The standard call to action has become far too recognizable for the
Internet savvy masses who know a hard sell when they see one. They know
when they click “Sing Up Here” that they are likely going to receive
spam. They know that when they click “Buy Now” they are going to have
to spend money. And while these will still work for products and
services that customers are actively looking to purchase or sign up for,
it becomes a harder sell to pull off when you’re marketing niceties
rather than necessities.
Writing a More Actionable Call to Actionable
When you have a product or service that you’re marketing which can best
be described as “nice to have but not something I can buy on a budget,”
you have to really think smarter about your pitch. This all culminates
in the call to action, a place where you should be removing the final
friction in the prospect’s mind, getting them to click on that button.
To illustrate the best way to accomplish this, let’s look at three great
strategies:
1. Illustrate Product or Service is Risk Free. If you are offering
a service or product that is risk-free to try, show this through your
call to action. A great example of this is Crazy Egg who uses the very
successful CTA, “Show Me My Heatmap.” The prospect knows that they can
get a sample of the service at no cost with no pressure to buy unless
they like what they see. This works best with products or services that
provide an ongoing report. Seeing your heat map for your website is
going to help you, yes, that’s the point. But imagine seeing it
constantly and with increased tracking statistics and analytics. That’s
the selling point after the CTA.
2. Demonstrate Customization. Another way to really capture a lead
with your CTA is to let them have some fun within the system before
asking for the sale. For example, Manpacks is a website that allows
users to bundle up their own “manpacks” consisting of manly things like
razors, condoms, shirts, etc. Their CTA is very simple and very
effective: Build Your Manpack. It speaks the language of men, mainly to
“building” and the idea of customizing your own “manpack” before you
have to part with your money at the POS further engages the prospect.
3. Give Actual Action. Finally, a great way to really get your CTAs
more clicks is to actually put the action right into the wording.
Perhaps the most widely-known use for this is with the eCard industry.
Instead of saying, “Sign Up for an Account” or some other common CTA,
the biggest eCard suppliers use some variation of “Send an eCard Now.”
The CTA doesn’t bring up the costs or any mailing lists, it simply says
to send the card now. This works well with any type of service where
you can send a gift to someone, but is translatable across the boards.
What is the final action that will take place? “Get Your…Now.”
Language and Results
As you can see, the CTA is more about how you word things and less about
what the client is actually doing, at least, that’s how the client
should perceive things. There should be a tie in with emotions through
the language wherever possible. The “Manpacks” CTA does an amazing job
with this, build something and feel more manly!
Unfortunately, not enough marketers spend enough time on their CTAs,
instead just slapping up the standard “Click Here” bit.
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