Giving Your CTA a Makeover
04-09-2018
Every so often, it’s helpful to take a fresh look at something familiar in our lives. The same goes for your website’s Call-to-Action.
When businesses first set up a CTA button, it is usually a source of great pride and much thought has gone into it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it wouldn’t benefit from a potential refresh. We’ve got some useful questions you can ask to decide if your CTA is up to snuff or passé.
1. Is it concise?
Brevity is one of the first things to consider when taking a fresh look at your Call-to-Action. Your CTA should use as few words as possible. Don’t use six words when three will do. Ideally, you have filled the rest of your website with great copy, content, and explanations as to why your business will help your prospective customers; the CTA is just that final little push to encourage them to say “yes” to whichever question you are asking.
Save your words for elsewhere on your site. Keep your CTA short.
2. Are you using a verb?
The key thing about a Call-to-Action is that it’s a call to ACTION. As in lights, camera, ACTION! – now do something! So if you want your site visitors to act you have to tell them exactly how.
Are you asking them to click to learn more? Should they schedule a demo? Or are you asking them to sign up for a newsletter or free trial? Out of the few words in your CTA, one of them should absolutely be a verb. This list of 100 keywords and verbs is as good a place as any to get the right verb for your CTA.
3. Is the benefit clear?
When you look at your CTA, is it unfailingly obvious what the benefit is? People aren’t going to be very interested in handing over their information if they don’t stand to gain something. Be it a free trial, regular updates, or simply the promise of more information there should be little doubt as to what site visitors have to gain by clicking your CTA.
4. Do you have a ticking clock?
Not an actual ticking clock (though don’t count it out), but your Call-to-Action should contain a sense of urgency. By communicating that what you are offering is in limited supply (Reserve your spot now) or that there’s no better time to get in touch than the present (Talk to a representative today), you send a small but powerful spike of adrenaline into the system of your target audience. In the marketing game of inches, that ticking clock might be just enough to get folks to click.
5. Does it stand alone?
Imagine for a minute the Washington Monument. Or the Statue of Liberty. Or the Eiffel Tower. You could probably identify these iconic objects by just their silhouette against the setting sun. Why is that? Mostly because these structures stand tall in their own visual space—there are no other buildings to distract from these architectural marvels.
Your CTA should stand out in the same way: bold, striking, and unmistakable. If your page contains multiple Call-to-Action sections or is visually very busy, your incredibly well designed CTA could get lost in the shuffle. Would any of the above mentioned structures have the same impact if they were built in the middle of Times Square, surrounded by skyscrapers? Certainly not. Don’t condemn your CTA to a similar fate.
6. Is it the best CTA for you?
This can be the trickiest consideration of any Call-to-Action makeover. You should at least briefly consider if the action you want visitors to take is the most effective move for your business. Maybe you are pitching everybody your blog but in truth you should be sharing more information about your services. Or perhaps your CTA professes talking to a representative when what visitors really want is for someone to email them with more information. If you have the means, utilising some A/B testing can be a great way to gain greater insight into what CTA is more likely to get clicked.
In summation, try to set a once-in-a-while calendar reminder to give your CTA a once-over. Maybe even ask trusted peers to lend their fresh eyes to it. Your CTA is a critical lynchpin to your entire business model, so it’s wise to make sure it is optimised to its fullest potential.
Sometimes a CTA can be as simple as a well-placed phrase at the end of a helpful article. Register with T.UK to become an Affiliate today.
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