Having effective calls to action is an essential element that every website needs. But how do you create a call to action that gets people to act? Simply asking for people to take action isn’t enough to get them to do what you want. What most website owners don’t understand is that there are many techniques that make the calls to action work. Here are five ways to create effective calls to action.
Technique #1: Craft an Enticing Offer – What is the person getting by taking the action? You need to craft an enticing offer that makes people want to jump on your offer. It might be a special report that contains information about their problem. It could be a special discount on the product they were looking at. You really have to sell the sizzle, not the steak.
Technique #2: Limit Their Choices – When people are faced with multiple choices, they are more likely to abandon the transaction. That’s why you need the choices that are available. This could mean limiting the number of links, initially offer the most popular products, and limiting the input for things like forms.
Technique #3: Use Urgency – When you give people a reason to act now, they are more likely to respond. Use urgency in your language and make sure you follow through on it or else you’ll lose credibility.
– For a limited time only
– Only 32 orders left
– Offer expires January 10th
You can also make urgency part of your offer. You can offer bonuses or special discounts for people who act quickly.
Technique #4: Use Proper Formatting and Placement – People need to see your calls to action and also realize the importance of them. This can be done by using proper formatting and placement. Make sure there is an adequate amount of white space around your offer. Ensure that your offer is in a prominent position of your website. Also, try using different colors and fonts to make your offer stand out.
Technique #5: Use Nested Loops – A nested loop is basically a story within a story. The stories are told in segments and never revealed until the end so that it engages the reader. It helps build desire and creates an anxiety in the reader, which makes them more committed to taking the action. Here’s a great example of nested loops being used:
“Pay per click advertising, while challenging, doesn’t have to be expensive. Reducing your costs is all about attacking the campaign from multiple angles. Through constant small adjustments, you’ll end up cutting costs as much as 50 to 100 percent. I’ll talk about one strategy today that can help you improve your landing pages for an immediate boost in conversions and quality score.
How can I back up my statement? In the marketing seminar I held last month, I gave out a report that taught attendees 10 ways to reduce their PPC advertising costs. Two weeks after the event, the attendees that used that report saved a total of $23,921.07 in click costs. I’ll tell you how to download the report later.
But first, let’s go into the topic of landing pages…
The above copy promises a strategy to improve landing pages without immediately explaining the strategy. Then it sells the reader on downloading a special report without providing the instant gratification of being able to download the report. This gets the reader so engaged and committed that they’ll be more likely to jump on the call to action offered later.