Each marketing material you publish online should persuade people to know you more, buy from you, or subscribe to your service. Your blog posts and ads should have CTAs or calls to action to ensure this. "Call to action" refers both to the exact phrase which asks people to act, like "read more" or "buy now," or to the paragraph where you can find these phrases. Let's take a closer look at different calls to action and how to incorporate them in your campaigns.
Whatever your marketing goals, you need to get your audience to move. Movement creates numbers like traffic, sales, and bodies in workshops or demos. When you run a campaign, you need to measure its effectiveness, and you do that through numbers, through an increase in profits, social reach, subscriptions, or leads—and you get those through well-crafted CTAs.
Don't let people read your blog or view your video without suggesting another action they can take. Your CTAs act as prompts for your audience, helping ease them down the marketing funnel toward more persuasive and attractive offers that would hopefully get them to purchase high-ticket products.
However, there's a technique to placing CTAs. For example, hard sells won't be a good fit for blog posts. Since people reading blog posts are probably looking for specific information, they won't be likely to find it compelling. That said, here are three reasons why you should include CTAs in your marketing:
CTAs allow you to generate more leads. If people like your content enough, they can sign up for more by subscribing to your email newsletter or channel. When they sign up, you can add them to a customer database that enables you to build a relationship over time. Here are two examples of CTAs that boost inquiries:
The primary reason you're online is to have people find, trust, and buy from your brand. Certain calls to action help you get more people to buy, especially at the end of the marketing funnel. Some examples are:
Educating clients is an excellent way of getting them on board without pushing the product aggressively. You want them to conclude that you're the best choice, instead of forcing that decision on them. Examples of education-focused CTAs are:
The words in your call to action are crucial, perhaps even more so than any other part of the post or ad. Whatever type of CTA you use should be concise, directing users to one action (two at the most). Don't deceive readers with your CTA—make sure they know what waits when they click through. You don't want people becoming disgruntled because they found out that they have to pay for the trial subscription you're linking!
Look at the CTAs your competitors use and analyze how compelling they appear to be. When you look at what other people in your industry are doing, you can benchmark your practices. Conversely, you might find a gap in the market and create CTAs to fulfill that gap. Looking at how others convince customers to act lets you refine your approach.
Feelings almost always cause people to act. Look at your words—do they hit pain points, provide relief, or offer solutions? Depending on the type of product or service, you might lean more toward one type of CTA over another.
For example, your CTAs might be oriented toward relief and escape if you're in the travel industry. Meanwhile, if you're a B2B company, you would probably do better when you hit pain points. A personal trainer might want to emphasize how health and fitness strengthen the body, and a CTA that revolves around becoming stronger would work.
People do not want to miss out. Phrases like "click here," "browse our store," and "like and subscribe" are effective, but adding time as an element makes them even more so. For example, "buy now" is a little more compelling than "browse our store," and "get our one-time offer now" will get more clicks than "get our special offer."
Visitors to your website who find your content interesting will be more likely to interact even more with your website. It's natural; they'll be open to reading another post, buying from your store, or downloading a free e-book if they like what you have to say, meaning more engagement for your brand. A good CTA enables them to transition smoothly from one portion of your funnel to the other.
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