As a business, you need to be able to get a high number of conversions in order to keep the doors open. To do this, you need to know how to get people to take action. There are many ways to do this, the simplest and often most effective way is to ask your audience to take action in a specific way. This is called the Call-to-Action (CTA), and not every CTA is the same. How good your CTAs are can impact your conversion rate. In this article, we discuss the method that you can use to create the perfect call-to-action.
The Basics of CTAs
A Call-to-Action (CTA) is any method of asking your audience to take a specific action that leads to further engagement, effectively funneling someone to the next stage closer to what you ultimately want. In e-commerce, CTAs are often used to turn viewers into customers. In other types of online activity, CTAs can be used to join email lists or take any number of actions.
Parts of a CTA
CTAs include several parts that follow the same basic structure. This is because you want it to be clear that you are asking a viewer to take action. The parts of a CTA include:
The Call
CTAs begin with the call, a setup where you explain the benefits of taking action with your company. Then, it is followed up by instructions on how to take further action. This needs to be specific since you don’t want to have any confusion about how to proceed.
Contact Information
The Call-to-Action should include contact information for the company in case the CTA’s trigger does not work, or the viewer wants to find out more about your company. Your primary contact information is important, and the page where the CTA is should be properly branded for your company. CTAs often contain contact information in the form of links integrated into the call so that viewers can take action on those options if that is what they want to do.
The Trigger
Every CTA should have a trigger, a mechanism for taking action. There are many ways to facilitate this. The most common method is a button that takes the viewer to a landing page. However, this button can take many shapes and appearances. Some buttons cover entire ads so that they integrate seamlessly. You can use other methods besides buttons as long as it allows the user to take the right type of action.
Building a CTA
The process for building a Call-to-Action is straightforward. If you can follow the best practices for CTAs, then developing your own will be relatively easy. Over time, it becomes a part of your writing style and you will begin to do it automatically.
Start with Action Words
Action words signal that the reader should do something. In this case, you want the reader to take a specific action. It is important that you are specific about what that action is. Ambiguity can lead to a variety of problems. Choose action words that also carry emotional weight. You want to sell viewers on their emotions, which makes them far more likely to buy.
Show Viewers the Benefits
Emphasize the value and benefits of what you are selling. You want the viewer to see what they would be missing if they refused the sale. Once potential customers see the value in what you are selling, they will be more likely to want to finish the sale.
Get Them Excited
The CTA is your last chance to convince someone to take the next step, so you want it to be exciting. Get your viewers excited about the opportunity that they have and about the product. You can do this by driving anticipation, excitement, and curiosity with your word choices. You can also change the style of the CTA so that it creates excitement visually. The more excited viewers are, the more likely they are to make an emotional choice and choose to take the right action.
Perfect CTAs Take Time
Improving the quality of your CTAs will take time. Creating your own style of CTA that is both well-branded and effective can be a challenge. The best CTAs are created by companies that take the time to test their choices and learn from their work.
Testing CTAs is relatively easy. Your company needs several versions of the same CTA to start with. The differences between them do not have to be big, just meaningful in some way. Your company also needs a way of tracking performance for each CTA, mainly by tracking click-throughs or other common metrics. Place one version of the CTA on the website and monitor it. Then, do the same for other versions noting the differences between them. This will give you plenty of data on which design choices work and which ones do not. Use this information to refine your CTAs until they are as good as they can be.
Get Help From Design and Marketing Experts
KitelyTech has extensive experience helping companies develop their advertisements and e-commerce systems. We can help your company set up CTAs and test them to make improvements. Call us at (800) 274 2908 to start working with CTA experts that can help you improve your conversion rate.
