What is a call-to-action?
A CTA is a command addressed to your audience, inserted within your site or the content you post on your profiles, which must be able to push them to provide an immediate response to your instructions and to perform a specific action. It is therefore a means of directly connecting your business with your potential customers, a simple and intuitive exhortation
to discover your products or services and to create a relationship. To be effective, the call-to-action must naturally meet some requirements, but it is a decidedly versatile tool: it can refer to a request that is not very demanding for the user (e.g. watching a video or exploring a site section starting from a landing page ) or push for more relevant actions, such as purchasing a product or registering their personal data. What matters is that your CTA is always explicit, with a great visual impact, relevant and consistent with the information towards which it directs attention and as personalized as possible with respect to the needs and desires of your audience .The most common types of call-to-action
We said that the goal of a CTA is to trigger a quick response from users to your instruction: the most widely adopted types of messages are therefore those that refer to the most common actions that a potential customer can perform when interacting with a company through a website or an official profile on social media. Here is a brief description below:
Product-focused call-to-action – This is the simplest form of CTA, the one you link to the promotion of your product or service and thanks to which you want your customers to complete a purchasing process. You must think of a clear, unequivocal message that is closely linked to what you offer: classic examples could be buttons like “Buy now” or “Try it free for 30 days”. Your audience must have the perception that pressing that button makes it easier to satisfy their need.
Call-to-action to obtain information – This type of CTA aims to arouse curiosity and encourage users to learn more about your brand and what you do. They will certainly be useful if you have a blog section on your site and want to attract potential customers to read your content, as well as an element of a landing page that must channel traffic to your pages. Don't forget, however, that it is still a call to action: the message must be captivating and focused on the target audience and above all it must motivate your audience to make a decision.
Call-to-action for lead generation: These are very useful and powerful marketing tools, as they can help you define and “map” the behavior of users who access your channels to identify the right target for each of your commercial initiatives. This type of CTA is generally set up as a form to fill out to download specific content or to participate in an event organized by your brand and, if well highlighted on the page, can guarantee you a significant advantage in a subsequent lead generation activity .
Call-to-action for registration or subscription to a service – This type of CTA is also very widespread and used, although it is perhaps the most delicate to “handle”. Consider that you are asking a user who is certainly interested in what you do but who is not yet loyal to leave you their personal data. However, if you can package a direct but not invasive message, simple but highly specific to the needs of your audience, a registration form for your newsletter or subscription to one of the services offered by your company can represent an irreplaceable driving force for obtaining traffic and conversions.
The founding elements of an effective call-to-action
The text. The first requirement for a truly effective CTA is related to the textual message: without a good text, a call-to-action is simply not what it claims to be. You need to think of a concise but impactful formula that gives an explicit command to the user and induces them to perform an action on your site; imperative verb forms are perfect for this purpose. But what matters even more is that your CTA must attract the user's attention because it stands out from all the other possible proposals and is exactly modeled on their interests and needs, to the point of pushing them to take immediate action.
Color. Every self-respecting call-to-action, to fully fulfill its task, must stand out from the texts and other parts of your site. Therefore, use colors so that the button and the text it contains are immediately visible and recognizable for your potential customers. A classic solution is to use a color contrast that highlights the CTA, but be careful not to overdo it and above all to respect the color choices of the brand : it is true that some colors seem to attract the visual attention of users more than others, but if these do not fit in any way into the palette that refers to the image of your brand, avoid using them or the result could even penalize your efforts.
Position on the page. There are no obligations regarding the positioning of a CTA within a page: the basic criterion to follow with the utmost care is to make it visible and functional for those who are visiting your online spaces. It is often preferable to insert a call-to-action at the top of a page but in some cases - especially when we are providing the customer with a lot of information - it can be just as effective to position it lower down. Web use from mobile devices is also drastically changing the parameters of site and profile design: in this sense you must ensure that the CTAs you insert are also responsive for mobile viewing. Also evaluate the positioning of a button based on the content you present: for example, if you want to immediately involve the customer, use a full-screen solution, such as the so-called 'welcome gate', if instead you want them to leave you their contact details, opt for a dedicated form or a pop-up window.
The format. Behind the choice of the shape and size of a call-to-action there must obviously be a marketing plan: do not run the risk of appearing too aggressive by using buttons that are too large or too pointed, nor of appearing not very incisive by relegating the choice of the format of the CTA to the background. Remember that in this case too, as with the choice of colors, each visible element on your page must convey a unique and compact image of the brand you represent. At the same time, do not forget that a button must be perceived as such: therefore, highlight its peculiarity compared to other elements of your site.
