Don't Skip The CTA (Call-to-Action)

Have you ever been left hanging? It’s a confusing and discouraging feeling to say the least. Because when it comes to communication, we always want to know what comes next, or rather what action we, specifically, should take next.

And this absolutely applies to the world of marketing and advertising. No matter what kind of marketing materials you are curating, there must be a clear action step at the end for your customer to take. This is what we call a call-to-action (CTA). Your advertisements, blogs, and email marketing messages really won’t be doing any good if customers aren’t properly enticed to take that last, critical step in making a purchasing decision or key action step. 

While the idea of putting focus towards your CTA’s might seem pretty simple, it’s something marketers surprisingly overlook at times. Take inbound marketing, for example. The success of quality inbound marketing materials such as blogs, ebooks, and email marketing campaigns are all driven by individual call-to-actions. And these can take different forms. We outlined three key points below, to provide some guidance on how to develop a strong CTA, and why this step should, indeed, not be skipped over!

1. Your Call to Action Should Be Intentional and Specific

People respond best to clear instructions and low barriers to completing action. What exactly will they get by taking the next steps, and why exactly should they engage? Overall, keep your CTAs clear and to the point, prompting people to take only a single action (not a variety of different ones) per CTA.

Also, just because the language or instruction on your CTAs makes sense to you, doesn’t mean that it will make sense to your customers. So, when developing your CTAs, put yourself in your customer’s shoes, and refrain from using too much industry-specific language or jargon. Need some ideas of action steps customers can take? Here are some examples:

1. Subscribe to blog
2. Shop online
3. Make an appointment
4. Visit another webpage
5. Take a quiz
6. Download an e-book
7. Sign up for newsletter
8. Ask a question
9. Request information
10. Start a trial membership

2. Your CTA Should Reflect Your Branding

Your CTA’s should be a reflection of your business's branding. The look and sound of your CTA’s should blend in and be cohesive with the rest of your marketing materials, while also standing out enough for customers to know they should click on it or simply pay attention for instruction on next steps they should take.

• CTA Buttons: These are simple and effective and are often a solid image with a short amount of text.
  
  
• CTA Images: This is where you can let your creativity and branding shine! Create custom-sized graphic images that prompt your audience to take specific actions. 
  
  
• CTA Messaging: This can be done simply from copy, or communicated verbally in a video, for example. Always remember to end your email, video, and other longer-form marketing materials communicating what you would like your audience to do next. 

2. A Strong CTA Yields Strong Results

If your marketing isn’t generating results or conversions, it’s probably a good time to look at your call to action strategy and see what potential improvements might be made. Like we said, your CTAs might seem good to you, but they may not be the best for your customers.

When curated correctly, a CTA can serve as one of the most important elements in a buying decision. And there are many ways when using the right software and platforms, that you can track the specific amount of engagement and clicks your CTAs are getting. Not only this, but content marketing platforms like HubSpot allow you to track the specific people that click on your CTAs and remarket to them in a variety of ways.

Our team of inbound marketing professionals have extensive experience with content marketing software like HubSpot, as well as developing quality inbound marketing materials with CTA’s that attract and engage customers in their buying journey. If you’ve liked what you read, and would like to learn more expert advice in all things marketing-related, subscribe to the fuze32 blog today!