Whether you are writing copy for blogs, social media or your website, a strong call to action can get your audience to do something next,  whether that be getting in touch, making a purchase or popping down to your premises. If you aren’t using them - you should be! It’s also important to be making them as effective as possible and to ensure they tie into the messaging that leads up to it. If you don't know where to start with a call to action or what they even are, fear not you are in the right place!

🤔 What is a Call To Action?

You might be thinking, I’m not actually sure what a ‘call to action’ is, but we’re certain you’ll have seen one before!

A call to action, sometimes known as a CTA, is the term used for a prompt that encourages a response or sale. Think ‘Read More, ‘Buy Now’, and the uninspiring ‘Click Here’, you’ll most likely have seen them on social media but they can be used just about anywhere! Once you have acquired a customer through the use of your copy the goal of a CTA is to take another step or action. A good CTA convinces a potential customer to take that leap and make a purchase.

❗Importance of CTA’s

You don't want to tell your audience all about how fantastic your shop or products are and then sign off the post there. It’s great your products have so many benefits to a customer but what should they do now to get those benefits? Have you included a link and prompted people to visit your website? Have you given them a reason to visit your shop and included your store name and location? Particularly with social media, where people like to skim through posts if they’ve got that prompt to do something and a link directly to it they’re more likely to act as they don't then have to navigate over to your page or search your website in Google. 

Calls to action help convert customers by reducing the hoops they have to jump through to purchase and clearly instruct them on what to do next. If you can catch their attention with engaging copy that includes the reasons to buy and then give them a direct avenue to do so, you are more likely to make a sale. It's worth noting that a call to action within your text whether that is a blog post or over on social media can actually increase your conversion by over 120%! Click rates for CTA’s have even been found to be better than Google Ads with the average rate in some studies being 4.23%.

It doesn't always have to be about immediate sales though, you can always have a call to action to download something such as a free calendar or e-book, or ask them to subscribe to your newsletter or visit your blog. These are other great ways to acquire customers and get them interested in your service or product, but can also be a great tool for retaining them by keeping them updated regularly. According to Toast Marketing, including a clear CTA in an email can boost clicks by 371% and sales by a whopping 1617%!

✍ How to Write a Great Call To Action

The first thing to do when creating a call to action is to think about what you want your reader to do. You also need to think about how you want to present your call to action as it's more likely to be a button or embedded link on a website whereas over on Facebook may be a direct link. When it comes to Instagram it's best to leave links out as they are not clickable in descriptions and instead prompt customers to go to the link in your bio or tag your products within the post.

You also need to keep your call to action short, snappy and in the best cases start with verbs such as ‘find out more’ and ‘download now’. CTA’s should be easy and clear to read. Accompanying the CTA with a sense of urgency by using a limited time offer, discount or prompting them to make a purchase or sign up within a certain time window can also increase your chances of conversion too.

It’s a good idea to utilise analytics to see how successful your CTA’s are. f they aren't performing how you hoped, try tweaking your wording or using it on different channels. You should be changing up your CTA’s regularly and tailoring them to your customers even if this means making a couple of different targeted posts or buttons that address different segments of your audience. 

Examples of Good Calls to Action

You can see in the below examples how we have utilised call to actions in our mailouts. You can clearly see clickable buttons prompting recipients to ‘Read More’ as well as a link to ‘View All News Articles’.

All of our wonderful blogs contain links too, straight to our contact page. If someone has taken the time to read through or post or even skimmed straight to the bottom they will always have that prompt to get in touch with us or read another article. 

You’ll find even more examples of this over on our social media where we link our email, telephone and even live chat. We also love to use emojis to make our CTA’s stand out! And, with Facebook moving away from circulating posts with URLs included, it’s even more important to have a clear CTA or next step for users to take.

Without a call to action, your readers won't have an indication of what to do or where to go next, which is why using a call to action sets out a clear direction for them and is more likely to lead to a conversion for you. Hopefully, with these pointers, you can now get to work utilising them across your website and social media. 

If you want to find out how we can help you boost your conversion rates through social media and website development please get in touch!