A powerful call to action (CTA) can make all the difference in your marketing strategy. By creating compelling CTAs, you can engage your customers, drive conversions, and foster brand loyalty.
Whether you want your audience to sign up for a newsletter, purchase a product, or follow your brand on social media, the right call to action can effectively prompt them to act.
So, in this post, I’ll talk about what CTAs are and show you how to craft the perfect call to action.
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What is a call to action?
With any marketing asset, your goal is to guide potential customers toward a specific action—whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a resource.
This is where a call to action (CTA) comes in. A CTA is a clear and compelling instruction that encourages your audience to take the next step. Here’s an example from AdsPresso.
Without a call to action, your marketing message may leave people interested but unsure about what to do next.
A CTA can take various forms depending on your goals. For example, on a product page, a CTA like “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” urges visitors to make a purchase.
In email marketing, phrases like “Sign up today for 20% off” entice readers to join your subscriber list.
Similarly, blog posts often end with CTAs such as “Download your free guide” or “Learn more about our services,” prompting further engagement.
The most effective CTAs are specific, action-oriented, and create a sense of urgency. Whether on your website, social media, or ads, CTAs are your direct line to conversions, turning passive interest into active engagement.
How to write a great CTA? (+ examples)
If you want to write effective CTAs, there are a lot of key factors to consider. Fortunately, you can count on the CTA best practices that have returned positive results, along with examples to understand how to use them.
Highlight the main benefit + feature
Your readers want to know what’s in it for them. Otherwise, they will leave as quickly as they came. Common copywriting wisdom says that you should focus on benefits instead of features when selling. For example:
- Feature-Focused: Come to Pizzeria for a great ambiance and a large selection of Italian pizzas.
- Benefit-Focused: Come to Pizzeria to satisfy your taste buds, have a good time, and create happy memories with friends and family.
As you can see, this is sound advice. Focusing on benefits is certainly better. The benefits connect the dots for the user on how exactly a product or service and its features will give them what they want.
However, I’d like to make a slight modification. People are often looking for specific information, which is conveyed through features, not benefits.
So, why not use the best of both worlds?
It’s better to write your call-to-action content in such a way that it uses a combination of the main feature and its desired benefit. For example, consider Skype:
As you can see, Skype starts its CTA with the main benefit, followed by features that contribute to this benefit.
- Benefit: Catch up and quality time with friends and family
- Feature: HD video calls, one to one, or as a group
By combining both these elements in a call to action, Skype doesn’t just highlight the benefit it is providing, but also answers how.
Demonstrate competitive advantage
Writing a call to action that conveys what sets you apart from alternatives can be great for building brand awareness and sales. For example, see this Facebook ad from Brandless.
It clearly conveys why prospects should buy from them, along with the direct “Shop Now” CTA button. It can’t get any more straightforward than that.
Use social proof
Do you have any great testimonials or reviews that stand out? Then, there’s no reason not to use them to enhance your CTA.
Social proof is a great way to build trust and convey your core benefit. Here’s an example from Sensodyne.
Sensodyne takes social proof beyond the basics. It even provides the email address prospects can use to verify the claims.
Give free money
Giving away free samples or credits of your product or service is one of the fastest ways to grow your customer base. And brands like Lyft know this.
In their Facebook ad, Lyft uses the fact that everyone likes free money. The Install Now button leads the user directly to claim their free credit.
Consider context and timing
A call to action never works in isolation. There is always a context behind why, where, and when you’re using it.
For example, you need to understand where a prospect is in the marketing funnel to show the right CTA for that stage.
You wouldn’t want to ask them to sign up for your email newsletter when they’re just about to make a purchase. Asking them to opt in would make more sense during their first visit to your website.
But then again, it’s bad to show a CTA to sign up right when a prospect has just landed and hasn’t had a chance to browse the page.
So, having your pop-up show after a few seconds or when a prospect is about to exit is better.
My point is, don’t ask the prospect to do something secondary until and unless they have completed the main task you wanted them to do.
Similarly, before you write a CTA, you want to know the advertising campaigns or the landing pages where it will be used. Otherwise, you can’t make sure that it will be consistent with the overall user experience.
It boils down to how much you understand your target audience and their journey toward becoming a customer.
Make the action seem quick and easy
The more effort it takes to follow through on your CTA, the fewer conversions you will get. So, your CTA should be as quick and easy as possible, and it should seem that way. Consider JustCall, for example:
JustCall triggers a sense of instant gratification by conveying how quickly users can get started. It specifically says the sign-up process takes seconds.
By doing so, it succeeds at lowering a prospect’s defenses and increasing confidence to complete the action.
Offer a complementary incentive
Sometimes, bundling your product or service with another can achieve results that an isolated offer cannot. T-Mobile uses this strategy to lure prospects into its family plans.
But note that the incentive should be something directly related to what you do. In this call to action content, there is a close link between getting Internet plans and using a streaming service. That’s why it works.
Evoke curiosity
Employing curiosity in your call to action copy can catapult your conversion rate when used the right way. For instance, see what Toms did a while back.
They put up a pop-up on their website to announce a flash sale. At the very least, the CTA makes the prospect curious to check out what the fuss is about.
And the words they use (like “psst” and “surprise”) make the sale seem like an intimate, exclusive secret. This reminds me of the next point.
Create a sense of urgency
Implying that an offer is available only for a limited time or to a limited number of prospects is another way to create exclusivity when writing a call to action.
Urgent CTAs prompt users to act quickly, which leads to a higher conversion rate. Adding a deadline or countdown makes it even better.
Plus, as you can see in the Toms example above, the call to action isn’t just making you curious, but also conveying urgency. It states that the sale is valid for a limited time, making prospects more likely to take action sooner.
Don’t exaggerate
One of the most alarming trends recently is making exaggerated claims to grab attention. In marketing, such headlines and CTAs are often referred to as clickbait.
For example, the company behind Pure Green Coffee claimed that it helped with weight loss. Dr. Oz, too, recommended the product on air. So he later had to defend his actions in front of a Senate’s Consumer Protection panel.
Clickbaits tarnish your ability to build trust with your audience and undermine conversion in the long term. So, do not use clickbaits that fail to deliver when the rubber meets the road.
Reduce risk by addressing objections
Addressing the main objection and minimizing risk can make for a great call to action.
In this example, Yoga International offers 30 days of free Yoga. Plus, there are no commitments. Prospects can cancel at any time.
Users can try it free for a month and cancel anytime. So they know that they can take the action without any risk. Moreover, it shows how confident Yoga International is about its product.
Use FOMO (fear of missing out)
The fear of missing out, otherwise known as FOMO, is hard to beat. It is human nature to always want to belong.
Your prospects wouldn’t want to miss out on an opportunity that everyone else is capitalizing on, or a deal that might not come around again.
For example, you can indicate if your product is running out fast, as The Journal Shop does:
When you write a call to action using the FOMO technique, you tap into several human emotions beyond fear.
There’s panic, greed, curiosity, comparison, and even pride, and these are all connected to exclusivity, which is what drives people to act.
Whichever tactic you employ, the idea is to limit the availability of your content to increase its perceived value.
Final thoughts on call to action
Implementing effective calls to action in your marketing strategy is crucial for success. You must clearly articulate what you want your audience to do and why they should do it.
Writing a CTA that converts shouldn’t be a challenge anymore. Using the formulas discussed above, you can craft your own call to action and integrate the unique features of your brand and products.
Did I miss anything? Did you try these tips? Do you have any questions or comments? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.
