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How to write calls to action like a pro

A great call to action will decide whether your site is going to bring you business or not. No matter how great other parts of your copy are, if your CTAs are not good enough you will lose millions in revenue. in this post I’m going to show you step by step how to write a great call to action.

Set a goal

What is the goal of your landing page or your website, is it to create an account, subscribe to your newsletter, donate to your charity, buy something on your website, or generate a lead. One question a visitor has when they visit your site is “Is this for me?” and “What is the next step?”. That is your goal, taking your visitor to the next step in their journey. Sit back and ask yourself what is the end goal you want to achieve. Having a clear goal will help you format your CTAs to make sense to your customer.

Use verbs and strong words

Your website is not about your company or how great your services are, it's about your visitor and how you can solve their problems. Replace "we" with "you", talk about the prospect not your company. You have set your goal, for example, to get more leads. Use a verb "book" followed by the subject, which is your end goal in this case "a consultation", you end up with "book a consultation". 

Combine with immediate benefit

You have the end goal for your website or landing page you joint that goal with verbs and came up with “book a consultation” or something along those lines. Next thing is to ask yourself “what’s in it for them?”. Why should your visitor take their time to complete the action? To come up with the benefit, get back to your value proposition and your Unique Selling Point and see what you can offer your prospect in return for taking an action. The reward can be anything valuable to your visitor, like a free e-book or a free trial or a free consultation. For example, now you might end up with something like “book a free consultation” or “subscribe to get an e-book”.

Urgency and fear of missing out

No one wants to be left out, that’s basic human nature. To take advantage of the fact, make a limited time offer and make it urgent. Based on our earlier example you may end up with something like “book a free consultation now”. Look at how the "now" creates a sense of urgency in the action. Maybe somewhere above your button you might add “this offer expires in 5 days”.

Keep it direct and on point

A mistake most people make when creating calls to action on their websites is trying to look clever. Now that you have a starting point for your CTA, make sure you keep it simple and be direct, don’t be clever, remember your primary goal is to sell or generate leads, not to show your visitors how clever you are. Avoid generic calls to action text like “learn more” unless you gave the user curiosity to learn more. You may even be as direct as “click here to download your e-book”. I know someone may have already told you it’s overused. They are right, but these tactics were tried and proved to work. You should also remove distractions, things like unnecessary links or a carousel that may steal your visitor’s attention. 

Just be creative

I know I said do not be clever and you should not but that does not mean you can’t be a little creative as long as your calls to action are clear, persuasive, and offer an immediate benefit. The only way you’re going to know which one works best is if you run A/B tests on your CTAs and see which one convert best.

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Writer at Flixtechs Given Ncube's picture
Given Ncube