4 Tips to Creating the Right Call-To-Action

bySeanGreentre

3K followers

6 years ago

Let's be honest... most of us skim content on a website. But research shows that 90% of website visitors who actually read the main title of a page or post will also read the call-to-action of the page. That's significant and we need to be sure we're making the most of it!

The content of the call-to-action is a big part of this. A typical mistake of content writers is to only include one call-to-action (CTA) - i.e. the piece of content that we want the reader to take having consumed the content. Whilst that is better than no CTA, it's still not enough to motivate them to take the required action.

One reason for this is what is known as 'Banner blindness' - i.e. users become so used to seeing endless CTAs, usually of the same shape and size and positioned in the same place, they eventually come blind to all of them!

So all of your CTAs need to be clear, otherwise they are highly unlikely to convert.

What you can do to minimise this is to tailor your CTAs accordingly. Here's how:

1. Be clear

If you’re creating or trying to refine your conversion optimisation (CRO) strategy, clarity in your CTA can often help. Being clear plays a really important role in optimising your CTAs as is it helps remove any barriers or hesitations people may have about taking the action.

2. Use five words - or less

CTAs generally work best when they’re five words or, better still, less. This provides enough flexibility to create relevancy for a specific type of content but not so much that it distracts your visitors.

3. Include an action

Now this may be stating the obvious, but so many website content creators forget a CTA altogether. 'Download', 'Call', 'Register', 'Buy' or 'Read' are all good examples of action words that are proven to work well and convert users.

4. Use a scarcity or exclusivity technique

Now... these kind of techniques won’t necessarily work for every call to action. However, if you’re writing a CTA for something that is only available for a limited amount of time or has limited availability, then be sure to get that across in your CTA. This can often be that extra nudge someone needs to actually take the action.

Hopefully this gives you a better idea of how to format calls-to-action. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave your questions in the comments below and I'll come straight back to you.