What is a Call to Action, and Why are they Important?

How do businesses convince customers to take that crucial step from daydreaming about how nice it might be to have a product, into actually forking over the cash? In short, the success of a business can hinge rather significantly on that company’s ability to prompt an audience to action.A Call to Action is a clear and concise way of telling your customer what you want them to do. Of course, there has to be a bit more to your marketing than just this. You’ll also need to find a balancing point between what your customers need from you – and what you need from them.

What’s a Call to Action?

First things first, a call to action – sometimes referred to as a “CTA” is an essential instruction that pushes your reader into a desired action. For a lot of people, the call to action is no more complex than “Click here”, or “Buy now”.

Regardless of your industry, the chances are that if you’re searching for an audience, you want that audience to do something in the way of a specific and measurable action. You might want someone to purchase your copywriting services, you might want someone to download your email newsletter or e-book. Whatever the intention, a clear call to action should be the seduction that spurs your consumers into motion.

One relatively good way of testing to see whether your call to action is effective is through A/B testing. There are tools available online that allow you to experiment with this, and figure out which phrases and words develop the most conversions on your site.

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Writing the Right Call to Action

Constructing the perfect call to action may not be something that you can do without a little bit of help, but it’s good to inform yourself of some of the best practices currently being observed throughout the web. For example:

  1. You should always limit the number of CTAs that you have on any webpage. Users can get overwhelmed when you’re giving them too many instructions.
  2. Don’t be boring – but don’t be too complex. Use language that is concise, clear and indicates exactly what you want from your customer.
  3. Try out different things and see what works best for your website and your industry. This could mean placing your call to action in different areas of your page, or highlighting the words in a specific way.
  4. Use phrases that are click-friendly. Sometimes, it can seem like a good idea to have a small button that simply says “learn more”, or “next”. However, some users can feel a little concerned here, as they don’t know exactly what’s going to happen next. Make sure your audience knows where they’re going.
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What Matters Most with a Call to Action?

An effective CTA boils down to a number of important elements, the most important being strong copy, and good design. Choose these two factors carefully and make sure that you test them frequently to find out what is working and what isn’t. All of the copy and design of your website should be easy to understand, clear and not overwhelming to your users.

Urging your customers to act makes the process easier for them. They know exactly what you want from them, and there are no hidden attempts to try and trick them into doing something they don’t want to do. Reduce the friction and concerns of online interactions by providing directives that are simple, clear, honest and straightforward.