What Is A Call To Action?

In online marketing, you’ll improve your ROI if you’re in the habit of using a call to action. A call to action literally tells a reader what to do and is usually located at the end of a post, article or page. You’re telling readers to do this thing. Generally, the behavior helps the visitor, but it also moves them further down your conversion path. While your bottom line might be to make sales, a call to action may encourage other behavior as the following examples show:

  • Buy now
  • Contact us
  • Call for more information
  • Download this eBook
  • Subscribe to our blog

A call to action is all about getting something done — and getting it done immediately. This is why you’ll  so frequently run across CTAs using the word “now.”

Readers are more likely to perform an activity when you use strong phrases with verbs. If you’ve invested in search engine advertising, your landing pages should depict clear CTAs to get the most out of your campaign. You can make your call to action stand out from the rest of the content on the page by increasing size, making it a button or changing the font style.

A CTA isn’t just something you can use on your website, either. If you’re posting a link to your newest product or blog post from Facebook, using the word “Click here to read” encourages traffic to your website.

Your CTA also helps you measure success of your campaigns because you can see just how many people did buy, click or download after they reached your landing page. What are you waiting for? Start using calls to action now!

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About the Author

Though his chief ambition is to one day control the entire Internet, Jim busies himself in the meantime running our little web development and marketing agency. He's a certified super nerd who ranks coding in old, outdated languages and watching Star Trek reruns just a bit too high on his list of fun things to do. Outside of work, Jim enjoys Hockey (Tampa Bay Lighning, to be specific), more genres of music than most people realize exist, riding his Harley (he calls it "two wheel therapy") and exploring the world through travel.