What is a Call to Action (CTA)?
A call to action is a prompt that provides the audience with an opportunity to give an immediate response to a statement or a question or to take immediate action on an option. This action drives the purpose of any campaign or marketing strategy with the intention that marketers will receive a response from their target audience. When it comes to online engagement, call to actions (CTAs) are very common practices for online marketers. Incorporating CTAs through online campaigns such as email and websites provides an instantaneous method of engagement and response that other mediums cannot achieve.
Why Use a Call to Action (CTA)?
A clearly crafted CTA can provide purpose to the content or campaign created for the target audience. It’s important that marketers don’t assume that their target audience will understand their campaign’s position or objective. If the final objective is to push a product, have readers subscribe to a newsletter, or take any other specified action, marketers should make a clear and simple call to action indicating what they’d like their audience to do with the information that they present. A successful CTA campaign can also provide marketers with essential feedback and the ability to track the results of the campaign.
How to Craft a Successful Call to Action (CTA)
There are many ways to create and present a call to action for a specified audience. Below are common tips used to create a successful CTA campaign.
Simple Text: A CTA needs to be concise and designed to encourage the audience to engage with the action. Simplify the desired action to a few words that can effectively communicate what the audience needs to do. If the CTA is lengthy it may confuse and ultimately discourage the reader from engaging with the campaign altogether. In addition, including prompt words such as “now,” “buy,” or “sign up” will reflect the nature of urgency for the audience’s response.
Bold Design: Once the CTA has been condensed to be an effective prompt, it’s just as important to consider how the visual presentation will look to the target audience. To encourage engagement from the audience, it’s preferable to create a CTA button to be bold in its design. The objective is to effectively capture the attention of the target audience and with the use of bold colors and a simple font, an effective CTA button can be constructed.
Button Visibility: The placement of the button is important to consider when presenting a CTA. Whether the CTA button is featured in an email campaign or a webpage, it’s important to take into consideration how the audience will engage with the positioning and interface. Marketers can optimize their campaign by choosing the position of the button to be central to the webpage as it can increase the chances of the audience’s overall interaction with the prompt. For emails campaigns, it’s important to have the CTA be mentioned within the subject line so that the audience can anticipate what the email will entail.
