6 tips for an effective 'call to action'
**
Guest post by Tina Fotopoulou, an editor & SEO Copywriter at WebSEOAnalytics.com
Once you have carefully designed, developed and optimised your online presence and you have created an SEO-friendly website, your next goal is to use it to generate revenue and increase your sales. To achieve that, you need to develop an effective call to action.
What is a call to action?
A call to action is a simple way to interact directly with your online visitors and encourage them to take an immediate action after reading your website’s content or viewing your pages. Call to action copywriting is usually written as a declarative or imperative statement, such as 'Buy Now', 'Click Here', 'Check it out'. It targets on enticing your website visitors to react immediately and take actions.
How to display a call to action?
This depends on what your objective is. For example if you want to persuade your visitors to register, subscribe, vote, buy, bookmark or give you their feedback then the call to action can be displayed as a link pointing on a specific page of your website, as a banner linking to your social media channels, as a web form or button etc. The key factor for success is to make the process as easy as possible and allow your visitors to respond directly. Make sure you create a simple and clear message with compelling urgency to reply.
Here are some quick and easy tips to boost your sales via effective call to action techniques:
- Define your objectives
For a targeted and successful call to action, you first need to set your business goals. Ask yourself what do you want to achieve and what your primary target is? Once you define a clear objective per page, you will be able to create the appropriate call to action. - Place it strategically
To attract the visitors and make them notice your call to action while visiting your website, you need to place it on a strategic location for direct visibility. It should stand on its own, ideally on the top half of your web page so that users see it immediately. - Make it clear and simple
To make sure the visitors react and respond to your call to action, you need to make it clear, simple and achievable. Do not confuse them with many options and make them lose their attention. Explain clearly what you want them to do and don’t forget that each call to action should be distinctive. - Write persuasive calls to action
Use the imperative tense in your copy and try to communicate a sense of urgency to make your visitors react immediately. You can do this is by using words like 'call now', 'buy now' 'register' or 'subscribe' in phrases that will entice them to perform the action or by setting deadlines. Using a simple 'submit' or 'read more' will not bring the same sense of urgency or good deal to the readers as 'order until March 15th and get a free gift'. - Limit the number of calls to action per page
You can have more than one call to action in your website but there is no need to post them all in one single page. Add your primary importance call to action on your homepage and dispatch the other calls to action on your other website pages according to their content. - Emphasise on the design
Except of the call to action text and headline, you need to create a visual that will directly attract the visitor’s attention. Use big call to action buttons and graphic designs that will emphasise your message and make it contrast with the rest of the page.
Don’t forget to test different calls to action and compare their results. Experiment and see which works best and which effectively interact with your visitors.