Your Ultimate Marketing Glossary

What is a Call to Action (CTA)?

Picture yourself looking at an item on a website. Suddenly, you see a popup suggesting "Add to cart". You immediately feel the need to put it in your cart. As soon as you hit that popup, the item is added to your cart. This is called A Call To Action (CTA). 

They appear as messages, banners, hyperlinks, or buttons on the landing pages of the websites. Their purpose is to guide a user to take an action based on their journey on a webpage. So with their help, users can easily understand what they need to do next. Whether they want to learn more about a product, or find out its price, add it to their carts in order to purchase them, or sign up on a website, etc. Moreover, they also appear as links within emails. CTAs can successfully convert casual visitors on a site into buyers. Thus helping the businesses gain new customers. 

Why Should You Care About Calls to Action?

For the success of digital marketing, CTAs are very important because they achieve the following: 

1. Guide User Behavior: They provide clear instructions that guide the users as to how they can take the next step. So with their help, users can easily explore more content without confusion. They increase users' engagement with  content or products in an effective way. 
2. Increase Conversion Rates: Since they guide the users towards taking actions, such as signing up for a newsletter, or buying an item, they help businesses increase their chances of sales by turning visitors into buyers.
3. Enhance the User Experience: When CTAs are well designed and accurately placed, they can help the user by guiding them which step they should take next. It could be either learning more about the product, or how to complete the purchase.
4. Drive Revenue and Growth: Since they provide clear guidance towards taking specific actions, they encourage users to take high value actions, such as making a purchase, requesting for a product demo, or signing up. This way, they impact sales in a huge way which helps businesses earn profits. They also help businesses to expand and grow to new users by assisting them at every step, that makes them familiar with the site. 

For example, companies like Relevic use customized CTAs that meet the needs of the user. They align the users’ needs with the objectives of the company. This way CTAs provide benefits both to the user and the company.

CTA in Marketing

We know CTAs are important for marketing because they guide users towards taking specific actions. Users are encouraged to take that action because it helps the businesses achieve their objectives. For example, if a company wants to increase its sales, their CTA will guide the users towards completing the purchase. 

CTAs can help businesses in the following way:

• Know about your customers by encouraging them to take actions towards filling forms and sharing their information. This provides leads to the businesses.
• Get more sales by encouraging the users to take direct actions like “Buy Now” or “Order Today.”
• To expand and grow, try to encourage the users to take actions such as signing up, downloading the app, or sharing it with others. This increases the engagement for the businesses. 
• Strengthen the relationship with the existing customers by encouraging them to submit their feedback.

In this day and age, users' attention span is short. So in order to keep them interested, CTAs should immediately capture their attention. They can either make or break businesses as they have the power to influence users. They can easily convert visitors into new customers.

Types of CTAs

CTAs can be customised depending on the needs if the marketing:

1. Lead Generation CTAs:  They encourage visitors to fill forms and share their contact information. In exchange, they are offered valuable services. For example, offers like  “Download Free eBook” or “Sign Up for Updates.” gives users a sense of getting something valuable in return.
2. Sales CTAs: They are designed to prompt the customers to take action for completing purchase. They use phrases like “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” to close the deal.
3. Social Sharing CTAs: These ask the users to share the content with others. For example, A “Share This Post.” CTA encourages users to take action towards sharing it with others.
4. Event Promotion CTAs: To promote an event and to encourage people to attend it, a CTA like “Register for the Webinar.” is used to draw people's attention. 
5. Learn More CTAs: These guide the users to explore more about the content on a website. The “Explore More” or “See How It Works.” CTA encourages users to take action to discover more.
6. Customer Retention CTAs: This is used to engage with existing customers. For example, a CTA like “Renew Subscription” or “Try Our New Feature.” draws the attention of a user on an app to take action. 

Examples of CTAs That Work Well for Users

CTAs that are clear, compelling, and are in alignment with the user's intent have proven to be most effective and beneficial. Some examples are as follows:

• Amazon: The “Add to Cart” feature on Amazon is simple, yet direct. It instantly encourages the customers to proceed with the purchase. 
• Netflix: The “Watch Now” feature on Netflix gives an instant gratification to the users. It serves as a reminder to the valuable services offered by the app.
• HubSpot: The “Get Your Free Marketing Report” CTA gives HubSpot users a sense of getting something valuable for free. This encourages them to continue using HubSpot.
• Slack: The “Try for Free” on Slack offers users a risk-free trial to reduce the entry barriers.

These CTAs are most effective because not only are they action oriented, or provide value, but they also align with the goals and objectives of the brands.

Where to Include CTAs

They should be strategically placed in areas where they naturally align with the behaviour of users. For instance: 

1. Landing Pages: If they are placed correctly on a landing page, then they can encourage a user to take an action. This can help businesses turn visitors into customers.
2. Blog Posts: In a blog post, they should either be placed at the end of post or within the content. Their purpose should be to guide the readers towards a related action. For example, subscribing to newsletters or downloading resources.
3. Email Campaigns: CTAs launched through email campaigns encourage the recipients to engage with the content within the email. For example, they encourage the users to click on links for promotions, or to check content updates, or to find out about new product launches.
4. Product Pages: A CTA on a product page can direct the users to buy the item,or it can show them how to discover more of its features.
5. Pop-ups and Slide-ins: A popup CTA can immediately capture the attention of a user. Therefore, it should offer something valuable such as access to exclusive content or discounts. 
6. Social Media Posts: A CTA on a social media post should be used to drive engagement. It must encourage the users to comment, clicking through to a website, or to share the post with others.

Make sure to place the CTAs where they can be clearly visible. So, their placement should be used to immediately capture users' attention. They must not disrupt the browsing experience. An ill-placed CTA can be really confusing or annoying. 

Best Practices for Creating Effective CTAs

In order to get results from CTAs, follow the following practices that have proven to be effective:

1. Use Action-Oriented Language: Use clear words that suggest an action. For example, "Download.", "Buy Now.", "Read More.”, or "Subscribe". These clearly show the users which steps they should take next. 
2. Create a Sense of Urgency: CTAs that use phrases like "Act Now," "Limited Time Offer," or "Only few items left" create a sense of urgency and encourages users to take immediate actions. 
3. Ensure Visibility and Contrast: The colour of CTAs should not merge with the rest of the webpage. They must stand out in order to grab attention. The use of contrasting colours while designing them can be helpful.
4. Tailor CTAs to the Buyer’s Journey: Use CTAs on a site where users are in the process of decision-making. For example:
   
   • In the awareness stage: Introduce the "Learn More" or "Explore Options" through CTA to help them find more about the content.
   • In the consideration stage: Introduce the "View Pricing" or "Download Guide" CTA to help them know what more they can do to find out about a product.
   • In their final decision stage: Show them the "Buy Now" or "Sign Up for Free" symbol through CTA to encourage them to take the action.
5. Leverage Social Proof: Put wordings like "Join 10,000+ Subscribers" or "Try What 1 Million Users Trust" on CTAs to get the attention of new users and to encourage them to join. By showing them how many others have done so, you can build credibility and trust.
6. Test and Optimize: Regularly test the format, size, colour, and wordings of your CTA to see which ones are perfect for your target audience. 
7. Adapt for Mobile: For smaller mobile screens, CTA buttons should be large enough to appear clickable. Also, it best to keep them to a minimum as too many tags and links can clutter the small space.