Not every customer will want to make a phone call to interact with your business. CTAs are buttons, text, or forms that encourage a visitor on a website to convert. Once they click the CTA or fill out the form, they'll become a lead.
What makes a customer buy online? In fact, what makes them buy anywhere? The answer is more direct than you might think: sleek, simple, effective Calls to Action work best. In marketing, this term gets thrown around a lot. However, it’s not always clear what defines it.
Here are the core concepts behind what a CTA is, what it does, and why it’s so important to have them as part of your sales or lead generation arsenal.
How a CTA Works
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the metric for measuring a CTA is how well it calls your prospects to act. Whether you’re convincing them to click here, buy your product, or download a free ebook, chances are if you never ask your audience to take a specific action, they probably won’t end up taking it.
Building calls to action isn’t as simple as throwing a Buy Now! on a web page, though. For a CTA to have real converting power, it needs to have weight behind it. Generally speaking, your CTA needs to be paired with the following to really soar:
Sound design
The best CTAs fit in with the rest of your page’s design but knowingly contrast with it. Your users need to be drawn to it and be able to pick it out from the rest of your page’s content.
Perfect wording
How appealing does the phrase “Click Here” sound? What if you compare it to “Book a Free Consultation” or “Download our Free eBook?” The clearer you are in your calls to action, the more likely users will end up clicking through.
A defined benefit
What’s waiting for your client at the other side of that CTA? Make sure they know exactly what to expect, and why it’s worth their time to take you up on your offer. If you’re giving away an eBook, let them know it’s waiting for them after they click through your CTA’s copy.
An effective landing page
While a CTA is still technically a CTA when you direct users to another internal page of your website, it’s most effective when it leads your users to a landing page. These pages are made just for them and whatever stage they may be in the sales cycle.
The Benefits of Great Calls to Action
When your content contains strong, clear calls to action in its copy, you’ll generate leads more easily, gain more viewership on your content, introduce prospects to your products and services, promote your next big event more successfully, and more. They can increase your sales by huge margins when used correctly.
They can also get your audience to do what you’d like them to do. When you take advantage of the leverage this kind of marketing content gives you, you’ll be changing what your customers might do into what they almost certainly will do.