CTA or Call to Action: Everything You Need to Know, From NJ Web Design Experts
When planning your NJ web design project, call to action (CTA) should be a crucial aspect on your website. The reason is not far-fetched – without a CTA strategy in place, your web visitors may not take action immediately. This could determine if you lose a customer or make a sale.
If you discover that your prospects and leads are not moving to the next stage in your sales funnel, it’s time to check whether your CTA is faulty.
What Is a Call to Action or CTA? NJ Web Design Pros Summarize the Term
According to Investopedia: "A call to action (CTA) is a marketing term that refers to the next step a marketer wants its audience or reader to take."
In other words, a CTA calls on the audience to act. This action could be in the form of an inquiry (about what you offer) or a purchase. The call to action can link to your sales page or move the prospect to the next level in your funnel.
When going through business websites or social media channels, you would have come across phrases like: “call now”, “contact us”, “buy now”, or “find out more”. Marketers use imperative phrases with imperative verbs to provoke an immediate response in prospective buyers.
Sometimes, marketers use other types of CTA to create urgency, creating an impression that a special deal or offer is available for a limited time. This is to create a compelling reason to make a purchase. Examples include “30% discount for the first 20 callers”, “offer expires by midnight”, “only 50 slots available”, and more.
At times, the call to action might be a soft prompt to help the customer learn more about your business or organization. Example: “subscribe for weekly updates”, “read more”, “click here to learn more”.
As an integral part of your sales pitches, CTAs tell potential customers what to do next if they are interested in your product. As such, you should take advantage of it and incorporate it to get leads for your business in NJ. Web design experts like Reclaim Digital can collaborate with you to achieve better results using CTAs.
How to Achieve Better Marketing Results with CTA
The aim of a successful CTA can be to encourage the audience to make a purchase, share your content on social media, or grab a freebie in exchange for their contact information. The text may be placed on a button or just a link with anchor text in your emails, landing pages, or website.
Here are some tips to get the most of your CTA strategy for your NJ web design project:
1. Use Strong Action Verbs
A CTA with an action verb motivates the visitor to take action immediately. For instance, maybe you’re offering discounts on products or a free demo of your service, the following examples let the prospect feel that they are in charge:
- Unlock your 50% discount now!
- Activate your 1,000 words free trial today!
This CTA works because the verbs ‘activate’ or ‘unlock’ are unique, compared to boring verbs like ‘start’ or ‘get’. They are more likely to draw attention and excite your target audience. And by adding ‘today’ and ‘now’, you infuse a sense of urgency into your CTA.
2. Strive for Clarity
A CTA phrase should be clear and concise. Since the character limit is set at 35 characters per description line, you have to get straight to the point. Tell your audience exactly what they should do -- no beating around the bush. Examples of verbs to begin your CTA include order, buy, shop, subscribe, download, try out, find out, and more.
For instance, you can include a call to action like “view details here” at the bottom of an email that informs your subscribers about an upcoming course. Just telling the readers “our new course is now available” doesn’t provide information on how they can get their hands on the course. Don’t assume that the reader knows what to when they read your content or come across your marketing material. You’ll get better results by being clear on the action they should take next.
3. Have a CTA on Every Aspect of Your Marketing
When it comes to CTAs, there’s no one size fits all approach. It goes beyond putting “buy now” all over your website. Besides, some types of CTA phrases work better than others. That’s why you should tailor call to action to your specific business and audience.
You can’t serve all your audience the same call to action. An effective CTA strategy requires multiple types of CTAs that are tailored to serve the different audiences at different stages of the sales funnel.
Create a clearly defined call to action for each web page, email campaign, and sales conversions. For instance, a charity organization would use “follow us on Instagram to see our activities” as CTA for new visitors. On the other hand, the one targeted at prospective volunteers may read “join us to impact lives”.
Ask your prospect to take action or go to the next step whenever they come in contact with your business. Even those that are already buying from you can be asked to “give feedback” or “take advantage of a promo”.
4. Track Results
In some cases, a carefully crafted CTA might still not work on your audience. This may mean your audience have different personalities and react differently based on their pain points and other characteristics.
To know what works, marketers test various CTA phrases. With time, you can decide which types of call to action to use for more conversion. You can start using user behavior tools like Hubspot to collect actionable data on how your CTAs are performing. Are your prospects moving to the next step in your funnel? Do you get more email subscribers with “Download Free”, or does “Get it now” work better?
Besides the button text, other factors that can affect visitor’s responses to a call to action button include where it’s placed on the web page, offer, and color. Once you’ve identified the best performing strategy, you can stick to it.
Types of CTA You Should Have on Your Website, According to NJ Web Design Pros
For a new business in NJ, web design should incorporate the following types of call to action -- you can add more as your business expands and you have a more complex website:
1. Lead Generation
Lead generation CTA should be placed in any spot on your website with a high percentage of new visitors. This includes your blog (at the end of posts or in the sidebar). Ensure the call to action is attractive. Also, it should clearly state the benefits of clicking on it or what they can expect when they get to the landing page where it points to. Example: “Get actionable tips from top industry experts”.
2. “Read More”
The read more button entices your website readers to click on each content instead of accessing all the information on your homepage. This button should be placed after the first few paragraphs of posts featured on your homepage feed.
3. Information About Your Product or Service
When your leads are at the awareness stage in your funnel, it is essential to make it easy for them to know what you offer. This type of CTA can be a simple text or button that stands out against the background. Example: “See How It Works”.
4. Social Sharing
Encouraging visitors to share your content with friends is one of the ways they engage with your brand. This type of CTA button works well on blog posts and landing pages. You can customize the call to action phrase based on your type of audience.
5. Form Submission
Once you’re able to take your prospect to the next stage or your landing page, use another CTA to tell them what to do next. At this stage, creativity is required to ensure that you don’t lose your leads. Instead of a simple “sign up” button, you can use something more actionable and specific to your offer. A lead capture form (for prospects to submit details) combined with a CTA button is an excellent idea at this stage.
6. Lead Nurturing
Sometimes a prospect becomes a lead but is reluctant to purchase your product. In such a case, you have to entice them with other offers like product demos, free trial, or free resources. A lead nurturing CTA is located at strategic places where your leads visit, including blog posts or a marketing offer.
7. Sale-Focused CTA
Once your nurtured your leads to the last stage of the funnel, it’s time to close the sales. The type of CTA you sue at this stage should be sales focused on making those leads buying your product. You can place smart CTAs at the end of blog posts (e.g., place an order) or on product pages (e.g., Add to Cart) to make it easy for them to purchase.
In Summary
A compelling call to action phrase is aligned with the content on the page. It motivates the reader to take action based on the information on that page or in that email. The message should be clear, highlighting the benefits of acting immediately. Moreover, you must deliver on what you promise via your call to action. Most importantly, use the right call to action words because of words matter. Depending on what you achieve, you can use action words that: create scarcity, minimize risk, focus on value, get personal, foster curiosity, or invite readers inside.
Collaborate with NJ web design experts Reclaim Digital, to get the most of your marketing campaigns using call to action.
