These days, many marketers know that nine out of ten people who read your WordPress site’s headline will also read a call to action. Because of this reason, impactful, engaging CTAs are an excellent tool for generating online leads or sales. But do you know how to use them correctly?
This article will investigate several ways to improve the CTAs you use on your WordPress website by offering several suggestions you can start using today. By the end, you should be able to craft the perfect CTA to meet your website’s goals.
CTAs For Getting Leads
One of the most critical steps towards nurturing a sale is to get people to sign up for your newsletter or add themselves as a contact for you to communicate with later. Having a clear call to action to entice people to become a lead can mean the difference between a successful sale or a lost opportunity. These are a few examples of how to craft CTAs that help you get these leads.
Be Specific
If you only say “Register” or “I Agree,” you may get several people signing up from reading the information around the button. This will need them to know what they are doing first, though. Instead, you should try to make it as straightforward as possible what action someone is taking by clicking.
Instead of “Register,” you should say “Register for my account.” Instead of “I Agree,” say “I Agree To Get Involved.”
Users prefer not to hunt or search for things; they want information handed to them as plainly as possible, especially when solving a problem. Having a single link that tells them exactly what they want and where they will go is often enough encouragement to click. Thus, giving them all the basic information up-front can be very fruitful.
Encourage Smaller Steps
The journey from discovery to investment in an idea can be several steps long. If your CTA is the last step, such as “Buy our goods” or “Register now,” it can scare people away. This is because they have to take a more considerable leap to believe in what you have to offer from the get-go.
If, instead, you separate what you intend to do into smaller steps and have a less commitment-focused CTA as the first step, it is far less daunting for new potential customers. You can then continue each step with a new, bolder CTA, or you can accept that the customer will move through each step at their own pace.
For example, on a site that allows you to buy goods, the first step would be “Browse our goods” instead of “Buy now.” Alternatively, if you wish for people to sign up for one of several services, the first step could be to “Let Me See My Options.”
Make Them Obvious
Several CTAs on websites exist among the text of the body of the article. This often means people who are scanning through the page fast might miss them.
Instead of embedding the CTA in a block of text, think about making a dedicated button for it. It can still exist as a part of the text but can instead act as the final few words in a sentence that you have emphasized.
Increasing the visibility of the CTA in this way will bring more people straight to the button. This is especially true for visitors to your WordPress site who do not invest time to read your carefully crafted website copy.
Options for how to make CTAs more obvious can include:
- Using a button instead of plain text
- Using an image instead of plain text
- Using a unique font
- Using a highlight color
- Centering the CTA
- Having a large border around the button
- Using images to highlight the button
- Capitalizing the button text
When deciding on the color for a CTA, investigate your brand guidelines. If they include a bold color that stands out against the rest of your brand, this is the perfect time to use it.
Another option would be to not only rely on one call to action. As the user scrolls down a page, you can use more than one CTA to hook users who show interest in different features presented on the page. These can all go to the same page, but you can track them all to allow your marketing team to determine which feature is drawing in the most leads and use lead magnet ideas.
Put Them Where It Makes Sense
As a user is reading your page, they should come across the CTAs in a way that feels natural. If they are reading FAQs on your website, only to feel pushed (or even bullied) into a buying decision, this will confuse or frustrate the user. Ultimately, it may cause them to look elsewhere.
In a similar vein, do not put your CTA straight at the top of your page before you have “sold” the concept you are trying to promote. You could put it above the fold after some copy about what value you provide users, but not right at the top of the page.
Some good examples of places to put a CTA include:
- At the end of a paragraph describing a USP
- At the end of the page
- After your copy has answered a specific question users may have
Each of the above will appear natural and not cause people to question your integrity by pushing them to sign up for something in an unnatural way.
Use First-Person Language
People like to feel they are being catered to. By using first-person language, they will feel involved.
They will also imagine themselves performing the listed action – the digital equivalent of putting the product in the potential buyer’s hand.
For an example of what this means in action, “Register Me!” is more effective than “Register.” Similarly, “Check My Status!” can work better than “Check Your Status.”
So, use words like “Me” in your CTAs and avoid talking at the user. These will encourage people to shift into a buying mindset based on your pitch. Studies show that this can have a tremendous impact, and that you would be missing out if you did not follow suit.
CTAs For Driving Sales
Calls to action which intend to drive sales are more about pushing a value to someone. As you ask them to part with money, you have to provide a USP or inherent value they may not have realized before. For example:
Mention Benefits Directly
There is a big difference between telling someone what they can expect and describing the benefits of what you provide. If someone sees: “Prevent typos today,” that may be a correct statement but does not describe why someone might want it. Instead, “Improve your reputation” would be the benefit such an application would provide.
Similarly, when you write your call to action, you should ensure you are not talking about the surface-level action you offer. Instead, focus on the goal the customer wants. For example, emphasize how the user will save money, become better at their job, or join a community of value.
Suggest Urgency
Another option to encourage people to engage with your CTA is to suggest that they take action in as short a space a time as possible. Saying “Sign Me Up!” is a good CTA, but “Sign Me Up Before Tickets Run Out!” is even more powerful.
Naturally, this does not always work. If there are not limited spots for a person to engage with your website, this will make little sense. But if launching a new site, you could always engage in artificial scarcity.
If you only allow a specific number of engagements with your site, this will encourage people to sign up to avoid missing out. This also has the secondary benefit of allowing you to scale slower if you have concerns about too many users signing up early on.
Use Numbers
Informing people of specific information can be effective in encouraging them to click a CTA. It creates a sense of transparency and trust that allows users to know exactly what they are getting for clicking. Examples might include CTAs such as:
- Register For A 7-Day Trial
- Sign Me Up For 20% Off!
- Give Me My $20 Voucher!
These all give the user a specific benefit that they can see an apparent benefit from.
Use Strong Language
No, we don’t mean curse words!
You should carefully select words and phrases that invoke excitement or feelings of movement. Examples can include words such as:
- Increase
- Seize
- Score
- Gain
- Activate
- Grow
- Start
- Discover
These all invoke an action the user should be taking and encourage them to think about performing it. This helps them anticipate the action of clicking the button, encouraging them to do so.
Driving Sales and Online Leads
Now you should have a greater understanding of CTAs when it comes to sales and online leads. If you still have questions, though, we are happy to help.
Our blog contains several articles that can help you understand how to make the best use of your WordPress website, including improving website hosting and SEO, choosing the best hosting option, optimizing for WooCommerce for mobile, and more! So check it out and see what we can do to help you today.
Amanda Tsourakis
With over a decade of experience in the tech industry, Amanda's experience demonstrates her sales expertise. Her commitment to building, training, and guiding high-performing teams has been instrumental in driving Pressable's success. Amanda's extensive background in sales and marketing, coupled with her sharp business acumen, has made her an invaluable asset to the tech community. Her ability to identify and foster talent, combined with her passion for developing winning sales strategies, has propelled her to the forefront of the industry. When she's not expertly navigating the tech sales landscape, she loves spending quality time with her family, loves travel and adventure, lounging pool/beach-side, playing tennis, working out, and meeting people/making friends all along the way!
