How to Craft a Call to Action That Converts

A call to action (CTA) is the bread and butter of your funnel.

But, what is a call to action?

It usually comes in the form of a button or link and it’s basically a snippet or sentence that gets your target audience to do something: namely, click on the button or link.

From there, they’ll be directed to the next steps in your carefully planned out sales funnel. Basically, it takes your target audience away from your introductory content into a more specific landing page that offers them something of value.

However … not all calls to action are created equal.

There needs to be the right wording and strategy when it comes to creating your call to action so you can get a lot of clicks. It also needs to be informative so your audience knows exactly what they’re clicking on.

Below is your guide to building a call to action that converts.

1. Brainstorm

Before you make your call to action message, first, take a couple of minutes to jot down your goals.

What kind of action you want your audience to take: buy, sign-up, follow, watch, or something else entirely? What message will best sum this action? What’s in it for them? What will they get by taking your desired action?

Doing this will help you focus and can ultimately help you construct better content and messaging that will get your audience to act. Brainstorming is an important first step in creating a call to action that speaks to the right audience, getting them to take action and delivering better results.

2. Start with a Compelling Verb

The goal is to get your audience to act, so it makes sense to start with a compelling command verb. From your brainstorming session, you’ve probably listed some great, attention-grabbing verbs within your goals, so use that as a starting point. Helpful tools, like an online thesaurus, can help you find the right action you want your audience to take.

Verbs can make all the difference. Sometimes they’re almost twice as effective. One recent experiment showed that including a verb in the call to action increased the CTR by 89%!

If you don’t have a strong verb in your CTA, you’re missing out!

What words should you use? Here are a few great verbs you can use:

• Get
• Secure
• Download
• Continue
• Sign up
• Subscribe
• Order
• Start today
• Find out
• Discover
• Earn
• Unlock

3. Incorporate a Buzzword

In addition to compelling verbs, you’ll need to throw in a buzzword to really sell your call to action. Since buzzwords have gotten a bad rap recently, it’s important that you use them wisely. If you carelessly plug multiple buzzwords into your sales funnel, then you might just lose credibility and trust with your audience.

Just as an example, you’ve probably seen the buzzwords “Free Trial” plenty of times, but they’re still effective. Offering a free trial creates a lot less pressure than asking a customer to buy something right off the bat. Those simple buzzwords can increase conversions by over 300%!

Use this list of call to action example buzzwords and find a buzzword that works with your overall message. It will give you an extra boost when it comes to getting more clicks.

4. Create Urgency

Deadlines get us to act. Think about what it was like back in college when you had an essay due. How often did you leave it to the last minute? Urgency forced you to act.

This may seem obvious, but if your call to action has a deadline, like “sign up before the end of the month”, it can be the extra motivator to get your audience to take action. Much like an approaching completion date for an essay, customers sometimes need to have that little ticking clock constantly counting down in their minds.

Test your messaging to see what type of urgency works best, such as “get it before it’s gone,” etc. Give your audience that final push.

5. Keep it Simple

Simple is good. Your customers are there to act, not read a novel. The longer the word count of your call to action, the less likely your audience will click on it.

If you have a call to action button, the shorter the wording the better. You’d be surprised at how simple some of the most effective calls to action are.

Best practice? Five words or less.

But remember that even though your message should get to the point, don’t sacrifice creativity. You want to create a call to action that is unique to your brand. The more personalization you can bring to a call to action, the better off it will be.

6. Location

Much like in real estate, it’s all about location. Where audiences see your CTA can be just as important as what the CTA is, and the research backs it up.

For the longest time, people thought putting the CTA above the fold of your sales funnel was the best, but that might not be the case. Research from Kissmetrics shows that it depends on the complexity of the landing page of your funnel. If there’s not a lot of text, you should place your sign up button above the fold. If your funnel has more content, it might make more sense to place your call to action below the fold.

Also, keep your call to action on the right side of your sales funnel’s landing page. Why? It’s all about the Gutenberg Diagram and how people typically read from top to bottom, left to right.

What about mobile devices?

Try to keep your call to action near the top. If your audience is determined, they won’t mind scrolling a bit to your call to action. However, because they’re dealing with a smaller screen, you don’t want to place the call to action too far down.

7. Optimize on all Platforms

Chances are, your audience won’t only be looking at your sales funnel on a computer. So, you’ll need to make sure your call to action can be seen clearly on tablets and mobile devices. If anything, the call to action messaging should be even more focused, as users on phones are more likely to take action and complete the sales funnel.

Additional Call-to-Action Best Practices

As with any marketing funnel, sales funnel, or content strategy, it’s important that you are continually testing your wording to see what resonates better with your target audience.

Split testing allows you to try different calls to action and determine which yields a higher result. In order to split test, you’ll need to come up with various creative calls to action so when one doesn’t perform well you can replace it with another.

Lastly, don’t forget about your design. You need your call to action button to stand out from other graphics and text, so make sure it’s the biggest button readers can see. As for the color of your button, use a contrasting color from the background so it really stands out.

With these tips in mind, you’ll be well on your way towards higher conversion rates with your sales funnel.

How do you craft your call to action? What tips do you always use? Let us know in the comments below …

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