9 Rules for a Killer Call to Action

9 Rules for a Killer Call to Action

It’s not enough to drive traffic to your website or draw eyeballs to your advertisements. As a business owner, you need people to act. A call to action is a message that encourages your audience to do something: call, click, buy – ACT.

Whether you’re looking to generate leads from your website or clicks from your tweets, a solid call to action is crucial. Read on to discover the 9 commandments of a killer call to action.

1. Know Your Audience

Find out what works best with your audience. Use the specific wording that will appeal to your customers. What do your visitors want to do? Save money? Learn more? Get something for free?

Once you figure out the appropriate call to action, test it. Experiment with different versions to see which one gets the best results.

2. Motivate!

Your call to action is how you prove your presence is useful to your audience. Motivating offers and calls to action produce more interest and higher clickthrough rates.

“Click here” and “Get started” are weak, boring examples. “Download now”, “Be the first of your friends to…” or “Give me my free…” are far more motivating and encouraging. They will put your audience in the mood to act quickly.

3. Keep it Short

Short messaging is the best defence against turning off your audience. Overly descriptive calls to action may cause people to lose interest and go elsewhere. Clickthrough rates are greater when you limit your call to action to a few words. The modern attention span isn’t very impressive.

4. Easy to Understand

Strong calls to action are direct, specific and easy to understand. A call to action is not a vague hint or a wishy-washy suggestion. You need to be direct and precise in what you’re asking. Confusing or complicated messaging will cause people to leave your site.

Also, be sure not to bombard your visitors with too many choices for what to do next. Always strive to make the next step straightforward.

5. Sense of Urgency

How many things have you “put off to tomorrow”? You don’t want to give your viewers time to think about the offer.
Without incorporating a sense of urgency into your call to action, you run the risk of people putting it off or forgetting about it entirely. Using words like “now” or “today” help to communicate the necessity to act immediately. A countdown on the page also conveys that message.

6. Place to Click

Calls to action should direct the viewer to a relevant landing page. If you’re asking leads to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter or tune into your webinar, don’t just send them to your homepage.

You are likely to lose your leads if they have to spend too much time looking for the right page. Avoid this by including the appropriate link in your call to action.

Be sure the landing page you send them to is consistent with your ad or social media page. If it looks and reads too differently, leads will smell spam and bounce.

7. Guarantee Visibility

Now that you’ve spent so much time writing copy, you want to make sure people see it. Your call to action should be highly visible to ensure that it isn’t missed or overlooked.

If your call to action appears on your website or on an e-mail newsletter, this might mean trying out a contrasting link colour, using arrows or designing a button. There’s a lot of information on the Internet, so make sure your call to action stands out!

Tip: If you’re sending out your call via social media, add a “Please RT” or “Share”.

8. Be Consistent

Make sure your call to action is repeated throughout your site. If it can only be found in one place, it is less likely to make an impact.

Also, make the most of your social media channels. Publishing your call to action on multiple platforms helps to increase visibility and maintain consistency.

9. Have Fun!

Use your call to action to engage. Spark conversation on your social media by using calls to action like “Share your thoughts” and “Let’s hear what you think”. This can be a great way to strengthen relationships and learn more about your customer base.

Calls to action that treat the audience like people and not just customers often receive a more positive response. When your audience feels valued, they are more likely to remain loyal to your brand.

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