The Call to Action is where you tell them what to do. If you want them to click, tell them!

A call to action (CTA) a piece of content intended to induce a viewer, reader, or listener to perform a specific act, typically taking the form of an instruction or directive.

It’s objective is to get a direct response from the audience reading it and is used in marketing to get your buyers to respond. We see it on sales pages, social media and in emails when they ask us to Click Here or Buy Now, and it’s part of the “make it easy for them strategy” because it lets them know where to get what you’re offering.

These buttons increase conversions, but what are conversions?

If you are list building and have an optin for them to give you their email address, getting that address is a conversion. If you are selling something and they buy, that is a conversion. It’s the measurable action taken that we track to see how well our social media efforts or ads are performing.

How does it fit in your message?

When we post on social media, write blog posts or create sales page we want a conversion on, we are asking for something and giving something in return, but vague calls will not only lose your readers, but may also confuse them because they don’t know what to do.

For example, if we had a social media post talking about our great lead magnet and we listed the benefits and got our readers all fired up to get it, but don’t include a clear call to action – where do you think they’ll go? Somewhere else. It’s your duty to provide them clear steps on how to get where they want to be.

The best calls are enticing and make our readers want to click because they can’t wait to get what we are offering but generic ones can be responsible for low conversion rates and no action at all, so it’s important to let them know that if they click, they’re going to get something great!

If you’re a weight loss coach and want them to give you their email address for some low fat recipes, include that message in your call to action with “Get 5 Free Low Fat Recipes and Jump Start Your Weight Loss” that brings your message closer to them. If you were a coach and wanted someone to get on a call with you, try something like “Click here to talk about your goals” or “Get 15 Free Minutes with Me!”

How to increase the effectiveness of your CTA

I visit a lot of blogs, websites and social media profiles and when I see that someone has something that I want, I immediately look for the call to action because once I make the decision that I want it, I WANT IT NOW! When you are finally making an offer to an audience that you’ve nurtured and warmed up, it’s time to go for the conversion. It’s time to build the list or ask for the sale, so what do you do?

You ask for it and give them the path to receive it.

When writing a blog post for list building, you start with a headline that stops their scroll (questions that you know they will say yes to are great) and you hit them with the benefits or the outcomes. They read it, decide that they want it and look for the button. Make it so good they won’t be able to stop themselves from clicking it and instead of using words like “Submit” or “Enter” jazz your call to action or button up by saying “Get it now!” or “Grab yours today!” or maybe even “Join now for free” so the message is included in the action.

When you have a newsletter sign up on your site, instead of “subscribe” try “Get me in your inbox, you won’t regret it” or “Get my secrets” and grab their attention.

Take a look at your calls to action. Would they entice you to click? If not, get creative and get attention. It can only increase those conversions.