The call to action (CTA) is an important component of inbound marketing.
The CTA is what encourages readers to perform the action you want them to, whether it is to purchase a product, subscribe to your blog, or contact you for more information. The right CTA can make a big difference to your conversion rate, and overall sales, so it is worth taking some time to get it right.
If you haven’t given your CTA much thought in the overall scheme of your website content and marketing, you could be missing out on valuable opportunities. An ineffective CTA makes it difficult for potential customers to engage with your business, and buy from you. Here are a few ways you can help make your CTA stand out, and appeal to your website visitors.
Make your CTA visually appealing
There is no point having a call to action button on your web page if nobody can see it. The CTA button should be highlighted, and designed to stand out from the page. Making it look three dimensional in appearance can help it appear even more clickable, and make sure it is placed in a prominent spot rather than buried at the bottom of long reams of text.
Get the wording of your CTA right
Your CTA should be direct and to the point, and make it very clear what you want the reader to do. Try to avoid overly long text, and make sure you use action-based verbs such as ‘buy’ or ‘download’ or ‘subscribe’ rather than more passive terms. Try to avoid clichés, and keep away from anything vague. You may need to experiment with the wording until you find the terminology that gets the best results.
Measure the results of different version of your CTA
By measuring the click through rate and the conversion rate, you can learn over time what CTA works best for your business. It is worth testing a few different variations for each CTA, depending on where it is being used, because even fairly similar words like ‘buy’ or ‘order’ can have vastly different results. Don’t forget to look at both conversion and click through rates when you are evaluating your CTA. A higher click through rate on a term does not necessarily mean a higher conversion rate, or a larger ROI. The results can often be surprising.
Don’t neglect your calls to action when you are creating your website content. As well as websites, you can use a CTA on blog posts, articles, marketing emails and most types of web content you produce. The right CTA displayed effectively can make a significant difference to your leads, and ultimately, your sales.
