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Tips to Create an Effective Call To Action

In the realm of digital marketing, there’s a lot of terminologies that get thrown around, and often, it gets used in a context that can be hard for people new to the space to understand. But never fear! We are here to help you navigate the sometimes tricky waters of the internet marketing world to get you the right data to help your advertising efforts be more successful.

What do you want your subscribers to do, and why should they do it? In email marketing, that’s what your call-to-action should clearly and concisely communicate. Although a call-to-action is one of the most important factors driving conversion, many email marketers don’t give nearly enough attention to theirs. Here we discuss why you need to go beyond the generic “Click here,” and provide 10 tips for how to create effective calls to action.

What Is a Call-to-Action?

A call-to-action describes the part of the email message that asks readers to take an action that fulfills the goal of a promotional email. It should be persuasive and compel readers to perform a conversion, such as:

  • finalize a purchase
  • subscribe to your email list
  • click through to a landing page
  • sign up for your newsletter
  • Download your white paper.

Why is your call to action so important?

Why would you spend time optimizing a landing page to convert leads to customers if you were just going to stumble when it was time to ask for something in return for the value you provide?

The call to action is the climax of the page. It’s the focus of everything else – the one thing you want a user to do. (And yes, it should always be ONE thing.)

Your call to action is what defines whether or not your page converts. It’s that simple.

One of the key objectives of creating content and publishing it on your own or other websites is to get the consumer of that content – whether reading, watching or listening – to take some kind of action as a result.

After all, they have been attracted to your content, raised their hand, and showed interest. Thanks to your content marketing activities, you have a new prospect for your business. You now need some way to connect with them further so you can build a relationship with them. Otherwise, you risk losing your new prospect as quickly as you found them (or rather, they found you).

You do this via an explicit call to action, or CTA, telling your prospect exactly what you want them to do.

Tips to Create an Effective Call To Action

If the content is on another website, you would normally want them to click through and visit your own site. This could be your main site, but you could equally want to send them to a ‘squeeze domain’ for the express purpose of trying to capture their email address.

Or perhaps they are already on your site, consuming content on your blog or elsewhere. In this case, your goal would normally be to get them to opt-in to your list in some way. This could include offering a low-cost lead product, immediately upgrading that relationship from prospect to customer.

Anyone running an online business is familiar with the classic Call to Action (CTA). Often filled with active verbs enticing us to “Buy Now,” “Download Our Whitepaper,” or “Sign up for Our Newsletter,” CTAs are a critical part of any online marketing strategy.

However, as your site grows and you have more content to promote, it’s easy to abuse the call to action. We’ve all seen this turn ugly—the cluttered marketing sites with twenty different calls to action clamoring for your attention as soon as you hit the page. Multiple brightly colored buttons each begging you to “Click Here” aren’t doing the site or the business any favors. These sites are like pushy used car salesmen whose eagerness and enthusiasm comes off as desperate and spammy.

Conversely, a strategically-placed CTA will attract interest and yield a radically higher conversion rate, giving visitors just the right prompt at just the right moment. If a site with multiple calls to action is the pushy used car salesman, a site with a strategic CTA is the seasoned sales professional, who builds a relationship and rapport with the consumer before moving to close the deal.

Whatever your goals might be, by making the call to action in your content marketing as effective as possible, the better results you’ll achieve. This post looks at how to create your own highly effective call to action, together with examples from across the web you can use to model your own.

Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma

My name is Rohit Sharma. I have 8+ years of experience in digital marketing, Inbound Marketing & SEO, and lead generation. I have worked on digital marketing projects with several major brands. I work as a digital marketing Coach with Coaches, Consultants, Trainers, and B2B services providers to grow and scale their businesses. Book a Free discovery call with me

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