A call to action, or a CTA as we call it in marketing-speak, is the action you want your visitors to perform. You can have a call to action on just about anything — your homepage, social media posts, email newsletters, ads, landing pages and more. While a call to action seems like an easy thing to master, there are some tried-and-true tricks of the trade to keep in mind if you’re using them in your marketing (which you should be!)

Determine Your Call to Action Goal

Ready to take advantage of call to action marketing? Ask yourself these questions:

Do I want to…

• Increase sales?
• Promote one product or all products?
• Move visitors to a certain part of my website?
• Get email newsletter sign-ups?
• Get more followers on social media?
• Increase my number of leads?
• Have people book an appointment or a free consultation?
• Distribute a free piece of value, such as a one-sheet or ebook?

Keep in mind, you may want to answer yes to more than one of these questions, and that is okay. That is where split-testing comes in to help you determine which one your audience wants more of. Once you’ve figured out which one you want to try first, it’s time to come up with some wording.

Be Direct and Urgent

Keep your CTA down to under 3 words (preferably just one!) so that you can be as direct and urgent as possible. You don’t want to give your users any reason to wait on clicking on that button. Some common call to action verbiage includes:

• Call now
• Sign up
• Explore
• Schedule
• Get started
• Buy now
• Create
• Shop
• Enter
• Join
• Contact
• Learn more
• Book your spot

Get Rid of Everything Else

Having more than one CTA can leave your audience feeling confused as to what you want them to do next. That is one reason why taking the navigation off of your ad landing pages can help increase conversion rates. On social media posts, give them one thing to click on or read. On email newsletters, give them only one thing to focus on and do. Even if you are being generous — such as offering multiple coupon code options — things could start to get confusing. Just choose one focus and go with it.

Design It

Your CTA should be nice and pretty, not hidden in a bunch of text. Make sure its a clear, clean button with only your direct text verbiage on it. Don’t make it too busy or hard to find, it should stand out above everything else. If you have to tell your audience where to click, your call to action button is already failing. Lean on design to do that work for you.

Looking for more ideas and ways to use your call to action? Give us a call, we can help you narrow it down!