What Is A Call To Action?

What Is A Call To Action & How Do I Add One?

Every successful web page requires a clear call to action (CTA). Unfortunately, website owners often fail to fully understand what a CTA is and how to measure its success (or failure). Put briefly, a call to action is an on-page element with which you want a site visitor to engage. This can be anything from a feedback form, filling in a questionnaire, signup for a newsletter or viewing a specific product or service.

A call to action allows you to:

• Measure your website success rate
• Direct your visitor to where you think they should go
• Help focus your website content
• Increase sales

Below are outlined several recommended techniques a website owner should use to increase visitor participation, which should lead to a higher conversion rate; a conversion being a sale, lead or greater visibility of a specific product or service.

1. Offer Something In Return

Sometimes you have to offer an incentive to encourage users to participate. This may be a gift, access to a report or inclusion in a mailing list. They give you their valuable time or details; what are you giving them in return?

2. Define Your Intentions

Before a visitor commits to your call to action, they have to see the direct benefit. Before responding to your request, they must understand what they will gain from following your instructions and what risks they are taking.

3. Have A Small Number Of Distinct Actions

Deciding on the number of calls to action is just as important as the action itself. Too many, and you will leave the visitors confused as to what you want them to do. Too few, and you risk alienating a specific group of your visitors. Limiting the number of choices a visitor has to make reduces the amount of mental effort required of them. It would be best to effectively guide the visitor through your site one step at a time.

4. Use The Correct Language

A call to action should inform a visitor of precisely what you expect them to do. Where possible, you should include terms such as call, buy, register, subscribe, donate, etc. All of these encourage a visitor to take action. To create a sense of urgency and push the visitor into immediate action, you should use additional phrases alongside the action words, such as:

• For a short time only
• Order now and receive a free report
• Offer expires 1st December

5. Repeat The Call To Action

A call to action should not be limited to the home page. Every page on your site should have a call to action of some variety. If a visitor leaves your site without responding to any call to action, it should be viewed as a failed visit.

6. Measure The Success Of The Call To Action

Knowing when a call to action has the desired effect is crucial to the evolution of a website. You need clear visibility on which actions are engaging with visitors (allowing you to improve on them) and which aren’t (in which case you may want to try something new).

Advanced tracking tools, such as Google Analytics, allow website owners to set triggers on specific user events, which will record when a visitor performs an action.

To find out more about how we can help you, please fill out the contact form underneath (that was a call to action…)