When a new user goes onto a company site for the first time, the website has one goal: to turn this user from a potential customer into a paying patron.
This process is called ‘conversion’ and the techniques that are employed to increase the conversion rate, that is the turnover of potential customers to paying ones, is known as conversion marketing. The process of improving the conversion rate is called conversion rate optimization and achieving a high conversion rate is an integral stepping stone towards building a successful business.
In the early 2000s, the attention span of the average website visitor was 12 seconds, a drastic change has been seen in this number as today the average stands at a mere 8 seconds. This is because companies have started employing a rage of methods aimed at optimizing their conversion rate and have subconsciously conditioned users into clicking off from any website that is not enticing or persuasive enough to hold their attention. While marketing companies are now coming up with new, innovative and creative methods to increase their conversion rate, one method that is just as effective today as it was when it was first launched is a ‘Call To Action’.
What is a ‘Call To Action’ and what does it do?
A Call to Action, or CTA, is a marketing tool that revolves around the embedment of words or phrases in advertisements, sales copy, and websites to urge the audience to do something. Common examples of CTAs are newsletters and brand promotional emails that are sent out to the company’s customer mailing lists to inform them about any new sales and schemes. The advertisements in these promotional campaigns include phrases like “buy now” that serve as the call to action.
Call to action’s are a very effective marketing strategy because they convey a sense of emergency to the reader and use the urgency to extract immediate actions from them. Most companies create their call to actions with extreme ease of function aimed at the audience. This is done by adding direct links and clear instructions such that the reader does not have to do any work on their own (e.g. looking up the website or going to a particular web page manually) and all that is required is making a few clicks to get involved with the purpose of the advertisement.
Points to keep in mind when making a call to action
Call to action’s are a powerful approach towards achieving a high conversion rate, so if you are looking to create one for your marketing strategy keep the following in mind when you do so:
1. Use assertive language
When writing a call to action it is extremely important to stay as far away as you can from wishy washy language. Without assertive language the CTA you create would not have the desired effect on your audience because you would fail at trying to compel them to undertake the action you want. Try using words like “now”, “immediately” and “promptly” as much as you can.
2. Tailor your call to action to your audience
Generic phrases “avail now” or “click immediately” are used in every other CTA, which is why in order to stand out from others it is extremely important for you to personalise your call to action to your target audience. Try to do this by using phrases that directly correlate to your brand and products.
3. Convey the value of the offer
When you are writing a CTA it is important to give viewers the impression that your new offer is a great deal better than the old proposition. This is because often consumers cannot properly grasp the information that is being conveyed to them, as a result they cannot understand the true value of the offer. Make comparisons, use hyperbole and reiterate information to get through to your audience and properly explain to them the value of your offer.
Where can you use your call to action?
Once you have created your CTA you must decide where to use it.
The versatility of a call to action makes it appropriate for all communication platforms of a company, three such are websites, emails, and blogs.
1. Website
Ecommerce websites often opt for CTAs that require visitors to fill out a form to avail discount codes as soon as they go onto the website. This has a number of benefits as not only do the discounts offered push the visitors to make purchases but as they sign up the company gets their contact information that can be used for lead generation and future communication with the customer.
2. Email
Emails sent out by brans are typically short and to the point which means that an entire email can be dedicated to being a CTA and you can send out more CTAs than normal.
3. Blog
Customers go onto blogs to read about subject matter they are interested in, this means that any reader is already 50% committed to making a purchase and all you have to do is give them a small nudge. You can do this by ending your blog with a call to action.
Some other things to keep in mind….
- Try to keep the text in your call to action short, nobody wishes to read a lot of content
- Use contrasting colours to make your call to action stand out
- Relevance is key, make sure any call to action that you place on your website is appropriate for the content on the page
- Be clear and use simple language, the reader should properly grasp the idea of your call to action
- Excite your readers, even a simple exclamation mark can go a long way!
- Be consistent. If there is only one call to action on your website it will do you no good
- Keep the design of your call to action simple, do not overdo it with colours or designs
- Remember to test! Do not think that your first call to action design is your final, making small tweaks can completely transform your audience engagement for the better so keep trying out new variations
