is a call to action?
A call-to-action (or CTA) is a text prompt that encourages users to take a specific action, whether to register for an event, sign up for a trial, buy a product, or download a content offer. Typically, the focus of the CTA will be the next step you want your audience to take.
The type of CTA and the action you want a user to take will entirely depend on where they are in the buyer’s journey. For example, the early stages may focus on encouraging users to ‘learn more’, whereas the end stages would encourage a registration or purchase.
When it comes to creating a suitable CTA, there are different types you can consider:
- Content-focused
- Follow on social media
- Register for an event
- Listen to a podcast
- Watch a video
- Download a content offer
- Trial-focused
- Register for a free trial
- Order a free sample
- Download an app
- Purchase-driven
- Browse new product additions
- Shop limited-time offers
- Shop limited items
- Feedback-driven
- Leave a review
- Take a survey
- Recommend a friend
What are the benefits of an effective call to action?
Creating effective call-to-actions is vital to encourage your users to click and take action. Spending the time to create effective call-to-actions can provide a range of benefits for your business, including:
Increase conversions
A well-crafted CTA will guide users toward taking a desired action, whether it be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a content offer.
Boost engagement
An effective CTA also encourages users to interact with your content, keeping them engaged with your brand.
Provide clarity
You can also provide clarity from a strong CTA. Telling users exactly what to do next will help eliminate any confusion and improve CTA effectiveness.
Enhance user experience
A clear and compelling CTA also makes it easier for users to navigate your website intuitively, thereby enhancing the user experience.
Drive revenue
You can also drive revenue from an effective CTA by leading potential customers through the sales funnel, thereby increasing sales and business growth.
Encourage immediate action
A well-written CTA will create a sense of urgency, prompting users to act quickly to avoid missing out, delaying, or forgetting.
Strengthens brand messaging
A consistent and persuasive CTA will also strengthen your brand massaging by reinforcing your brand voice and objectives.
Improves marketing ROI
By driving more conversions are a result of an effective CTA, you can ensure your marketing yields better results and a greater return on investment.
How can you create effective call-to-actions to boost click-through rates?
Creating an effective call-to-action that boosts conversions and improves click-through rates can be difficult. However, there are several steps you can follow to help with this.
Write in the active voice
The first tip for creative effective CTAs is by writing in the active voice. This involves writing so the subject (your user) is performing an action as opposed to receiving the action (passive voice). This helps to make your CTA’s more direct and clearer.
Preferably starting your CTA with the action verb can also be more effective (such as download, buy, register, call, etc.). The same is true for writing in the first person (I), as opposed to the third person (you), and is an effective way to hold your reader’s attention.
Make sure you keep the wording of CTA concise, using as few words as possible can also make your writing more impactful. Avoiding generic language (click here, download, etc) also helps make your CTA more clearer and more direct.
Use language that provokes emotion.
An effective way to improve the effectiveness of a CTA is by using language that provokes emotion. Tapping into your user’s emotions is one of the most effective techniques for improving the appeal of any content.
Eliciting a strong response from a user is a sure way to get them to click on your CTA. A similar effect can be achieved through using instant gratification language. Using words such as “now”, “today”, or “instantly” shows users they won’t have to wait long before they can benefit.
The clearer your CTAs the better. While you must keep your CTAs concise, they also need to clearly state what the user can expect after clicking. This prevents any confusion and will keep users engaged.
Choose the right placement
Alongside the language and tone of your CTA, the placement can also have a big impact on conversion rates. Ideally, you want to position them in a prominent place on the page, unobstructed by distractions.
One ideal location to consider placing a call to action is above the fold. This means the CTA will be visible to users as soon as they land on the page. For longer pages, having the same CTA in multiple places can also be beneficial (such as at the end of the page).
Make sure you avoid confusing your users by having multiple CTAs on a page with a different message. The CTAs on a page should also focus on the same message your content is emphasising. The use of whitespace around the CTA can also help it stand out more.
FOMO
One more tip you can use to boost your click-through rate of CTAs is FOMO (or fear of missing out). This is an effective marketing technique that adds an element of scarcity to your offering that can encourage users to act so they don’t miss out.
Scarcity can be implemented in several ways in a CTA. The most common is limited time offers by including an end date or time. The inclusion of a deadline can urge users to act quickly (this can be further emphasised with a timer counting down).
Exclusive access can also be another FOMO tactic that can be used on CTAs. Offering exclusive access can encourage users to act on a CTA as it plays on our human nature of placing greater value on things other people can’t have.
Colour choice
Similar to the written aspect, the colour choice in your CTAs can also have a big impact on click-through rates. While it’s important to align your CTA with your brand, you should also pay close attention to the psychology of colour.
The right choice of colour for your CTAs can elicit a strong response from users encouraging them to act. Brighter colours (such as orange and red) in particular are more effective at stimulating attention and encouraging action.
In contrast, lighter colours (such as blue) will have the opposite effect causing users to feel more relaxed and less inclined to take action. When picking an effective colour, make sure it doesn’t clash with your existing design.
Social proof
Social proof is another tip you can implement to boost click-through rates. This is a psychological technique where people will copy the actions of others if they are in an unfamiliar situation or don’t know how to respond.
This makes it an effective technique to use alongside your CTAs for boosting click-throughs. You can add social proof in several ways, including:
- Relevant customer reviews or testimonials
- Professional endorsements and press mentions (although these don’t tend to be as effective)
- Real-time statistics (e.g. number of downloads, registrations, social media followers, products sold, customer count).
- Client or partner logos.
- Awards, certifications, or professional memberships.
- Referral programs.
A/B testing
One last tip you can use to boost your click-through rate is A/B testing. This is an effective way to ensure your CTAs are tailored to your target audience and effectively encourage clicks. This is a comparative testing method to measure the most successful variant based on your key metric.
A/B testing (or split testing) involves testing multiple versions of a variable to see which performs better. In terms of CTAs, this can be placement, colour choice, language, or size. This then provides you with data to indicate which performs best.
As part of the test, both variations can either be shown to your website visitors for a specific period or split between different users. This can make an effective testing method if your click-through rate is not as high as expected.
An effective call-to-action can make all the difference in turning visitors into engaged customers. By applying these 7 tips, you’ll create stronger and more compelling CTAs that users are more likely to click on. Creating more compelling CTAs is just one of the many web design mistakes to avoid if you want to skyrocket your business.
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