A better call to action (CTA) is short and direct, gives readers an honest reason to act now, answers their doubts, and has been tested on real readers. Here are 5 tips to write one, and one last check before you publish it.
Whether you write a newsletter, a business website, or a simple blog post, you need a good call to action if you want your readers to do something. "Click here for more info" is often not enough.
Get to the point
Your content has already warmed up your readers, so get to the point in your CTA. Make sure your readers know exactly what they must do. Suppose you write a newsletter to get people to sign up for a paid video course. Be direct and say "Sign up for the video course today!"
Use a strong command verb to grab your readers' attention. You do not need to stick with the old "Sign up", "Subscribe", or "Join". If you offer personal finance advice, for example, you could write "Find out what's wrong with your finances!"
Add a sense of urgency
A limited offer gives your readers a reason to act sooner rather than later, for example "$50 cashback for the first 100 customers" or "Buy before May 15 and get 35% off!"
Be honest about it. Fake limited offers are as old as TV shopping. If you say the offer is good for the first 100 customers, keep to that. If a discount ends at a certain date and time, honor that too.
Readers who act too late will see that you kept your word, and they will take it as a sign of credibility. This is your chance to invite them to a list that tells them about the next offer. How to create a sense of urgency has more ideas.
Address their fears
Many people are reluctant to subscribe to a newsletter, because the senders too often make it nearly impossible to unsubscribe.
Overcome that fear right in the CTA. Instead of a short "Subscribe now", add a detail like "Subscribe now. Unsubscribe anytime." A call to action like this puts you in a better light than many internet marketers.
Learn from others
When did you last order something online, subscribe to a newsletter, or fill out a form? Do you remember what made you do it? Do what those writers did, and you are off to a good start.
This is not a call to plagiarize. You still need to make changes, big or small, to suit your own goal. (How to avoid plagiarism explains where the line is.)
Why look at your competitors at all? Because reinventing the wheel is a waste of resources. It is much more efficient to adapt and refine what already works for others in your niche.
Test and test some more
You may have several ideas for your CTA. Instead of choosing one, try them all. Split testing (also called A/B testing) is made for this: different visitors see different versions, and you keep the one that works best.
Don't be afraid to try new things. Your audience changes, so you must adapt and evolve. Some versions will fail, but as long as you learn from them, the test is worth it.
A last check: spelling
Finally, make sure that both your copy and your CTA are free of spelling errors. Calls to action with glaring misspellings are more common than you might think. A misspelling looks unprofessional, and it can cost you subscribers and buyers.
Your eyes easily miss errors in a text you wrote yourself, so run your copy through the Spell Checker before you publish it.