Call to action (CTA) – turn prospects into customers

What is a CTA?

The desired action may be adding a product to the basket, subscribing to the newsletter, entering a discount code or simply entering the website.

Benefits of call to action:

• increase in conversion – recipients will more often perform actions to which they will be encouraged, which increases the sales potential of the store or website;
• lower advertising costs – on platforms based on the auction system (Google Ads, Facebook Ads), more effective campaigns reduce advertising costs, as they are more attractive and interesting for recipients;
• increase in positioning – higher CTR in organic results has a positive effect on gaining better visibility in the search engine.

In practice, CTA is often synonymous with phrases like “Don’t wait, buy now!” or “See more”. Although such slogans may seem like a marketing obsolete, they are worth using for one reason – they do not take up much space, because only one sentence, and the impact of call to action is still visible in the statistics. So we are dealing with a solution that can bring measurable results with little effort.

Of course, the above examples are the simplest pattern to be used in a place where the character limit is strictly limited, e.g. for meta title and meta description.

However, if we have more room for maneuver, as in the case of landing page content or website text, it is worth taking care of more sophisticated strategies, which we will discuss later in the article.

How to create an effective call to action?

There are several methods to increase the effectiveness of CTAs. One of them is creating time pressure:

• Positive: “Order the product within 3 hours and get it for free!”
• Negative: “Last hours of promotion – don’t miss out!”

This is a simple trick to additionally create the phenomenon of a lucrative transaction and the feeling that you have made a good choice.

Another strategy used just as often is to provide social proof:

• “Already 70% of Americans use product X. Join them!”
• “40% of people use this software and make profits. Will you join them?”

Another solution is the gratification of solutions that we anticipate anyway:

• “Pay with a card and get a $20 discount!”
• Buy Phone X and get a case for half the price!

This leads to an important conclusion:

There are no universal rules that will prove effective in every case, so the key again is – as in the case of all copywriting – an individual approach to the activities carried out.

It is worth mentioning that in more complex strategies, CTA is closely connected with the offer, creating the effect of a “good opportunity”, which can increase conversion results.

Regardless of the assumed plan, a call to action is an element that simply has to appear in the content. With a little effort, it can improve the effects, which is why it is undoubtedly a copywriter’s “cherry on the cake”.