Welcome to Kiran Gutha‘s blog on “How to Write Call to Action Copy That Will Produce Big Results”. An effective CTA creates a sense of urgency and tells customers, “Act now!”
Time is precious in marketing. There isn’t always time to make a big campaign splash for a new project.
But there are other ways to boost your marketing.
A call-to-action revamp is a small, effective change you can make to produce a big payoff, wrote in a HubSopot article titled, “The Complete Checklist for Creating Compelling Calls-to-Action.”
So What is a Call-To-Action?
A call-to-action is an image, text, or phrase that prompts a reader, viewer, or listener to take immediate action. You see and hear them on the radio, television, and the Internet every day, but you may not have known what they were called.
Whenever you see words or a phrase such as “Click Here,” “Call Now,” “Register Now,” “Download Now,” “Download e-Book Now,” “Free Download,” “Get a Coupon,” “Attend an Event,” “Subscribe” or “Sign up for a Webinar,” you are being prompted you to take action.
One call-to-action for a marketing promotion usually will get the job done. But there are occasions when multiple CTAs may be included. In those cases, secondary CTAs, as they are called, are a great way to rescue those lost or missed conversion opportunities. A secondary CTA usually isn’t as prominent as a primary CTA, but it can be an effective way to engage people who were not captured by the primary CTA.
How can a simple sales promotion message, or CTA, be so effective?
Marketers know people love options. By including small tweaks in your marketing, listeners, users, and viewers are empowered to take action or make choices as they see fit.
CTAs evoke a sense of immediacy and something relevant.
As Justine Grey wrote in a blog post for AmericanExpress, “A great call to action creates a sense of urgency or limited possibilities that must be acted on right now. Or, it creates a sense of well-being or offers a solution to a known or perceived problem.
“It also clearly spells out how a customer can make a purchase,” Grey added.
In the HubSpot.com post, Soskey cited an impressive 30% increase in conversions based on the CTAs she used in her marketing. She encouraged other marketers to give CTAs a try.
“If you only have a few minutes in your week to optimize your conversion rates, souping up your out-of-date and gnarly looking calls-to-action is the way to go,” Soskey noted in her blog post.
How to Write Call to Action Copy?
Here’s the CTA checklist that addresses 11 essential elements of an effective call-to-action.
1. Use Actionable Language
Forget what your grade school teacher told you about not writing in the second person. Also, a heavy dose of action verbs will grab people’s attention and garnish the results you are seeking. Verbs such as “discover, unearth, find” are a lot more effective than “be smarter.” Shorter copy also boils down to a more concise call-to-action.
2. Align CTA copy with landing page copy
It is important to make sure your CTA copy and your landing page copy align when you are creating a compelling CTA copy. Whatever name or term you are promoting should align with the name on the landing page. That should be the case no matter whether it is a free e-book, whitepaper, template, guide, crash course, or presentation.
The offer on both the CTA and the landing page should match. An example of viewers, readers, and users being asked to download a “crash course” on Facebook advertising on the CTA. It would lead to confusion if the copy on the landing page called it an “e-book.” The CTA copy and landing page copy must be consistent.
3. Include a clear value proposition
Each call-to-action you create is unique, but users may not perceive it that way. It is the obligation of markets to provide clarity “by making the benefit of clicking on the CTA super clear,”. “On your CTA, give a quick description of what happens when they click on it – Will they magically become better at their job? Will, they save time? … Regardless of what you want them to do, it should be very (clear) what is going to happen when people click.”
4. Play up its time-sensitivity
Time is precious, so getting users to focus on clicking your CTA requires special attention. We suggest tapping into ‘the element of urgency” by telling users and viewers to do something right now. It is good to add words such as “now” and “today” to your CTA button to increase the chance of them actually doing it.
5. Make it big
Effective CTAs are big and bold. Placing a tiny button at the bottom of the page may not get the clicks you desire. Make sure your CTA is large on the site, so there is no doubt it will be seen. A CTA should be the full width of the blog post body column, about 650 pixels wide.
6. Create a highly contrasting design
A compelling CTA requires an impressive design. It is acceptable for the call-to-action to blend with fonts and colors used on the rest of your website design, but make sure the actual design of the CTA button you want people to click pops out from the rest of the page.
7. Make the button look clickable
If you want your CTAs to be clicked, make sure they look like something people are accustomed to clicking. An extra design finish with special shading and contouring of the button should look functional and like something users could actually press.
8. Add alt text
Alt text allows you to display text whenever a CTA does not appear properly on a website or an email. Consider it a necessary backup plan when you have problems displaying images in your browser. Another advantage of alt text is search engines will also read it, providing an additional SEO boost for you.
9. Place your CTA prominently on your website
You can place it above the fold, where a CTA generally will get more clicks and conversions.
Or you could put it below the fold, where you can get a higher quality of leads converting. Either way, you want the CTA in the best spot to get noticed. You may want to add directional cues to get more clicks and conversions.
10. A/B test multiple CTAs to find the best performer
Don’t forget multiple CTAs as an option to engage more people. They offer more opportunities to convert leads and customers through your CTAs. “So keep tweaking copy, design, sizing, placement, etc., until you find a CTA that performs above the rest,” Soskey said in the blog post.
11. Personalize CTAs for different segments of your audience
Besides A/B testing, you can also tailor CTAs to only appear to select audiences. With the right software, personalized CTAs could be designed for your visitors to see one thing, your leads to see another, and your customers to see something else altogether.
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