How it Works: Calls to Action (CTAs)
At Squirrels&Bears we believe in simplicity, and we like to provide clear answers to your questions. In our #howitworks series we focus on simple explanations of various aspects of marketing, highlighting the basic facts, what works and what doesn’t work. And we hope to make your life a little easier.
The Basics:
A call to action represents a part of a webpage, advertisement, or piece of content that encourages your audience to do something.
Calls to action can help your business to convert a visitor, or reader into a lead and can drive a variety of different actions depending on your content's goal.
There are two types of calls to action – direct and transitional. A direct call to action is something that leads to a sale, such as ‘buy now’, ‘book a call’ or ‘schedule an appointment’.
Inviting people to register for a webinar or download an PDF are good examples of transitional calls to action. They are softer and usually offer something for free with the intention to keep the conversation going.
Do:
Ensure that when you are crafting your call to action, that you start with an ‘action’ word. Try using words such as ‘read’, ‘download’ and ‘buy’ or any relevant other relevant actions.
Create a sense of urgency with words like ‘today’, ‘now’ or ‘in the next 24 hours” and tell your audience what’s in it for them if they do take action. Creating a sense of urgency around your offering is a great call to action, effectively activating the fear of missing out (FOMO).
Make your call to action very obvious on your website and emails, clearly stating the action you want your reader to take.
Help your call to action button stand out by making it bolder or a different colour to the rest of your site or email background. This will also help visibility when your reader is quick scrolling.
Don’t:
Overcomplicate your call to action, keep it clear and simple e.g. ‘buy now’, ‘book now’ - and remember without them your audience may find it difficult to engage with your content.
Expect your customers to know what to do without prompts. They are exposed to over three thousand marketing messages a day on average so if you want them to do something – tell them.
Make your landing pages hard to navigate. It is one thing to engage your audience into clicking on your call to action, but if they do and they find their user experience difficult or clunky, you may have lost a lead or potential customer.