06
Jun
2008
Writing a great call to action
What's a call to action? Do I even need one?
A call to action (CTA) is a proposition that demands action from a site visitor, so it's normally also associated with a hyperlink. A call to action is a demanding statement that provokes passing traffic to either become a customer or a marketable prospect. And damn right you need one.
We have just completed and launched a website for a new business, Gloves On, and it has great examples of calls to action on its front page. you can see them at www.gloveson.com.au. We explained to Linda and Nigel about CTAs, and how important they were, and drew up a first draft. Angus the copywriter did a good job of making them much better.
What was really great though was Linda and Nigel learnt about and really understood the concept and their own product. They came back with a third version of the calls to action which were the best of all. This is the version you see in the current website.
It got me thinking about what it takes to write a great call to action. Here are some of my notes
Segment your audience
If you are talking to different groups of customers, then the quicker you can differentiate these groups so that you can talk directly and uniquely to each one the more compelling your sales pitch and your conversion steps can be. Its hard to talk to a mixed group of people with differing needs and have all those needs met.
In Gloves On the calls to action clearly differentiate the 3 key audiences – trainers, women and corporate HR. They are clearly identified in the large red text.
Identify a customer's needs
You will hear this all the time as a website owner, “Its's not about you, it's about me!”. You have to make sure that your message addresses your visitor's needs – not your own. Do your research. The better you know your customer the better your website can work towards helping them.
In Gloves On the middle sized grey text reflects the audiences need, and hopefully forms a connection with them.
Suggest a solution – And use a verb!
Having identified a need you have to suggest a solution to that need that provokes an action. Make this an attractive statement which elicits an immediate and hopefully passionate response. You need a verb here, but please don't make it “click here”! Think of something a bit more engaging please!
Ideally this statement will be a hyperlink which will lead to further content or an opportunity to enrol. If it is a text hyperlink make sure that it looks like a hyperlink,. If it is a graphical button then make sure that it looks like a button. People need to know that they can click on it.
For Gloves On the enrolling statements were “Talk to us!”,”Enroll now!” and “Find out more!”
Deliver on the suggestion with follow up content or opportunities to enrol / purchase
You have captured someone's eye with a catchy sound-bite. But you will need more to guarantee conversion. The enemy of conversion is FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt). Reinforce your message with additional content that addresses these issues. The reader has expressed an interest and thus given you permission to tell them more. Do it now and do it well.
I think that Gloves On need to do a bit more work on this step, but it is still early days for both their business and their website. They will work it out.
Support the text with images
The Gloves On website is a great example of this. The images associated with each call to action reinforce the text and help readers quickly work out exactly which call is talking to them. Which leads to...
And communicate quickly!
Great calls to action will always be crystal clear and immediate. Readers don't want to take 5 minutes to work out what you are saying and whether they are interested in it. Use the text and use the images to get your proposal across clearly in as short a time as possible. Some visitors will be speed browsing and will just keep going if you don't grab them immediately.
Why its worth it
The whole point of your website is to create customers or marketable prospects. This is a pure numbers game – no. of conversions = no. of visitors x conversion rate (%). Creating traffic is often expensive and time consuming, so wasting that traffic by not working on an effective conversion method is just plain stupid.
Investing time and money into your calls to action, and your general marketing message is nearly always a good idea, and nearly always a very solid investment in your business. Copywriters, web designers and marketing experts can often cost a lot of money, but the ads and calls to action that they create can grow your business significantly and return a significant return on investment.
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