‘Call to action’ seems like a vague term, all it really means is that the main purpose behind it is to get the visitors to your site to ‘do something’, take action. Now the something could be anything, ranging from downloading something, or buying a product or just requesting information. Basically, such a button is a clear instruction to the visitors to your site about what to do or how to reach a certain goal – no matter how trivial or important.
Keep it simple!
Being a very important element of lead generation, CTA’s should be used for any good marketing tactic: be it emails, press releases, blog posts, social media updates and so many more. It is the simplest way to drive people’s behaviour in the way you want. Call to action buttons have varied purposes, and thus a lot of thought and consideration needs to go into deciding what the CTA button aims to achieve.
Know what visitors want
Once on your page, and after reading through your content, visitors are looking for somewhere to go next. Many a times, the website visitors leave the site only because they do not know the next step; there is lack of a clear call to action. They may be looking for more information, or maybe to subscribe to your newsletter or maybe even make a purchase! There are a number of possibilities and call to action buttons give the users a direction in which to proceed, a variety of options that they can pick from.
List out your goals
It is important to have a clear list of goals for your site. Having clear objectives helps you to craft calls to action that direct the users to the exact thing that you want them to do. Strong call to actions tells your visitors what you want them to do – some as an overt, big blinking demand, and others as subtly as a menu option.
If creating CTA’s for a blog, it is important to keep in mind that most of the blog readers probably fall under the ‘information searches’ category. Since the readers are mostly prospective consumers who are looking for information on how to solve a particular problem, a relevant CTA would definitely help them and thus further increase their chances of coming back to your site.
Since business owners should always be evaluating the success of their website, and enhancing it, calls to action are the perfect way to do so. They may be the bridge in converting visitors to customers. Prioritizing the CTA’s and sometimes, even multiple CTA’s can prove effective. If they stand out, they are bound to be more noticeable.
A call to action not only provides focus to your site, it is also an effective way to measure the success of your site. It is one of the main differences between writing for the internet, and writing a printed piece.
