A Call to Action for Calls-to-Action

A Call to Action for Calls-to-Action

Aerio Staff

“Order These Books Now!”

“Call and Speak with an Expert.”

“Download Our Guide!”

“Subscribe to Our Blog.”

These are all calls-to-action, often referred to as CTAs, and are a vital component of every marketing, promotion, and advertising campaign.

What Are CTAs

Calls-to-action come in a variety of forms. Often they are simply hyperlinked text. Sometimes they are buttons. Other times they are images. Whatever form they take, a call-to-action compels the customer to do something—to take action.

Calls-to-Action Give Customers Purpose

You may have heard someone refer to the purchase funnel or the customer journey. Calls-to-action drive these models. They offer customers instruction on how to venture forward in their journey or down, towards the end of the funnel.

You will also notice that the above CTAs create an association to some kind of offering—a book, an expert, a guide, a blog. A call-to-action is not just work; it is a gateway to more.

Calls-to-Action Are Trackable

Everything we do online is trackable. While that may be a bit creepy, for a bookseller trying to identify and segment a target audience, it comes in handy.

Whether a button or a link, most calls-to-action contain tracking code. When a user clicks a call-to-action button, that click is recorded. The more information you can garner from CTAs about consumer behavior the better.

Trackable CTAs can tell you things like:

  • Do my customers prefer buttons or images?
  • What kind of language is the most persuasive?
  • Where should I place my CTAs for best response?
  • Do people click when there is an offer or something else?

Besides giving customers something to do, tracking is one of a CTAs most useful traits.

Calls-to-Action Keep the Audience Engaged

If you are doing a good job offering your audience relevant and useful content, CTAs are a great way to keep them involved and encourage them to participate.

Calls-to-action can be attached to a submission form or a poll, giving the customer a feeling of empowerment. CTAs can be most successful when built into a promotion or giveaway.

There are plenty of ways a CTA can be incorporated into a webpage or a social media profile to make your customers feel more involved.

Why Do I Need CTAs?

Calls-to-action are an excellent form of lead generation. This goes back to a CTA’s powerful tracking features.

Lead Generation and Nurturing

As we noted earlier, a CTA can be attached to a form, poll, giveaway, etc. In each of these you are asking the customer to provide personal information. Once you have the desired customer data, you need to foster continued engagement. You can do this with more CTAs that offer benefits behind a gated doorway, such as:

Calls-to-action like these are all ways to nurture your leads and keep them hanging around for more.

Make a Sale

This may seem obvious, but rather than the bland BUY button, a CTA button prompting a purchase can be poised to give the customer a feeling of deeper involvement.

A CTA can be associated with an emotion or a feeling of accomplishment such as, when a customer buys this product they are:

  • Helping themselves
  • Helping a cause
  • Contributing to something greater

CTA Best Practices

Hopefully you already have some excellent ideas on how to make your CTA buttons, images, or links stand out. Below we have provided a few additional tips on getting more people to take action on your calls-to-action:

  • Use creative and conversational language—always offer a benefit
  • Make sure requested actions are clear and consistent
  • Make them visually appealing and attention grabbing
  • Play around with CTA button locations
  • Colors are important—red means stop, green means go
  • Test, test, and test again—language, location, all of the above