What does CTA stand for?
Call To Action, or CTA as it is often abbreviated to in marketing terms, is the small piece of copy on a web page, product listing, email, or social post designed to elicit an action from your audience, or customer. It could be as simple as a link button that says “Buy Now!”, which then leads to a checkout page.
Why is a CTA so important?
Often we would like clients to take specific actions on web pages, email newsletters, product listings, social media posts, or other targeted content. Giving a clear and enticing CTA compels site users to take the desired action on your content, thus making a meaningful conversion which will translate into a trackable result (like a sale, a donation, a video viewing, or website visit from social media).
“Whether we’re writing a story or attempting to sell products, our message must be clear. Always. If you confuse, you’ll lose.”
Clarity is crucial. You need to make sure you are offering a guide to the site user, which clearly lays out what you wish them to do next.
Examples of CTA
A CTA could be any number of:
Web page buttons
Text links
Image links
Forms
Social, or email sharing buttons
Usually the text used elicits a specific response from the site user. For example “Buy Now!” will appear on product listings, or sales pages. Sometimes the copy is limited to two simple, actionable words and sometimes the copy is slightly longer, forming a sentence, filled with emotive urgency, to elicit a desired reaction. Examples of this could be;
“Watch now” - simple and effective CTA for video content
“Register today to save your seat!” - longer form CTA for paid webinars on sales pages
How many CTAs can I have per content piece?
Typically, you would have one clear CTA per page, email or post, guiding your audience to make one clean decision. Very occasionally you may have a page where you need to reword the same CTA in a number of ways, often on high ticket sales pages. For example:
“Join now” at the top of the page
“Sign up today to change you life!” mid way through the sales page
“Join us TODAY for the discounted price of $500” at the end of the sales page
Then even more rarely you may have multiple CTAs on one page. In most cases this might be an email newsletter. In this instance, remember to have one highlighted, clear CTA above the fold, using something that stands out, like a button. Then for the remainder of CTAs use native text link elements (infrequently as possible).
Tips on creating the best CTA
Here are some tips on creating better CTAs for your copy:
Keep it simple - never add more words than you really need to.
Add in urgency - make me want to take the action you desire.
Keep them relevant - give me a CTA that makes sense and most likely I’ll take it.
Avoid anxiety or confusion - Don’t cloud the decision making process.
Centre your CTA around your customer - your CTA must ultimately solve a problem your customer has, in order to get that desired action.
Remember mobile - always think about how your CTA will display on mobile versions of your content. Think ‘simple click’ to gain satisfaction, with no overly complicated completion process.
Remember to A/B test - CTAs are prime copy assets to A/B test, in order to see which result gives you the strongest conversions.
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