Could improving your call to action be the key to more conversions?
If you’re looking to find more vendors and landlords, a few words - or even just one - could make all the difference. Your call to action (CTA) is possibly the most important part of your blog, webpage or social post. It’s what everything else in the piece of content has been leading up to. Essentially, it’s about changing behaviour, getting your potential customer to take that crucial next step and do it now.
There’s a fair bit of psychology behind the CTA
Before you write your CTA, it’s worth understanding the impulses that make people take action and the messages that stimulate those impulses. This is nothing new. Marketers were tapping into to the psychology of what makes people act, long before the digital age. The words used on direct mail a century ago to trigger a purchase - free, now, new, today and limited - are still some of the best CTAs you can find.
Act now - but with no obligation
Customers take actions which appear easy and without risk. Knowing you can step away at any time often convinces people to act now - that’s why free trials of Amazon Prime are enduringly successful. The knack is to make it time limited but commitment-free ‘get 10% off our full management service for six months, then cancel at any time’, for example.
The basics of the CTA
Where
Putting a CTA at the end of your blog or webpage feels logical - everything else has built to this stage - but this isn’t the only way. A CTA can be placed anywhere your audience is likely to look. You can include it in the copy, but you might like to supplement that with a banner, image, button, or other visual cue to convert.
What
What you say is important, so make your CTA message clear and simple. ‘Start your trial today’ is much better than vague things like ‘find out more’. However creative your copy, at this point, make it obvious what people need to do.
But don’t be pushy. Too many pop-up screens and buttons shouting at people will be a turn off. And remember the customer journey - don’t start demanding people book a valuation too soon in the relationship.
It’s useful to subject your copy to the ‘so what’ test. If the benefits aren’t obvious, keep asking ‘so what’ until you’ve nailed it.
How
Look at your CTA in the context of the rest of the page. It should stand out, but not to the detriment of everything else. Be careful with colours. Red, is very visible, a good action colour, but needs to work with your brand. Strong images are good for inspiring action, as long as they are relevant.
CTAs for social
Here your space is limited and you haven’t got long to stop your customer scrolling on to the next person’s post. Keep your posts punchy and conversational and really think about your images. It’s even more important here that your CTA is clear, whether you want people to read your latest blog, view your best properties or download a brochure. If you can make a link between what’s trending or topical and your CTA, that’s great - but don’t force it.
The proof of the pudding …
Is in the testing and you mustn’t miss the evaluation step. What works for one campaign might not work for another, so no matter how well your CTA performed previously, always test it and be prepared to go back and review if it’s not working.
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