CTA or Call to Action means a prompt on the website asking the user to take action on the site. A call to action for example, if a website says buy now, or sign up or upload your resume they are prompting you to take action on their website, which is eventually for your benefit. The owner of the website, or business or the team handling content is responsible for the CTA added to the website. With numerous info graphics, texts, videos, images and information available on the websites, it becomes difficult for the users to identify the next steps to be taken on the webpage. Therefore, the call to action phrases come extremely handy at this time. A clear crisp message on instruction to the user on the website asking them to take the next steps is what the user needs. A call to action button on your page gives meaning to all the content you have published. Once done reading the user knows what to do next, for example call or make a booking. There are several advantages to having a clear call to action on your website. It can be as simple as getting more followers on social media or converting your readers into clients by sending them to your landing page. A CTA is usually a button or a hyperlink. The more creative the CTA, the higher the chances of people taking action. You can make use of numbers wherever possible. It is also advisable to slightly exploit the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Shop now! Sign up! Try this! Watch now! Learn more! Start before the offer ends! Are clear and concise examples of CTAs, using a strong verb and commanding immediate action. A webpage may have multiple call to action buttons or prompts for different actions or for the same action in different ways.
As Call to action statistics reveal, CTA is still seen as a secret weapon. It is an open secret however, because about 70% of businesses do not have a call to action button on their web pages. It has been seen that if the call to actions are descriptive in nature they hold more power. But if they are exaggerated or too pushy they make the users go away and are actually counterproductive. Further statistics have shown, if CTAs are written as personalized messages and are overall strong in nature, the conversion rates can go up by 202%. As seen, most CTAs fail only because they are not attractive enough in either their language or engaging enough in depiction. Location of the CTA also plays a major role in how effective it is. Click through rates (CTR) are seen to be highest when the CTAs are placed in the form of a Welcome Gates and featured box and lowest when placed on the sidebars and/or at the end of the post. However, these trends constantly keep changing. What works for a particular business or time period may soon change and the web is a place for constant innovation. Some of the CTA don’ts include: a messy, extra long and badly written CTA. Also, make sure the design of your website is as clean as possible. An average human has an attention span of 8 seconds and even lesser perhaps when online. Keep it clean and simple. Have clarity in the text and description of the CTA. Uncluttered websites showed an increase of 232% in conversions.
