The science behind call-to-actions and using them effectively?

As marketers, we talk about conversions and how important it is for any business to be par with the industry standards. If you are not converting atleast 2-5% of your visitors as potential leads, there is something really wrong with your website, targeting,  content, visual language or the way you are presenting the brand.

Check out our post: How to increase leads by 300% using 8 simple tweaks

According to Small Business Trendz, 70% of small business websites lack a call-to-action. This rookie mistake of not having a proper call-to-action can result in loss of leads, customer interactions and conversions.

One of building blocks for any marketing strategy is to plan call-to-action’s right from the beginning.

Here are 4 simple steps that can help in planning out proper call-to-actions:

1. Define your goals

For any call-to-action to work, you need to define a goal that basically spells why you need to put these call-to-action’s across your readers. It also becomes important that the goals have to be defined in advance so that your copy, content, design and conversion paths are properly aligned towards achieving this goal.

2. CTA copy and use of right call-to-action words

Unlike body copy on website, call-to-action copy needs to be kept quirky and should contain action phrases like hot deals, ultimate guide to, free download, smart insights, etc. This prompts the user to take some kind of action. The copy also needs to be crisp and straight (kept under 150 characters) to the point spelling out the message clearly.

3. Design and use of images

A call-to-action section is like advertising banner, except that you are asking the readers to take an action that’ll lead them somewhere. You need to design your call-to-action’s to align with the page design, brand language and the target audience. Similarly, the images used in the background or as a hero needs to connect with the brand, customer, content and landing page where it is forwarded.

4. Placement of call-to-actions

Placing call-to-actions at right place within the website is very important. In order to do this, you need to understand the commitment level of users and ask them to take action accordingly. For example, the commitment level of users at the top of your landing page will be less compared to the users on the middle of your page, where they have consumed 50% of your content. Users at the bottom of the page will have a higher commitment because they have consumed all the content on the page. So, placing right call-to-actions at right positions is very important and will affect the conversion rates.

The science behind proper call-to-actions:

Here is an example and process of how call-to-actions needs to be ideated, written, designed and placed on websites. First of all, we need to list down all the things that matter the most for building an awesome call-to-action section:

• The ultimate Goal: Get enquiries from visitors for our marketing services
• Target Audience: 25-34 aged people looking for marketing services
• Intermediate Goals: Educate users about the services offered & packaged services.
• Design: Align with the brand language, use bright colors on clickable elements, subtle use of animations.

When you land on the website (considering that you have 0% commitment level);

As soon as you go through the services offered (considering 30% commitment level);

After you go through the thought process (considering 60% commitment level);

After you go through all the content (considering 90% commitment level at this point);