If you want your marketing efforts to have impact, you need to master the call to action. Here’s how it’s done.
Forget global marketing giants – if you want to see a group who have absolutely nailed the call to action, look no further than the legends who design kids’ birthday party invitations.
The call to action screams from the headings (“Come to my party!”) and has clear instructions, complete with a date (“RSVP to Tommy’s mum by April 15”).
The result? The invitation recipient knows what they are reading and what they need to do, and Tommy’s mum knows how many loot bags to create and has time to make them.
If you want your marketing efforts to have the same impact as kids’ birthday party invitations, here’s what you need to know.
What is a call to action (CTA)?
Put simply, a call to action tells consumers what you want them to do.
You may want consumers to purchase a product, watch an instructional video, book tickets, sign a petition, subscribe to an email, and in fact, any action.
A CTA might come in the form of a link (‘Read more’), a button (‘Buy now’), or an image (perhaps of the first slide of a video with the YouTube logo on it).
The one thing they all do is entice the consumer to take the next step along the buying cycle.
Why is a call to action important in marketing?
An explicit, clear call to action that tells consumers what they should do will achieve just that: get them to do what you want them to do! That might be to make a sale, subscribe to a newsletter, book tickets, or follow your page on social media.
Marketing that hints or suggests what a consumer should do is far less effective than one that boldly states the next steps. Likewise, marketing efforts that have no call to action have no measurable or tangible results.
Even worse, they risk annoying the consumer. The last thing you want is to read a post or view a video, only to be left thinking, “What was the point of that?”
How can you use a call to action in your marketing?
Here are some tips for lifting your CTA game in your marketing:
1. A prompt at the end of an article to ‘get in touch’
The beauty of this call to action is that it’s gentle and is low on urgency and pressure. We don’t want to sell you anything, we just want a chat.
Staying ‘in touch’ is something friends do, not salespeople with high targets. It also implies a conversation, where the consumer is listened to.
2. A button in an email newsletter to ‘buy now’
Consumers are much kinder to content that they receive in email newsletters than that on social media or thrown up by search.
An email has been sent to you, and it arrives in your own personal inbox. And funnily enough, it’s sometimes an email that has an offer on that exact pair of boots you were just searching for!
Throw in a direct link to purchase and you’ve nailed it.
3. A ‘subscribe’ button on YouTube
Consumers who subscribe to a YouTube channel get notifications every time a new video is uploaded – and this can be a huge driver of traffic.
The key to getting subscribers is to offer videos that provide some value to the viewer. When this is followed by a prompt to subscribe, the viewer will think, “Yes, this video helped me, I’d like to get more updates.”
4. A ‘read more’ link to consume content
This is a great way to gently massage your lead down the sales funnel.
The reader has shown some interest in your brand and your offering, now you want them to find out more and allow you to explain in detail who you are, how you offer a solution to their particular issue, and why you are the best company to solve it.
To get consumers to click the ‘read more’ link, your intro needs to be attention-grabbing, interesting and intriguing – it’s this intrigue that will get them clicking.
Need help with your call to action?
The perfect call to action lies somewhere between one that is so soft that no one clicks and one so garish and obvious that no one clicks. At Assemblo, we know that sweet spot and how to get it working for your business.
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne, that produces results-driven content and CTAs that deliver tangible bottom-line results.
To find out how we can help your business, give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or send us a note via the contact form below.