10 Amazing Call to Action Tips

We all encounter numerous calls to action every day. We’ve gotten to a point where we don’t even register most of them consciously. The websites we visit, social media, emails, brochures – they’re popping up everywhere.

But what exactly is a “call to action”?

A call to action is where you pull the trigger and tell your prospect what you want from them. It’s that word or phrase, which pushes the potential client toward a specific action.

The goal – to sell a product, get more people to subscribe to a newsletter, visit a blog or follow a social media channel.

Check out some fascinating CTA facts:

• A call to action within a mail increases the click-through rate by 370% and boosts sales by 1617%.
• Text-based call to action increase conversion rate by 120%.
• About 94% of website CTAs feature verbs.
• CTAs in the form of a button leads to 6.5% higher conversions than images.
• A CTA in a video gets 380% more clicks than a regular sidebar CTA.
• Over 90% of readers of a headline will also read the following CTAs.

But what are the best call to action tips that we can use?

Call to Action Tips and Tricks

A call to action is there to be the next most intuitive step that the reader should take. How do you create buttons loaded with that meaning? How do you drive people’s attention exactly where you want?

Let’s see how the top experts say they do it! We gathered some great tips on how to write a call to action yourself.

1. Include at least one CTA in your marketing mail.

• Increases click rate by over 370%.
• Results in 1617% more sales.
• 70% of SMBs are missing call-to-action buttons at all.

Numbers are clear that this is a must for a successful digital marketing strategy. An email marketing campaign without a CTA in the body is incomplete and pretty much useless. You need to guide the reader what to do next and what to expect. Best case scenario – your CTA also answers the reader’s question – what’s in it for me.

Stats are solid – using a good call to action in your mail can really improve your click-through rate and your sales.

Including a call to action button in your email is a no-brainer – even a simple one can dramatically improve your bottom line.

2. Use powerful and emotional words in your call to action.

• Explaining key benefits next to CTAs brings 34% more signups.
• Adding a picture of a referring customer increases the conversion rate of their referrals by more than 3%.

Make sure your CTAs are creative and trustworthy. Touching on anxiety-reducing benefits is a strategy you want to bet on. By showing empathy and understanding of people’s needs, having a clear message, and using a powerful CTA, you will win your audience’s trust in no time.

‘End my struggle with hair loss’

3. Use personalized call to action words.

• Personalized calls for actions bring 200% more conversion than clickable images.
• Targeting your audience using personalized CTAs results in 42% more visitors converted into leads compared to using untargeted CTAs.
• Personalized CTAs in the form of a button leads to 6.5% higher conversions than images – 2.6%.

It requires more effort and data to target your audience properly, but it pays off! Depending on the insights you have about your readers and the tools at your disposal, it can improve your click-through rate to have variations of CTAs for newcomers and for more ‘advanced’ visitors.

For newcomers, you can be more generic in your wording but still add some personal touch to it such as ‘Get started quickly with digital marketing using our online videos.’

For existing subscribers, you can be more specific. They’ll know what you’re referring to.

‘Create your email marketing campaign in just a few clicks. Try our new tool for free.’

4. Use verbs in your CTAs.

• Close to 94% of website CTAs feature verbs.
• CTAs are the driving force for clicks – whether it’s a mailing campaign, your website, blog or a printed brochure.

Using clear and straightforward calls to action makes all the difference. Using verbs is engaging. Feel free to bravely ask the reader what you want them to do – and be willing to accept most of them will say “no.”

Thing is, this is a numbers game for you. Not everyone will want your offer. Have a confident and direct call to action nonetheless. That way you massively increase your chances that the right people will, eventually, click on that button or link.

At the end of the day, you do want them to click and get in the game. Do it wisely and with passion – that is how you engage people! In addition, just to be sure, you should have a grammar checker to correct something that you might have overlooked.

The most and the least used verbs in CTAs

5. Use buttons for your call to action.

• Using button-like CTAs generates 45% more clicks.
• Call to action buttons increase the click-through rate by 28%, compared to link-based CTAs.
• A CTA button on your post-purchase page makes people 16 times more likely to share the news about their purchase on social media.

Make sure your call to action button indeed looks like a button. Otherwise, you risk confusing your audience, which will irritate and drive them away.

Design the buttons so they are large enough, but don’t make them too big.

Use distinctive colors for your CTA buttons. This will increase the visibility of your message. And, if it happens that you’re just starting out, you can use popular website builders to create a wonderful site for your business.

People nowadays are exposed to so many CTAs that you want to stand out to get noticed. Put some thought in the exact working and design of your CTA buttons. It’s your chance to get leads, increase your subscribers and sales.

6. Use first-person in your CTA wording.

• Using CTAs such as ‘Yes, I want to receive more information’ instead of ‘Subscribe to receive more updates’ results in 90% increase in clicks.
• Text-based call to actions increase conversion rates by 120%.

Do not be afraid of longer calls to action. Be creative and entice people to do exactly as you want of them. You can use longer sentences or even parts of your content as CTAs to guide your visitors to the next step.

What else might help you with this task is answering the question: ‘What’s in it for me?’. You want to get in the shoes of the readers and encourage them to click. Show that you have a solution to an issue, that you’ve been there and gotten results anyway. It’s a matter of gaining their trust.

‘Show me how to increase my sales.’

‘Teach me how to boost word of mouth.’

7. Do not use too many calls to action.

• CTAs with space around them increase conversion by 232%.
• CTAs give you about 3.5% click-through rate while AdWords – about 2%.
• CTAs with a maximum of 10 words improve conversion rate.

Let your CTA enough space to breathe and grab the attention.

Be specific and keep it simple. You don’t want to stack a couple of steps in one CTA or have too many of them on one page. It may sound limiting but have separate CTAs for different tasks and you’ll enjoy a much higher click-through rate.

To avoid cluttering too many CTA buttons and still have a few in one space, make sure the ones you intend to use have a similar tone and are not conflicting. This way, you’re happy and conversions flow.

8. Use persuasive writing for your calls-to-action.

• Content websites such as blogs have about 50% of bounce rate.
• Using ‘Gimme’ instead of ‘Get It Now’ increased Sumo’s conversions by 182%.

Persuasive writing helps you write clear and strong CTAs. It’s more engaging and drives conversion rates. Call to action examples in persuasive writing could be: ‘Join the club,’ ‘This is my feedback,’ ‘Keep me informed’ – sentences which suggest some incentive.

Avoid wording that implies any effort from the readers. Verbs like submit and invest sound intimidating to the reader. For your effective call to action you want to do it the other way around – visitors should have the impression that they get value, and they should subscribe to your newsletter with ease and no doubts about it.

9. Create exclusivity and urgency in your CTA.

• Over 90% of readers of a headline will also read the following CTAs.
• Long landing pages generate up to 220% more leads than CTAs above the fold.

Do not rush your readers to act as soon as they jump on your website or open your mail. Instead, introduce some tempting benefits of your exciting offer. Pushing a product or a service on the market can be a really fun process. Think of the benefits that you’re offering to the audience. Emphasize a few of the more impressive ones.

In CTA writing, you want to create that sense of urgency using words like now, immediately, and today. These are brief, clear, and precise – just what you need for your call-to-action ad button to get the reader to act ASAP.

Now think of exclusivity adjectives: exclusive, elite, private. Combine the urgency and excitement and voila, your state-of-the-art CTA is ready to go.

‘Get My Exclusive Offer Now’

10. CTA performance on mobile devices is crucial. Optimize, optimize, optimize!

• For the last three years, mobile devices have dominated when it comes to checking mail – stats show a 180% growth in that period.
• 35% of emails get checked based solely on the subject line.
• 52.2% of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones in 2018.

Readers need to be guided. Use CTAs for that.

Conversions and CTAs are interconnected. Without proper CTAs, your conversion rates will suffer. Your content might rock, but what are visitors supposed to do next?

With 99% of email users checking their email daily, you may want to think again and come up with that dazzling and strong call to action at the bottom of your email.

Wrap Up

Call to action tips to take away today!

✅ CTAs depend on your niche, so know your audience.

✅ CTAs should be clear, informative and actionable.

✅ CTAs are a MUST!

How to write a call to action on various mediums:

✅ In your email: CTAs should provide an incentive for the readers to take a certain favorable action (like buying your product/service).

✅ On your website: Add CTAs on each page but avoid cluttering too many on one page.

✅ On your blog: Add strong CTAs to push your products or services.

Bottom line – you won’t know what works best if you don’t give it a go. So do it, go ahead and test various calls to action. 75% of businesses that are not satisfied with their conversion rates – and most of them do little testing, if any.

Be the exception and test what works. Use these call-to-action tips as a guide. Let your audience be the judge.

See you soon!