While talking in front of a room of business owners recently, I used the term CTA. One guy – who, it turns out was a former Marine – asked what a “call to arms” had to do with business marketing.
CTA, of course, doesn't mean “call to arms,” but, instead, it's an abbreviation for “call to action.” The term describes the part of your sales letter, email, page, blog post, and other content that you create that helps make the sale. It’s the “call” you create for your audience to entice them to “take action.”
You may want your audience to take any number of actions, and they can be placed anyplace within your marketing content. Some examples of actions you may want your audience to take:
• Download a Whitepaper
• Download a Free eBook
• Sign up for a Webinar
• Get a Coupon
• Attend an Event
• Sign up for More Information
• Download a Checklist
• Buy Your Widget
You can place these CTAs wherever you like, and it’s usually better if you place them in multiple places. You might place a CTA at the end of your blog post, in multiple places on a sales page, at the end of your email, or even inside your white paper, eBook, or webinar.
CTAs Everywhere
You may have a CTA to sign up for the webinar, but inside the webinar, you may have a sign up for your six-week course. Inside your six-week course, you may have a CTA for your one-on-one coaching program. As you can see, the CTA can continue indefinitely if you have a better product to promote.
One CTA Per Item
The best thing to do is to only one have CTA per item. However, if needed you may include choices for the CTA as well. You may also offer upsells and down sells within your CTA strategy. Your call to action should be direct, to the point, apparent at first glance, and apropos to the audience to be of any good.
Effective CTAs
The trick with calls to action is that you need to be very clear, eye-catching, and aligned with your audience’s buying stage. If you try to get some of your audience to take a step that’s too far advanced for where they are in their decision-making process, you’ll have a poor conversion rate. But if you know your audience well, you’ll know exactly where and when to place your CTAs so that you can get good results.
Calls to action (CTAs) are more than a button that says, “buy now.” An effective call to action will compel your audience to act on your call to do something. That something isn’t always about buying. Sometimes it’s about getting them on your list, other times it’s about ensuring they’re watching your social media, coming to your live events, and more. Whatever the case, a call to action is a way to get your audience to take the next step toward becoming a customer.
CTA de Jour
If you found this CTA primer, and would like more helpful marketing advice so you can use the web more profitably to grow you your business, request access to my (often daily) online marketing tips now!