Call To Action Best Practices: Offers, Verbiage, Design, Locations, and More

Every advertisement, email, or distributed piece of content that has been distributed by marketers should include a call to action (CTA). A prospect or customer that’s being informed wants… needs to be told what the next action(s) should be to either continue their research or to connect with your business. I’m stunned when we are hired by a client who we find has incredible content but when we navigate to the pages that attract the most visits… the page lacks any calls-to-action.

What is a Call-To-Action?

A call to action (CTA) is a button, link, or statement that prompts a user to take a specific action, such as making a purchase, downloading a resource, or signing up for a newsletter. The purpose of a CTA is to convert website visitors into customers, leads, or subscribers.

ABC is the cry of sales coaches… Always be Closing. Your marketing content is no different. While you can design and distribute content that inspires, educates, engages, and informs your potential buyers or current clients… you should never leave their next action(s) to chance. When you tell your audience what to do next, they’ll do it!

Do’s and Don’ts for a Successful Call To Action

The folks at Litmus have put together this infographic on the Do’s and Don’ts for a Successful Call To Action (CTA). It’s not just applicable to email marketing, though. Great CTAs are hard to find – but are absolutely needed!

When using email to communicate with your readers, there are many ways to engage and inspire. Imagery, text, offers, charts, and links help differentiate your campaigns and pique subscribers’ interest, but getting them to open your email is only half the battle. The next step is to inspire action through a compelling and powerful call to action (CTA). When it comes time to plan your next campaign, follow these tips to incorporate action-inspiring CTAs into your emails the right way (and avoid the wrong way).

The Offer They Can’t Refuse

For a call-to-action to be effective, it should have the following elements:

• Clarity – The language used in the CTA should be clear and concise, and communicate the action that the user is expected to take.
• Urgency – Creating a sense of urgency can encourage users to take action immediately. Phrases such as Act now or Limited time only can help convey a sense of urgency.
• Visibility – The CTA should be prominently displayed and easy to find. It’s a good idea to place it above the fold, or in other words, within the user’s immediate view without having to scroll down.
• Relevance – The CTA should be relevant to the user’s interests and goals. For example, if a user is reading a blog post about a specific topic, a CTA related to that topic would be more effective.
• Specificity – The action that the user is expected to take should be specific. For example, instead of saying click here, a CTA that says Download our free guide is more specific and therefore more effective.
• Trust – The CTA should build trust with the user by clearly communicating the benefits of taking the desired action. For example, a CTA that says Sign up for our newsletter and receive exclusive discounts is more likely to be effective than one that simply says Sign up.

A really effective CTA will balance your goals alongside the needs of your audience. Because your ultimate goal is to persuade the reader to click, your CTA should compel your audience to do something – make a purchase, register for a webinar, make an appointment, call a phone number, subscribe to an email, visit a website – while simultaneously communicating value.

How To Design A Call To Action The Right Way

This infographic is focused on email, but the tips here are absolutely relative to designing an effective CTA for any marketing initiative. There are many ways to engage and inspire – imagery, text, offers, charts, links, and even QR codes – that differentiate your campaigns and pique your targets’ interest. When it comes time to plan your next campaign, follow these tips to incorporate action-inspiring CTAs the right way.

1. Format – CTAs can be text- or image-based and buttons often perform better than text links. Whichever you choose, be sure there is a relevant download, landing page, form, or other destination behind the click. Buttons can be more than a rectangle containing text, they can also be other shapes, images, or anything that is obviously clickable.
2. Language – To encourage conversions, use language that is simple and straightforward. Tell your audience exactly why they should click, and what they will get after they do so. Use strong, action-oriented verbs and add a sense of urgency. CTAs should be direct and answer What? Why? and When? in seconds.
3. Content – The content of your message should be engaging and encourage the reader to act. The body of your message should support the CTA. Craft design elements to help lead the reader’s eye toward your CTA.
4. Size – Readers typically scan rather than read each word, so making your CTA prominent is imperative. Make sure the button is big enough to stand out without being overpowering. Text size is also vital; choose a font that is legible and properly suited to the size and color of the button itself.
5. Color – Use color to draw attention to your CTA by designing it in a contrasting color to the background. Also, consider how well the color fits in with your color palette and the theme of your content.
6. Placement – The most effective location for a CTA button is often above the fold or the part of the page that is visible before the user is required to scroll. Placing the CTA higher in your design gives you the opportunity to draw a response from readers who are too busy to scroll to the bottom or thoroughly read your content.
7. Repetition – Repeating the CTA gives the suggestion more weight. Offer multiple opportunities for the reader to click through in your message by strategically scattering clickable elements throughout the content. Make sure that logos, images, headlines, and products link to appropriate landing pages to maximize conversion rates.
8. White space – Call more attention to your CTA by balancing the size of the button with an appropriate amount of negative space surrounding it. Place other images or text further away from the CTA to give it much-deserved individual attention.
9. Icons and Images – Incorporating visual cues in your CTAs can help increase conversion rates. For example, a shopping cart icon added to an Add To Cart button is both helpful and recognizable. Adding icons to both text links and buttons can maximize the user experience and encourage clicks.
10. Bulletproof buttons – While image-based buttons may command higher click rates, image blocking (a default setting on many email clients) may mean your beautifully designed button is invisible to the user. Combat image blocking and preserve your CTA by using a bulletproof button technique: combine HTML text, background colors, and background images to create a button that will be visible even when images are disabled. When in doubt, always include alt text as a backup precaution.

TIP: If you’re testing multiple CTAs or repeated CTAs in the body of an email or landing page, I’d highly recommend utilizing campaign UTM querystrings to view each CTAs performance within analytics.

Campaign URL Builder

Here’s code with an example of a button using HTML and inline styles (CSS):

<a href="https://www.litmus.com/resources/guide-to-ctas/" style="background-color: #0000FF; color: #FFF; padding: 10px 20px; margin: 0 0 15px; border-radius: 5px; text-decoration: none;">
  <i class="fa fa-download" style="margin-right: 10px;"></i> Download The Litmus Guide To Calls-To-Action in Email
</a>

And here’s the output:

Secondary CTAs

Don’t hesitate to offer secondary CTAs as well. As an example, you may want someone to schedule a sales meeting as a first CTA but that may be a bit too aggressive for your prospect. A secondary CTA may be to Schedule a Demo or Register for a Webinar where it’s not viewed as a pushy sale. You can also design secondary CTAs so that they compliment the primary CTA design but visually do not appear as prominent.

Here’s the full infographic, which also includes the wrong way to design and include CTAs: