What is a call to action?
Your call to action tells visitors what to do, where to click, and what to buy. It points the way to the checkout and turns a visitor into a customer as quickly as possible.
The most obvious example of a call to action is the “Buy now” or “Shop Now” button on the front page of your webshop. There is no definitive answer to the question of which button, phrase, style, or size works best. Don’t be afraid to try new CTAs on your site; be aware of which ones work best. Your goal is to provide customers with relevant and compelling offers.
For example, if you want to target a cold audience for your women’s shoe campaign on Instagram, a “shop now” CTA makes more sense than a “buy now” CTA. It gives the viewer the freedom to explore your collection instead of feeling compelled to buy right away.
Market research shows that people need to know you, your reputation, and your product before they are ready to buy. So, if your goal is to create an efficient sales machine that generates the most revenue for the least cost, strategic CTAs are critical to success.
How to write a call to action
While this call to action can be tested, optimized, and modified over many years, a basic knowledge of persuasive call-to-action techniques is required. It’s more strategic than slapping a buy-now button anywhere on your website.
Consider the funnel stage
Funnel stages refer to the customer’s thought processes on their path to purchase. It represents a marketing strategy used to convert potential customers into paying customers. The aim is to map the path to conversion and automate the sale. Since you don’t have 24/7 salespeople on every marketing tool, CTAs call for action.
Broadly speaking, the drum consists of three parts:
- Top of the funnel (ToFu): awareness stage where people learn about your product
- Middle of the funnel (MoFu): interest and decision stage where people are looking for solutions
- Bottom of the funnel (BoFu): action stage where people are ready to buy
Your offer varies depending on what stage of the funnel they’re at. First-time blog post readers, for example, will respond differently to a Buy Now CTA than an engaged email subscriber or loyal customer.
Jewelry retailer Pura Vida Bracelets perfects the funnel using a series of calls to action. After you land on the site, a timed pop-up shows an offer for a 20% discount in exchange for your name, email address, and phone number. It’s low commitment and engaging for first-time buyers—who doesn’t want 20% off these fabulous products?
After completing the form in the pop-up, Pura Vida sends a confirmation email and SMS with the discount code. The SMS message uses a text-based CTA to click the link and use the coupon. The email uses the call to action “Treat yourself” to encourage clicks.
People are more warmed up here in the decision stage. They are familiar with your brand and its offerings, so a more aggressive call to action is acceptable.
Pura Vida makes it easy to add products to your cart. You can read about an item on the product page and add it to your shopping cart from there or directly from the category page using an Add to Cart CTA.
After choosing your desired product(s), you can check out in your shopping cart by clicking the Checkout CTA.
These targeted CTAs engage visitors with the right call to action based on their intent and where they are in your funnel. Consider engaging your viewers based on their behaviors and mindset when creating a CTA. It can help convey your message and encourage people to act on your offers.
Make early offers low risk
It should be easy for potential customers to engage with your business. People are more likely to click on a button that will not cost them anything or rope them into anything. And you can lead them to a landing page, giving you another chance to make a sale.
By offering something of high value (like a free-with-purchase item or a discount) in return for something of relatively low value or effort (like a social follow or email signup), you give your customers the incentive to engage. Who doesn’t want something free just for following an Instagram page or a 15% discount for signing up for a newsletter?
A great example of a low-risk CTA is Colourpop’s offer of a 15% discount in return for an email address. This is a no-risk offer to the customer—they don’t even have to commit to anything, give out their email list for a good discount.
Use urgency to increase conversions
When shoppers feel an opportunity is limited, they are more inclined to purchase. It creates a sense of urgency and triggers FOMO in all of us. A recent CXL study showed that adding a sense of urgency increased one online seller’s conversion rates by 332%.
It’s no wonder you always see it in retail store displays, like end-of-season sales that run for a week or products only available seasonally. The same can be applied to your eCommerce store.
For instance, if you highlight a stock level or include wording like “Buy now—only on sale until midnight,” you’re building on that sense of urgency.
Notice how Pura Vida uses urgency in the example below. The retailer has the countdown message at the top of the checkout page, “Hurry! Your order is reserved for 9:31 minutes!” The brand will only hold your order for 10 minutes, max.
Test different colors
While there’s no definitive button color that converts best, it’s essential to make sure you’re using a color that resonates with your visitors—and reflects your brand. The way to figure that out is by using A/B testing. Create a few versions of the same ad using different colors and see which ad generates a higher click-through rate.
Here are a few tips to consider when determining which color to use for your CTA:
- Use white space around your CTA to make it clear where to click
- Please select a color different enough from the background so it stands out
- Don’t make it too crazy with colors and animation—simplicity is your friend
Use simple buttons and copy
It takes 50 milliseconds for a visitor to form an opinion about your website or ads, so you must make it eye-catching and straightforward. One of the ways you can do this is by using buttons to direct visitors’ attention to the action you want them to take.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
While most Shopify themes already include this feature, make sure your CTA appears as a button, not just text. Even if a small border surrounds it, it’s better than having just a text link.
Tip: You can cater your button copy to the market you’re selling. If you’re selling something like coffee, try changing the copy on your buy button to Brew It and see if that helps conversions!
Use captivating hero images
Hero images—the main featured images on a website—can be used to highlight a product or collection. In other words, they can be a massive call to action. Be sure to link your hero image to a product or collection to get visitors to check out faster.
Gamestop does a great job of featuring new games on its homepage. It uses excellent images that make you want to learn more about the game, and if you click on the images, it takes you to a page that lets you buy it. Simple and easy and sure to turn into sales.
Keep it “above the fold.”
The phrase “above the fold” comes from the newspaper industry, as the most important stories appear on the top half of a paper’s front page—the half you see when it’s on the newsstand or in a box. Below the “fold” of a storefront in the website area, you can’t see it until scrolling down. Any content above the fold is what visitors immediately see upon entering your online store.
If you can grab a visitor’s attention above the fold, they’ll continue to click and navigate through your store.
Dr. Squatch puts all the information you need well above the fold here. The copy is simple and prominent, and its hero picture perfectly features its products. It has a call-to-action button in a prominent position, as well as all the menu options at the top.
some examples of effective calls to action
Let’s look at businesses that use effective CTAs across social platforms, on their websites, and in their inbox. The following list is broken down by channel:
Facebook and Instagram
hideAWAY
hideAWAY’s homepage pop-up is nothing less than catchy. It uses emojis consistently throughout the copy and invites visitors to engage with Ashy, an international fitness coach, to motivate people to sign up for its Messenger and SMS marketing list.
The button is practical for two reasons. One, the Messenger icon informs a subscriber that the conversation will open up in Messenger, and two, using words like “my” and “me” instead of “your” and “you” has shown to increase conversions by up to 90%.
Ladystrategist
Canva template creator Ladystrategist promotes a mini-webinar to grab the attention of potential customers in its Facebook ad. There’s a short video clip of ways to increase the optimization of social media marketing templates, which details the value proposition for customers. Ladystrategist then uses this content to promote an 80%-off sale on its product.
Action words like “design,” “say,” and “spend” are used in the CTA copy. This urges potential customers to take advantage of this opportunity to make their lives easier by simply clicking the “Learn more” CTA button.
Sephora
Sephora uses Instagram Stories to create a sense of urgency. Here, it’s tickling our sense of FOMO by using the action phrase “Don’t miss out,” Because it’s a Story, viewers only have 24 hours to click this link before it disappears.
A limited-time offer creates an even greater sense of urgency, even though we don’t know the offer yet. This also encourages followers to check Sephora’s IG page every day, just in case there’s another offer posted on Stories.
Sephora has kept this ad simple. It’s only a few words on a yellow background, with a prominently displayed CTA button in white. But the mystery will undoubtedly result in lead generation and clicks to the website.
5 Napkin Burger
5 Napkin Burger is a full-service burger restaurant in New York City. The company wanted to attract new local customers and generate a database for future marketing efforts, so it ran click-to-Messenger ads with a Send Message CTA button through which potential diners could redeem a two-for-one burger special. Now that’s a juicy deal!
Walmart
Walmart ran a Facebook ad campaign to promote its sustainability leadership during Climate Week 2020. It used a Facebook carousel ad to showcase a series of videos promoting its work. If you wanted to read more, you could click on a Learn More CTA that would send you to a landing page.
Website
FashionNova
This offer window immediately pops up upon visiting Fashion Nova’s website. It captures the attention of website visitors and is a significant first step to creating a successful sales funnel.
An incredible deal can do several things. First, it can prompt a visitor to buy something from Fashion Nova’s landing page when, maybe, they were initially only curiously browsing. Or, it can cause a customer to buy more than they’d intended to use a good deal best.
This pop-up window is simple but bold. It uses gold to make visitors mentally link it to something valuable, and it’s made to look like a scratch-off lottery ticket. This makes customers think of themselves as winners and lucky to visit this page.
Zanerobe
Men’s fashion brand Zanerobe gathers website leads through push notifications, which have a 30% CTR and can earn a return on investment of up to 2,200%. Viewers can click “I’m in!” to subscribe to the push notifications and get access to news and deals. When browsing the store, a small pop-up shows at the top of your screen with the above message.
Pura Vida
Some 82% of people don’t like website pop-ups. They appear everywhere online and frequently as soon as someone lands on a website. Pura Vida uses an embedded CTA that blends into its category pages to combat this. It uses the CTA Sign Me Up! to encourage action. While browsing, you can quickly sign up for its SMS list and get 20% off your order.
Crafted
Men’s jeweler Crafted uses a pop-up to grab your attention, share a targeted message, and build its email list. Crafted offers you 10% off your first order in exchange for an email address if you’re a new browser. It’s well designed and relevant to its audience. There are no distractions because the store fades into the background, easily winning more conversions.
Cotton Bureau
Cotton Bureau, a shop that sells graphic tees and prints custom designs, uses an email ad that hits a lot of CTA-marketing best practices.
The special offer is bold, so there’s no chance of overlooking it. The ad copy creates urgency, as this is a “while supplies last” opportunity. The photo displays a diverse group of people, so many customers can see themselves represented here. The call-to-action button is big and unmissable. And all of this is accomplished above the fold.
Buck Mason
This email from Buck Mason, a Los Angeles–based menswear brand, uses multiple CTAs that correspond to what they are promoting. For its Field-Spec Cotton Surplus Crew, it uses the CTA Shop Field-Spec. For its podcast, it uses “Listen.”
Notice how the context-specific CTA buttons feel more relevant than a generic Show Now button you typically find in eCommerce emails.
Image courtesy of Really Good Emails
If you want to promote different products or services in an email, create different CTA buttons for each to keep readers engaged.
Magic Spoon cereal
Readers can instantly relate to the title of Magic Spoon’s email, “How to cure a case of the Mondays,” which helps elevate it above the other generically titled emails in their inbox.
Magic Spoon’s email design also makes it simple to understand what it’s promoting and how to take advantage of it. Its eye-catching pink palette and creative imagery practically jump off the screen, leading you directly to a purple ORDER NOW CTA button you can’t help but click.
Image courtesy of Really Good Emails
Create engaging calls to action for your marketing campaigns
You need a clear, persuasive call to action to improve your eCommerce metrics. Because you don’t want casual browsers—you want customers and repeat customers. Put the tips and tricks we provided to the test and try them out on your eCommerce website or social media pages. Test out what works, make adjustments to what doesn’t, and watch as your sales grow!
Want to create an effective Facebook ad fast? Here’s where to start Facebook Ads and also check out our more products at My Sales Script.