You’ve probably heard all the normal call to action examples, such as “buy now,” “sign up,” and “learn more.” They probably don’t work or give you the desired action you want because the audience is now more knowledgeable than they ever have been before.
If you want to know how to write that perfect call to action to captivate the audience, inform them, and boost conversions, keep reading. This article is for you.
One of the primary reasons why sales pages and landing pages don’t convert your leads into customers is because you have a weak call to action. It has no urgency to it, and there are no action phrases.
Remember, not all CTAs are created equal. Most digital marketers don’t use an effective call to action to engage their customers. Even worse, some don’t use calls to action at all!
It’s also important to ensure that you have an effective CTA based on the device the person uses.
Don’t give any more excuses for not having effective calls to action. Now is the right time to focus on the visitors and provide them with the information they need to establish you as the authority figure.
The only way to do that is to write a call to action message that compels visitors to take appropriate action, and it’s not easy. There’s a fine line between being pushy and creating urgency. However, the steps below can help you:
Selling a Trial
Forget the freemium style. Instead, go with a free trial. There are certain CTAs that you just can’t help but click on. That free trial tactic is a good one. It works well for businesses that sell SaaS (software as a service.)
Never be afraid to offer a free eBook or trial. It’s a risk-free way for the prospect to see the product or service in action, and it costs them absolutely nothing.
It’s crucial to guide the visitors through each stage of their buying process. This can help you find out what’s effective and what to ignore. You can balance your customer’s needs and objections to help you see more conversions.
If you want people to take action, you must help them by removing the obstacles they face. They have many questions and want you to offer the right solution.
You can’t ask them to purchase something after the first encounter because 84 percent of prospects bounce off the site. However, if you write a call to action and include a free trial, it increases conversions by up to 328 percent! That’s the action button you want to focus on to get quality leads.
However, you have to be careful so that you don’t lose trial users at the end of the session. New users are very wary of trying something new. Therefore, the best call to action offers something free and then follows up before the end of the trial period.
Studies have shown that many users sign up for the trial and don’t use it or never upgrade to the paid solution. Make sure you have metrics in place to gauge that for yourself. That way, you are alerted to pitfalls that trap service providers like yourself.
Instead of just guessing, test it to find out which trial period works best for you. That’s the one that offers more conversions to the paid product.
Many of the top brands offer trial periods for new users. If that’s the call to action you include, you’re likely to see the benefits of it with time.
Here is just one call to action example that offers a trial:
“Do you want to lose weight? Have you tried different workouts and can’t find one that fits your style? Click here to get a trial period of our workout routines to see how much better they are!”
Write Your Benefit-oriented CTA
The call to action you include must offer a benefit of some kind to the customer. Otherwise, click-through rates suffer. Let’s use this call to action example with Google:
You know that the internet is powered by content. Before Google used algorithm updates, most people weren’t concerned about the quality of the blog post, video, or other forms of content. However, that’s all changed now.
Why does Google value content above all else? The answer is because the users want it.
People desperately want to find the best answer when they use the search engine. If Google doesn’t offer that, the audience switches to another search engine.
Along with that, the call to action must show a benefit to the users. When people don’t know the value of your CTA button, they don’t click it.
Most people test different copy on their CTA buttons and choose to stick with offering a benefit with their action buttons. This is a proven method, and it works well.
For example, you wrote an article about doubling website traffic within 30 days. Your CTA button should ask them to click to see a free course.
The color and placement of the CTA button are just as important as your message. Most people find that it’s best to put an opt-in box at the bottom of the copy. Others see more conversions when they put the button at the right of that opt-in field. The color should contrast with the main theme of the page, which encourages readers to notice it and click it.
When you write a call to action, these are some of the things you should think about.
Showcase That Instant Gratification on Your Landing Page
Nobody enjoys waiting. You probably avoid long lines at the bank and stay away from theme parks and carnivals for the same reason.
Therefore, if you want to grow your business, you must ensure that the customer service aspect works. If you try a customer’s patience with long hold times, most people call it bad customer service.
Satisfying the customers is why you’re in business. Delayed gratification rarely works; instant gratification is the key. When appropriate customers go to your landing page or e-store, they have questions and want to know if they can see satisfaction by subscribing to the email list or buying the product.
In other real-life situations, delayed gratification is what you need because you value things when you have to wait for them and work hard.
However, when you persuade people to do something online, especially when selling digital products, a slight delay in giving them what they want negatively affects your conversion rate.
You might offer a teaser or free eBook for lead generation to increase clicks. That way, the customer gives you their credit card number.
Still, you must realize that the web is virtual. It’s hard to trust people. Today’s consumers are accustomed to getting an immediate reward for doing something, and you have to offer that.
Jon Loomer is a social media expert who understands how to use immediate action gratification to get people to join his email campaign. His action words are “get Ebook,” but it works well for him. This is just one call to action example.
Typically, your call to action must include action words. “Get” might not be the best one, but there are many others, such as “download now,” “Click for a free…,” and more.
Sometimes, when you write a call to action, you can’t use something so short. That’s okay. A call to action can be a few sentences long, but it should be punchy and to the point.
Evoke More Curiosity
If you can use curiosity effectively to write a call to action, it can lead to increased sales and conversion rates.
The one thing to do is to let people know what you do and the results you get. However, you shouldn’t provide every single detail about how to do it. This is just one of the rules listed by Andrew Sobel in his book.
Curiosity is the need to know something.
Therefore, if you craft the call to action message in a way to create a need for the prospect to know what’s after the CTA button, they’re more willing to click on it to give you those leads. You can make more sales when you have a higher CTR (click-through rate).
Some studies suggest that when a person’s curiosity is piqued, it results in brain changes to help them learn about the subject and incidental information. Increasing curiosity for a product isn’t about luck. Emotional triggers (surprise, trust, fun, delight, and satisfaction) naturally evoke curiosity.
When others trust you, they are willing to push the action buttons you want them to use. With that, as people become delighted with the PPC ads or landing pages, they click on them because they see a benefit.
Curiosity makes people jump on an offer on a landing page because they envision the reward they get and how it can improve their lives. This is an emotional quest for knowledge and to have and be more.
Your target audience is people who make emotional or rational choices based on the information provided. Copywriters realize that people purchase products emotionally and then justify it all with logic. Therefore, to see higher conversion rates, you must evoke the emotions that persuade people to buy now.
In a sense, you must focus on a balance between emotional and rational stories. The rational aspect is what consumers think about when deciding to buy something. That includes the benefits and features.
The emotional aspect focuses on why consumers behave and act as they do. These are underlying drivers that help you understand when and how they buy.
Society also plays a role because societal issues can influence and shape consumer beliefs and attitudes.
Most of the good call to action examples you find from places like CrazyEgg focus on this. It’s a heat map company and uses different forms of copy with the call to action. However, they all evoke curiosity and create a sense of urgency.
Many site owners want to know why visitors leave without buying something. The user ultimately anticipates that they’re likely to find the information they want and don’t for some reason.
When you evoke curiosity, you must be honest with the prospects. Don’t just lure them in with action buttons and power words and then give something else that wasn’t promised. If you promise a free video, do that. Those who offer phone calls should have an auto-scheduler that makes it easier to see who to call and when.
Another example is Music Law Contracts. It evokes curiosity with its landing page. The headline claims the company has every contract you might ever need to protect your creation. From there, the CTA delivers on that promise by claiming “Show me the contract pack.”
As you start writing the call to action, find ways to integrate persuasive words, such as:
- New
- Instantly
- Because
- Bonus
- Free
- You
As an example, the KISSmetrics blog understands how persuasive words can convince others to join the email campaign. The CTA box text: “Yes, get the free case study.”
Aggravate Their Problem and Offer a Solution for All Landing Pages
Studies have shown that most unhappy customers don’t complain about their situation. However, almost 91 percent of them never come back.
What it takes for you to write a call to action to compel customers to follow through is having a better understanding of the audience. For each customer complaint out there, you’ve got about 26 other unhappy people who stay silent.
Usually, the issue here is that you don’t know what your audience might face. Creating a buyer persona can help here. That way, you have a specific picture in mind about who needs your products or services.
It’s not easy to create a buyer persona and can take a while to do. However, before you write any piece of content, you should have this fictional person in mind. That way, you always craft content made specifically for them.
To dominate your preferred platform and captivate others, you need the right formula for your calls to action.
This means:
- Identify the problem
- Agitate it
- Offer a solution
A good CTA has all of those things. How do you leverage those elements to have a call to action that gets others to buy? Ultimately, the goal is to write multiple CTAs so that each landing page and area has one. The best call to action examples use this approach, and your call to action should, too.
For example, you own a dental office and want to bring in more business. A great CTA could look like this:
“Have a painful tooth? It can get more costly to fix if you wait. Book your appointment now!”
Here’s how to use the above-mentioned elements and improve click-through rates:
Identify the Problem
You must identify with the dominant pain point that your audience faces to make a difference. Once you understand their problems, you can offer the best solution.
Remember: many of the problems your audience says they have aren’t the main ones. For example, if you are a website traffic expert, your responsibility is to help the team drive more targeted visitors to the site to boost lead generation. One solution is to have a landing page that converts visitors to leads. Then, you create a lead magnet or a call to action, such as a free trial or eBook, to persuade them to sign up.
You can also use Facebook Ads for your campaign, so the landing page must be ready before writing the ad copy.
Ultimately, having a Facebook Ad or Google AdWords campaign is a great way to get people interested.
With the call to action examples of being a website traffic pro and driving visitors to the site, the dominant issue of the audience isn’t necessarily website traffic. Instead, it’s about optimizing the landing pages. If they aren’t doing well, no amount of traffic can help.
To write a call to action effectively, consider using Quora. It can assist you in identifying the problems of the audience. Then, you can answer the question in your marketing campaign and create a call to action that makes them click.
For example, you might find that the Quora users want to get traffic for free. You can write content advising them to utilize PPC advertising, but that doesn’t identify the problem. Now, it doesn’t matter what colors you use or the text. It’s the wrong campaign for lead generation.
Agitate the Problem
After identifying the dominant problem, agitate it before you offer a solution. That means you should make them anxious or arouse interest in something.
If you don’t agitate the problem with a sense of urgency that evokes emotion, consumers don’t know you’ve got the solution. Roughly 45 percent of all consumers in the US abandon the cart if they feel that their problems or questions are not addressed.
The target audience might not know what the implications are for the symptoms they experience. Your job is to tell them about it.
Here are a few CTA examples of agitated problems:
- “Are you depressed about back taxes? Discover the secrets from a former IRS agent that can get you relief!”
- Frustrated by gout? Click on this eBook to learn the secret to being pain-free!
Ultimately, you want to agitate the problem before you write a call to action. You can use your landing page for that. Consider bullet points, subtitles, and a great headline. Each element can decrease or increase conversions for the call to action.
Vistaprint is a company that prints marketing materials. It understands how to convince prospects. The company claims that it believes most marketers have issues getting out the word about their products.
If the target audience is mainly business owners tired of creating content to try to drive traffic that doesn’t work, you capitalize on that if you include that in the headline.
From there, you have content that focuses on that issue, and the call to action can follow.
Offer a Solution
The final element is to offer a solution, and it’s the make or break part of your call to action. You must provide a solution that fixes the problem the user faces.
You can’t just identify and agitate your problem. You must offer the value proposition or the solution available. If they click on the CTA buttons, they may not purchase immediately. That’s why you need a follow-up email campaign to convert visitors and get more leads.
Ultimately, you write a call to action to get email subscribers. From there, you can send them emails with an appropriate call to action that drives them to buy later.
Here are a few call to action examples to help you generate more traffic:
- Webnode helps users create websites without coding. The call to action says everything because all it does is claim, “Create a free website easily!”
- Awesome Web helps people hire website developers/designers and uses a different approach with text links that point to various services. However, first, it asks the user which problem they face.
- QuickSprout uses a similar formula and starts with the question of: “Do you want more traffic?” No digital marketer can say no!
Leverage the Urge to Belong
Every great call to action makes people want to belong to something and urges them to do it. You’ve probably felt like you missed something great that could have transformed your company or life. Humans have an urge to belong. The ideal customer doesn’t like the idea of missing out on what others have experienced.
Ultimately, that urge to belong relates to social proof. This is the future of marketing copy because it’s an easy way to eliminate objections and ease customer’s minds.
Social proof centers around the concept that people take action based on what others do. Following the crowd is a good example of herding others to what you want them to do, and that’s what you must incorporate when you write a call to action.
Though value proposition is crucial, you can move away from that slightly when you have social proof. New visitors see what others have done and then view your clear call to action. In other words, you get a few first-time visitors who then tell others about you.
That means your call to action has done its job of conveying that others can belong to something great if they use your product/service.
Brands use social proof in many ways, and you can, too. Let visitors know how many others have joined your email list or bought your product.
However, most social proof options aren’t written on the CTA buttons. That’s appropriate since the call to action should contain copy that’s focused on leading a customer to click on the button.
Still, you can use social proof around the buttons. That way, people see that and then immediately have a way to join, as well.
Use a Strategic Cliffhanger for Each Blog Post
Most people think that cliffhangers are used by screenwriters and fiction authors. They are just unresolved endings for a serialized book or drama. It leaves the reader or audience hanging so that they’re eager to know what happens next.
Cliffhangers can work for marketers, too. People must click the CTA button, regardless of the design, or you don’t see conversions. Your CTA buttons are the tipping point between a conversion or a bounce.
Ultimately, cliffhangers make those movie enthusiasts and fans tune in for the next part of the series. Hollywood does well at segmenting movies into multiple films. That way, the audience wants to watch them all to find out how it all ends.
Every page of a book or blog post is a cliffhanger. You must force the audience to turn it. If you use the same CTA strategy to craft a call to action, the audience is compelled to click that button to find out what’s next.
Humans need closure in their lives. Open hooks tend to leave others dissatisfied. Ultimately, people are always looking for more and keep reading until they get it. Here’s the perfect example of a cliffhanger in this tweet call to action by Kevan Lee:
“How losing the biggest client led to the biggest sales in months.” A short link was included.
Turbotax is a tax preparation software company and uses storytelling as a marketing technique. It uses the cliffhanger option to persuade its potential customers to watch a video, but you can do that in a blog post, too.
You can apply cliffhangers to any field. Plus, you can use it as your main CTA to get people to subscribe or request a free demo.
The CTA copy is the most crucial element on your landing page. It must be useful, relevant, and easy to understand. Just one small tweak to the text can make a world of difference.
For example, Fitness World is a major gym chain in Scandinavia. It started with “Get membership,” and went to “Find a gym and get membership.” That change led to impressive results because the click-through rate for the business raised by 213.16 percent!
Offer a Bonus
Everyone craves rewards. There might not be something like a free lunch or book, but humans can’t resist that allure of a freebie. This even includes free eBooks that piqued interest somewhere.
Therefore, an effective way to retain customers and attract new ones is to offer a bonus in your CTA buttons.
When a service provider or company gives you a chance to save money when you place an order, that’s a reward. The business has a risk because it provides the same great thing at a lower price.
Your calls to action should always include a bonus because it indicates that you are giving the person something for nothing. They can test it out and see if it’s right for them. From there, you can request a call or purchase through email marketing and other tactics.
For example, Verizon offers its customers the chance to save $300 if they trade in their phone for a new one. Many telecommunications providers use bonuses like free shipping, BOGO, extra savings, or rebates.
This call to action style makes people feel like they’re getting preferential treatment. They may go ahead and buy something, even if they hadn’t originally planned on it.
Just remember that your call to action must be in line with what the prospect wants. If they’re not at the buying stage, offering free shipping might not be the way to go.
Conclusion
As a company owner, you need to have promotional banners, contact us pages, landing pages, and sales copy that generates quality leads. That also brings customers to your business because the call to action button gets clicked.
For the most part, high click-through rates result in higher conversion rates. However, other elements must be well-optimized for the target group. These include your sales funnel and the offer.
Ultimately, you do not have an issue with getting traffic to your blog or more website visitors. The problem you have is to get people to click on the add to cart button. Usually, the easiest way to reduce your issues is to have calls to action on each page and piece of sales copy you write.
The call to action must be part of your marketing campaigns, too. It’s not just enough to have multiple CTAs on your website pages. You must incorporate it into each piece of content you create.
Your goal is to get a handful of people to order, give up their email addresses, or download something for free. Therefore, you require a clear CTA for that to happen.
However, you can’t have only one call to action. You must have one in multiple places on each web page and piece of content you create. With that, you have to tailor them to meet the needs of the people who are reading your information.
Whether the goal is to drive traffic from the search engine or see more social media referrals, you must test the call to action message. This also includes the design and everything else.
There are no specific rules for writing powerful calls to action. The only way to do anything great is to practice. Once you write one effective call to action, you know that it works and can play off of it to create new ones.
Do you have a call to action on every content piece you write? If not, you are missing out on many opportunities to sell and convert!
