Content Creation

7 Call to Action Tips You Have to Try

CopyPress

June 7, 2017 (Updated: January 26, 2023)

Everyone (we hope) knows how important it is to use calls to action in your content, whether that content is an email or a blog post. You want your readers to perform some sort of action, so you have to call them to perform that action. Give them the opportunity to follow through after they’ve read something that made them feel a certain way or gave them the urge to buy your product or subscribe to your newsletter.

It seems easy, but not all types of calls to action are created equal. Testing out new call to action formats is a strategy many companies use to see which designs get the most response from their users. Below, we’re providing some great examples of calls to action you could incorporate into your lineup.

1. Color Contrast

Image via Trello

One way to make your call to action stand out is to use contrasting colors. A wonderful example of this is Trello’s homepage. You can see above that the bright green button stands out temptingly from the blue background. Another great example of this is Lyft’s website. The bright pink they feature for both calls to action (one for riders and one for drivers) makes it easy to see which action you’re taking.

Using contrasting colors (that are still pleasing to the eye) help get your viewer’s attention. Your eye is immediately drawn to the copy and call to action. There’s no missing what you’re supposed to do.

2. Enticing Wording

Another potentially obvious idea here, but switching up your wording, even a little, can make a huge difference. Remember that list of verbs your teacher gave you to help spice up your writing? A copy of that would come in handy. You want your reader to feel compelled to perform the action, like they’d be missing something by not moving forward.

A great example of this is using the pronoun “your” in place of an article such as “a” or “the.” Using “your” makes it more personal, like it’s something the reader is entitled to. It’s not just “a free sample,” it’s “your free sample.”

3. Highlighting Your Preferred Option

If you’re offering a service that has a free version and a paid version, you obviously want as many people to sign up for the paid version as possible. Spotify does this beautifully by highlighting their premium call to action button in green, while keeping the free call to action button in the same place, but using black and white, the colors in the page’s background.

When you use copy that shows the paid version of your service is a deal and highlight that option, readers may be more enticed to click on that option. It’s staring them right in the face. We all know green is the color for go, so using this as a highlighting color is a step in the right direction of encouraging your reader to move forward with the action you want them to take.

4. Gamification

Calls to action can be more interactive than just one simple button to learn more, subscribe, what have you. Some companies are taking their calls to the action to the next level, by making games out of them. They’re often in the form of quizzes, where the user clicks through options to find out what is most “them.” Think Buzzfeed.

Take, for example, a jewelry website prompting its viewers to find out which diamond cut most suits them. With today’s gamification culture, that website is sure to get a decent amount of click-throughs, at the end offering their options for purchase. Those links probably end up in a significant other’s email inbox with a winking emoticon next to them.

Gamification is so popular in 2017, and that’s for a reason. People want to interact with a brand and feel like they can get something out of it for engaging.

5. Consistency

If you want your reader to perform an action, it’s a smart strategy to lead them to that action through consistent wording. If they read a blog post about tips for boosting conversion rates, and you want your call to action to drive them to download your whitepaper all about conversion rates, then you take them to a landing page about that whitepaper, you want all of the language similar. The reader needs to know what they’re getting.

You want to call back to what they’ve read. You know they’re interested in conversion rates. You don’t want to say, “Download our whitepaper.” You want to say, “Learn even more about conversion rates with our whitepaper.”

6. Provide Forms

If you want your reader to try out your service, you can make it exceedingly simple for them by providing a form for them to try it right along with your call to action. Do you have a website analytics service? Offer a space for them to enter a URL and try it out right there.

Kissmetrics does this exact thing, and they do it well. It gives the reader a taste of what the site offers. If the reader determines the information is useful and they want more information than that “free trial” provides, they’ll be moved to sign up for the full service.

7. Create Urgency

To get people to move fast, they need to feel like something’s a limited time offer. Using words like “only” and “now” can push you in the right direction. Another tactic is to strikeout a previous place and list the new, lower price next to it. This gives the feeling that the deal’s about to end. Even using a word such as “claim” instead of “get” or “download” can create a subtle sense of urgency for someone.

If you haven’t tried any of these types of calls to action, you should consider incorporating them into your testing process. You never know, you may just yield some impressive increases in click-through or download rates. Know some more great tips? Follow us on social media and let us know!

CopyPress

June 7, 2017 (Updated: January 26, 2023)