Why do you need a Call to Action in your Marketing?

What would you say is the number one goal for marketers around the world? If you asked me, it’d be to generate and convert leads. What are leads? They’re simply any potential customer interaction where you can promote interest in a product or service being offered by your business. Generating leads, however, can be difficult. There are plenty of competitors out there, with their own solid understanding of Digital Marketing. So what should you do to start reaching these new customers? If you’re looking to grab your customers’ attention in order to close a potential sale or have them do business with your company for the first time, then you need a Call to Action.

What is a Call to Action or CTA?

A Call to Action or CTA; is a marketing term that means the next step your company wants your audience or customers to take. CTA’s are highly effective for a number of reasons, and almost any business can use them on their website, blogs, or email campaign. Typically, they’ll be presented as a limited sale or ‘limited time offer,’ this is a tactic known as FOMO or fear of missing out. FOMO is an incredibly effective tool for marketers, and some of the top companies in the world like Amazon, Apple, and Tesla use them every day. CTA’s typically utilize direct links to services or products, or they’ll point the customer in the right direction. Moreover, you can use CTA’s to advertise multiple products at once (for example, consider a business newsletter advertising its products.) Leaving CTA’s out of your strategy then should clearly be a bad idea. CTA’s are essential for improving sales and generating leads. So, let’s cover the process of including them in your content.

The Most Common CTA’s

There’s a variety of ways CTA’s can be used, but we’ve broken down a shortlist of the most common types you might see used by other companies:

• ‘Sign-up now!’
• ‘Register here.’
• ‘Call now!’ (typically, a phone number or hotlink for the number is included.)
• ‘Subscribe below.’
• ‘Try our new product now!’
• ‘You can donate here.’ (typically, you would include a hotlink for a payment site like Paypal or Venmo.)
• ‘Buy now!’ 
• ‘You can order the item here.’
• ‘Share our post on social media for a chance to win…’
• ‘Follow our page for more news about our products!’
• ‘Download now for free.’
• ‘Looking to learn more? Click here for more information.’

See, while it might seem confusing at first; you’re probably already quite familiar with basic CTA’s! Now, let’s get into some of the benefits you can take advantage of by using them.

CTA Benefits

So, now that you’ve got a basic understanding of what CTAs are and how you can use them, you’re probably wondering what the benefits are beyond helping your company generate new leads. Well, you’ll be happy to know that there are several benefits for those who use CTA’s in their content. For one, it boosts your click-through rate, which improves your overall Search Engine result rankings, or SEO. Moreover, one statistic found that CTAs are read by 90% of website visitors. If you’ve written your CTA in your content, then one statistic found you might see a conversion rate of roughly 120%. Clearly, this should show you why CTA’s are so important for your business. 

Using a CTA in Marketing

Finally, let’s cover how to include your CTA in your content and marketing. First, you need a marketing campaign for the products or services which your business is offering. It could be a new product launch, a re-brand, and re-launch of an existing service, or anything you want your customers or users to interact with. Now, the hard part is finding a way to make users read your CTA’s, as another statistic states most customers only stay on a website for 59 seconds or less than a minute. This is why you need to use what’s known as targeting. Targeting means you only use CTA’s for relevant campaigns, making sure you include it in an open spot on your website where it’s likely your customer’s eyes will focus first. From there, you need to simply make sure your CTA is eyecatching to the user. Utilize images, fonts, and other elements to make your sale, and you’ll begin to see the effectiveness of Call of Action strategies.