The Importance of Clear ‘Calls to Action’ (CTAs)

Every website has a purpose. Whether you want to sell products, generate leads, encourage newsletter sign-ups or get people to book appointments, it’s important that your website visitors know exactly what to do that will encourage them to take those steps in their consumer journey. This is what a call to action (CTA) is for. In this article, we’ll be going through what CTAs are, why they’re important, their key elements, how to measure their success and mistakes to avoid when writing them. So, why are CTAs so important? Let’s find out. 

What is a call to action (CTA)?

A call to action, otherwise known as a CTA, is a prompt that encourages visitors to complete a desired action. CTAs may appear in a number of different ways. It’s usually a short piece of text directing users to the next steps in their consumer journey, but CTAs can also present themselves as a button, a hyperlink or a banner. Each CTA will serve a different purpose, and it should align with the goals of the page it appears on. A CTA will usually include the following phrases:

• “Buy now”
• “Get a free quote”
• “Download our guide”
• “Book a consultation”
• “Start your free trial”
• “Subscribe today”
• “Contact us”
• “Learn more”

Why do CTAs matter?

CTAs are there to give clear direction to website visitors. If a user doesn’t have that clear direction, then they’ll leave without taking any action, and so you’ll miss out on leads and sales, and the prospective customer misses out on products, services and offers. A CTA that’s well-written will benefit businesses in a number of ways. They help by:

• Guiding users through their journey
• Reducing confusion
• Increasing engagement
• Encouraging engagement
• Improving overall user experience (UX)

Key elements of a CTA you need to know about

A CTA might seem simple to write on face value, but there’s a lot more to it than you might have otherwise thought. If you’re looking to write your own CTA, whether it be for your website page or a blog post, then there are some key elements that you need to know about in order to make it as effective and as successful as possible. Here are the key elements of a CTA that you need to know about when writing your own:

Clarity

One of the biggest mistakes any business can make is using vague language when writing their CTA. Buttons that are labelled “submit”, “continue”, or “click here” provide very little information about what will happen next, causing apprehension among website visitors. This will discourage them from clicking, and you’ll then lose leads. Instead, you need to be using action-oriented language that clearly communicates the benefit of clicking on certain buttons and following through to the next steps. The clearer the instruction, the more confident users will feel about taking the next steps. Examples of clear CTAs include:

• “Download your free guide”
• “Get a quote”
• “Book an appointment”
• “Start saving today”
• “Claim your discount”

Action-oriented language

Strong CTAs begin with action verbs that encourage immediate engagement. Effective examples of this would include: “discover”, “download”, “register”, “join”, “buy”, “start”, “schedule”, “explore”, “request” or “claim”. These words will create momentum and help users to understand exactly what they should do. 

A focus on benefits

The best CTAs don’t just tell users what to do. They explain why they should do it. As such, you should compare the following examples:

Weak CTA: “Sign up”

Strong CTA: “Sign up and receive weekly marketing tips”

The stronger CTA highlights the value that users will receive should they sign up for those tips, therefore making the CTA all the more compelling. It’s this that will entice people in and, therefore, increase conversion and sales rates.

Easy to locate

Even the most persuasive CTA will not be effective if internet users and website visitors cannot find it. Placement is important when it comes to CTAs. Visitors should encounter CTAs naturally as they move through the page. A successful CTA should:

• Stand out visually
• Use contrasting colors
• Include readable text
• Be large enough to click easily
• Have sufficient white space around it 

Multiple placements (only on longer pages or pieces of content)

If the content is long, then you’ll benefit from adding more than one CTA throughout. This is the case for both website pages and blog posts. In fact, it can be commonplace to add two or three CTAs to a long website page so that the message doesn’t get lost in the rest of the content. For long pieces of content, whether it be a blog post or a website page, you should look to place your CTA:

• Near the top of the page
• After explaining key benefits
• Following testimonials
• At the end of the content

A match to user intent

Different visitors will be at different stages of their buying journey when they reach your site. While some may be ready to make a purchase, others may still be in the researching phase of their consumer journey. 

Someone discovering your business for the first time may not be ready to “buy now”, but they may be open to “learn more”, “download a guide”, “watch a demonstration”, or “read a case study”. 

However, visitors who are ready to make a purchase may respond better to stronger CTAs, like “buy now”, “get started”, or “book today”. Aligning your CTA with the visitor’s intent improves the likelihood of conversion, essentially. 

There’s a sense of urgency

You’ll likely notice that a good CTA creates a sense of urgency. This is because urgency can motivate visitors to act sooner rather than later, provided it’s a genuine need. If urgency is authentic, then it can significantly increase conversion rates. However, false urgency may damage the trust between yourself and your customers. As such, you need to get the balance right. For legitimate urgency, you could use terms like:

• Limited time offer
• Offer ends Friday
• Only 10 places remaining
• Register before midnight
• Sale ends soon

How to measure CTA success

You may be thinking that writing a CTA is all very well and good, but how do you know that it’s actually doing the job it’s intended for? Well, there are multiple ways in which you can measure the success of a CTA you’ve written. You should use your current analysis tools, like Semrush, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Screaming Frog and Ahrefs, to name a few, to look at key performance indicators (KPIs), paying particular attention to things like:

• Click-through rates (CTRs)
• Conversion rates
• Form completion rates
• Bounce rates
• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Sales generated
• Leads collected

Mistakes to avoid when creating CTAs

While it might seem fairly straightforward to write an effective CTA, there are some things that people can do wrong that will hinder the periofmance of it, and it all comes down to the way in which it’s written. Some of the common mistakes to avoid when writing a CTA for your content, whether it be a blog post or a website page, include:

• Using vague wording
• Including too many CTAs on one page
• Making buttons difficult to see
• Asking users to provide excessive information
• Failing to explain the benefits
• Ignoring mobile users
• Placing CTAs at the bottom of long pages

Kumo is pleased to provide a wide range of digital marketing services, including content creation, SEO, PPC, website design and more. You can rest assured that our team of dedicated experts can set you apart from your competitors with excellent content creation and copywriting services. If you’d like further information about how we can help you today, get in touch with a member of our friendly, specialist team – we’re always happy to hear from you.