The call to action is an essential part of your content
Including a call to action in your content pieces is the key to generating value and revenue from your content marketing. Without it, you're simply putting in the effort, time, and resources into something that won't generate any value for you. Wasted time is wasted money, and wasting money leads to failed businesses. As partners to your success, we want to help you create the perfect call to action and stay on top in business.
What is a call to action?
The direction gives people a clear way to progress and achieve their goals. In marketing, a call to action is the best way to introduce a solid, clear direction for your readers to take action. It's the part of your advertisement, content, webpage or video that tells your target audience exactly what they should be doing.
In marketing, a call to action can be seen as you asking your customer for a commitment - be it to "buy now", "learn more", or "go to the pricing page". However, this request for commitment isn't always answered positively and is sometimes even ignored outright. In this blog, we're going to discuss how to avoid that, how to use your call to action, and how to build one that works.
How to use your call to action
Before we get into creating your perfect call to action, we need to cover how to use them. What your call to action consists of is just as important as where it is, how frequently they occur, and their purpose.
In this section, we'll answer those questions to ensure your perfectly crafted call to action doesn't go to waste.
The purpose of a call to action
As we mentioned before, a call to action's purpose is always to get your reader to perform a direction. However, there are many actions you can ask of a reader which generally fall into two separate categories:
Nurture CTAs - which generally ask readers to learn more about a subject or engage with some other kind of content not directly associated with a sale.
Sale CTAs - which ask for a solid sales commitment from a customer.
In general, you should use a combination of both throughout your content. Asking readers to engage with more of your content takes the pressure of a sale off while slowly convincing them of your solution. Once they're convinced, your sale CTA should always be close at hand.
How frequent should your CTAs appear?
The short rule of thumb here is that your CTAs should appear as often as possible without being obnoxious. That is to say, use them as long as they don't interfere with the content your lead is currently consuming.
Where should your CTAs appear?
CTAs should always appear at the top of your content, throughout the middle and then again at the bottom of your content.
The general pattern you want to adopt is asking for the Sale CTA upfront, providing some content, and eventually presenting a Nurture CTA. If that is ignored, offer more content before presenting another Nurture CTA. Finally, end the content piece off with a second Sale CTA.
3 Steps in Creating the Perfect Call to Action
Creating an effective call to action doesn't have to be complicated - in fact, you can make one perfectly suited to you by following these three simple steps.
STEP 1 - Use a commanding, evocative style
CTAs often don't allow for a lot of space, so it should always be clear and concise. It would be best to let your audience know exactly what you want them to do, so start with a commanding word or verb aligned with the action you want. "Buy", "Order", "Contact", "Download", "Subscribe", "Find out" - all of these words are good commanding words.
Following that, you want to elicit enthusiasm in your audience, so adjusting your words or tone to imply that will inspire the same for your readers. "Plan your dream vacation today!", "Save 50% Now!", "Customise my solution!" and "Beat the competition" all provoke enthusiasm and make your CTAs stand out.
STEP 2 - Give a reason
Your CTA should always answer the question, "so what". In other words, you should always indicate what's in it for your audience to click on that CTA button.
Often this will directly tie into your value proposition or unique selling point. In general, you should use the former commanding, evocative style and pair it with the reason. A good example would be something like, "Contact us now to boost your sales!" Not only have you stated the action you want the user to take (contact us), but you have also provided them with a reason why they should take that action (to boost their sales).
Another strong tool in providing a reason is urgency. If you create a sense of urgency by using words like "today", "now", "limited", "exclusive", you will encourage your audience to click the CTA out of fear of missing out. It serves as a highly effective motivator that can sometimes be the final push your audience needs.
STEP 3 - Make it pop
CTAs are extremely important - so you should format them accordingly. Use bold text, attractive colours, 3D buttons, and more to really make them really stand out wherever possible. Another effective tactic is to give it space so that your CTA is not competing with any other copy or design.
A Call to Success
Sometimes, all you need is some direction to find success. The tips and steps above for creating the perfect call to action are easily applied to whatever action you'd like your customers to take, no matter your industry. Our ultimate goal is to ensure your marketing efforts are rewarded, which all begins with a good CTA.
At Demodia, we've seen so many marketers become despondent with their website. We understand that it can be frustrating to spend so much on something that seems to do very little for your bottom line - which is why we've spent over a decade perfecting the best lead CTA creation approaches for our customers, helping them turn their website into a customer-generation machine.
Contact us now and we'll meet with you to discuss your customer acquisition goals and present you with a plan to help you achieve them.
