Companies utilize marketing for one core reason—to help build business. Whether your digital marketing efforts are geared towards generating new leads, developing current leads or closing a sale, if it’s not pushing the business forward you’re not achieving your goal.
Unfortunately, many businesses are disappointed with the results of their marketing efforts. Marketing that isn’t optimized will eventually drain your resources and produce lackluster results, so it’s important to ensure that you’re putting the right pieces into place.
One fundamental component of any piece of marketing content is the call to action (CTA). By knowing how to effectively communicate calls to action to your audience, you can seamlessly transition your ideal audience further down your sales funnel.
What Is A Call To Action?
A call to action is a word, phrase or visual element that solicits a specific reaction from the audience. The goal is to direct your audience towards their next step down your sales funnel by telling the reader to “Buy now” or “Click here for more information”. You can pitch your product’s special features and benefits all day long, but your efforts are wasted if you never actually direct readers to their next step.
CTAs tend to be visual to help them stand out from the rest of the content being presented. By making the decision easier for the audience, you make it easier on yourself.
How To Make The Most Of Your CTAs
Unfortunately, not all calls to action are effective. You can direct visitors towards their next step, but your success will be hindered if you’re not properly engaging your audience. Whether the problem is in the language, the visuals or any other factor, here are some best practices for making your CTAs more effective.
Make It Visually Striking—An effective CTA should stand out without distracting from the content’s main message. Be sure to use text that compels the reader to take the next action. Use colors that contrast, but don’t clash, with the color scheme of the page. Finally, make it large enough to stand out without dominating the page.
Keep It Brief—Keep your CTA brief, with two or three words being optimal, and no more than five words. The message is lost when the statement is too long.
Make It Action Oriented—The CTA should direct someone to take a specific action. “Download”, “Register”, “Claim” and “Buy” are all great words to include at the front end of your CTA so it is clear what the user will do.
Make It Easy To Understand—Your CTA should be as easy to understand as possible. Getting too creative with the language can make it difficult for the audience to understand where to go next.
Keep The Message Consistent—Clarity comes with consistency. You want to ensure the message and the CTA are consistent with each other and lead the reader to the logical next step. If you are talking about an event, don’t provide a call to action asking the audience to sign-up for an eBook.
Always Be Testing—Lastly, you should always test your CTAs. Comparing two versions against each other (A/B testing) allows you to find the optimal language, orientation and visuals so that your CTA can pack the biggest punch!
Your marketing efforts are wasted if readers aren’t being directed further down the sales funnel. Marketing pieces have a purpose, whether that’s generating new leads, developing current leads or closing a sale. Make sure to guide readers to it by using effective calls to action!
