Call to Action

Call to Action, or CTA for short, is a direct request to your user or target audience to take action. Thus, you can promote all sorts of actions from your users and encourage them to do something. Call to actions often find their use in marketing, as they are meant to influence users’ actions.

This is what a Call to Action looks like

You’ll often find CTAs in the form of buttons or links on websites for this reason.

If you include CTAs in the form of links, the anchor text is the direct call to action. This can be very short (“Here”) or contain a complete phrase (“Watch the recording now.”). Alternatively, you can include CTAs as buttons on your website. This draws the user’s attention to the CTA and increases the likelihood of a click. Again, you can customize the text you want to use to trigger the reaction.

Areas of application of the Call to Actions

A CTA has different areas of application. Some of them are clearly related to the content of your website, while others are more likely to stimulate user actions. The following are possible desired actions that you can trigger with the help of a Call to Action:

• Registering for a newsletter
• Downloading e-books, white papers, PDFs, etc.
• Watching videos, tutorials or webinar recordings
• Registering for a webinar
• Sharing website content
• Forwarding to other posts on your website
• Following on social media
• Signing up for events, trade shows, etc.
• Initiating a phone call, email
• Buying a product or service
• Filling out a contact form
• Clicking on related links
• Donating to a specific campaign
• Registering on a website
• Making an appointment

This is just a glimpse of possible uses for the Call to Actions. There are even more individual ways to use it.

What a Call to Action can do for you

Simply put, your website visitors are most likely to do what you want them to do if you tell them directly what to make. For this reason, you should formulate your CTAs in an understandable way, so that the user doesn’t have to think about what will happen when he clicks on them. The decision is presented to them on a silver platter, so to speak. In this way, you can ensure that your visitors become active and act in the desired way.

Step by Step – The checklist for your Call to Action button

1. Place the CTA button in the visible area.
2. Make sure that it attracts attention.
3. Go wild and be creative.
4. Keep the CTA text easy to understand.
5. Add some eye-catching images if necessary.
6. Give your users a subtle call to action.
7. Be varied – use different texts, colors, shapes and designs.
8. Do not hide the CTA.
9. Use trial and error methods to find out what works best for you and your website visitors.
10. Use CTAs in body text as well. They don’t always have to be in the form of a button on your website.