Your Call To Action!

What is a CTA?

Simply put a CTA or ‘Call To Action’ is the action you want someone to take after reading your advert, blog, article, etc. CTAs are very commonly used in advertising and marketing as the final push to convince a lead to convert into customer.

In modern web based marketing CTAs are often accompanied by a strong headline that generates the initial interest, once the customer has had their attention grabbed a relevant CTA is vital as it is more likely to be clicked. Just consider for a moment all the products, apps, websites, etc that you use, without an initial strong ad and relevant CTA you probably wouldn’t be using them. CTAs are a powerful way of converting leads into customers.

Types of CTA

There are many different types of CTA buttons such as sign up, try now, add to cart, save now, download, free trial, sign up; the wording and language for a CTA button has to be simple and be relevant to the product or service you are offering.

If you were a software company advertising a new platform, your advert slogan might be ‘the most powerful marketing platform ever’ and the CTA could be ‘Try it Free’ or ’30 Day Trial’. The type of CTA should always be determined by the product or service being offered to make sure it’s relevant and thus attractive.

Designing a CTA

The most important aspect to consider when designing a CTA is that it needs to stand out; there are a number of ways to do this:

• Make the CTA button colour contrast to your main colour theme; if your page is black your CTA should be white!
• If you have more than one button you could use colour to create a hierarchy, your main CTA could be accompanied by a ‘how it works’ button which should be made less prominent and will actually help the CTA stand out.
• Think about negative space on the page you’re designing, in the case of a CTA negative space actually helps people focus their attention where you want them to click and so is good; don’t fill up your page with extra copy, images, and other adverts, this just confuses the viewer and your conversion rate will be ruined.
• Create urgency by adding deadlines to your CTA design, urgency can often improve conversion rate but remember it has to be relevant!

CTAs Put To Work

Now that we’ve discussed some of the basics of CTA’s here are some great examples:

Instapage

This is Instapage’s home page; look how the headline is the attention grabbing element, once you’ve read it you know exactly what you’re being offered, then the supportive copy backs up the main headline with an impressive stat. Finally the CTA pulls you straight into the action with a stand out blue button. So you’ve been told what you’re getting, why it’s great, and that you can start right away.

Netflix

On this Netflix landing page our attention has been grabbed with the headline, which has added supportive reassurances such as ‘watch anywhere’ & ‘cancel anytime’ which put any initial sign up fears to rest. The final CTA is powerful in that its colour branded and offers a full month of viewing for free, which is a great stand out offer and really encourages the reader to click through.

Ugmonk

This is Ugmonk’s website and we’re looking at their exit CTA which is the call to action that pops up as you decide to leave the page, it’s their way of making a final offer to purchase before you leave.

This is a good CTA because the offer itself is appealing and is well placed on-screen, even if you say “yes” and leave the page you will receive the coupon and will be more likely to come back.

This CTA also makes it clear what you are getting, if you click yes you are saying yes, unlike other unscrupulous services the answers are not confusing or reversed to trick you into agreeing to something.

Finally the coupon is being sent to you, so the CTA also acts as a capture device allowing remarketing in the future.

Summary

Customers who visit your website or who read your advertising mail need to be given something to do next, a CTA gives them the instruction on how they should next interact with your business or service. Omitting the CTA or having a bad CTA will have a significant impact on the response to your marketing.

Now you know what to look for, post any effective Call To Actions you find in the comments below.