Getting customers to purchase your product is (usually) the ultimate aim of your website. You should always be trying to funnel customers towards the checkout or enquiry page. This Spotify ad is a great example of how call to actions can be. Call to action, or CTA, words are a vehicle to get customers into that funnel and on their way to purchasing your product. Some call to action words prompt a response from the user, usually in the form of clicking a button or watching a video, for example. Try to use more emotive language, rather than the old cliché “click here” – which is used way too often. Use the following call to action words in the right situation, and you should see an increase in user engagement, which will hopefully increase your conversions.
1. “Get Started”
Simple, yet effective. A popular choice for businesses whose customers can sign up for a service is “Get Started”. Use this call to action word for a button on the front page of your site to convert what would previously be cold leads into red hot ones. When used well, visitors can go from landing on your site to signing up to your service within minutes. If you have a free trial available for new customers then this is a great phrase to use, so link this button to a page where they sign up.
2. Limited Supply
Want to create a sense of urgency for a potential buyer? Let them know that they could miss out! Nobody wants to be the one to miss out on a great deal. If you are running out of stock for a special offer, then this call to action word would be a great choice. Customers that wouldn’t have been interested before now have the potential to purchase your product, simply because there aren’t many remaining. Be warned though, using this CTA phrase too often might not have the same effect, as buyers won’t have the same sense of urgency second time round.
3. “Create an Account”
Is getting customers to sign up your main goal? This is often the best way to do it. If you have a product or service with a good reputation, then this call to action phrase could be a quick and effective way to turn warm leads into hot leads. Try using this CTA button on a landing page where customers already have a good idea of what they will be signing up for. You could accompany the CTA with a bit more information if your service isn’t very well known.
4. “Download Now”
Your potential customers don’t like waiting around. Utilise that impatience to your benefit and give them something to click on in the form of a call to action button. Use CTAs to tell customers about digital download products they can get! If you wish to explore this a little more, you could combine this CTA with an email list sign up form to get more leads via email. Users are more likely to sign up to emails if they get something in return – call to action phrases provide a way to do this.
5. “Free Trial”
If there’s one thing that all consumers like, it’s a free trial. If your service offers a free trial, then be sure to shout about it on your front page by using a call to action button. Free trials that provide real value have been proven to increase conversion rates for SaaS businesses. Be sure to use CTAs to your advantage. You could even go one step better by telling people that you DON’T ask for credit card details. This is sure to entice some extra customers in.
6. “Click Here to…”
As mentioned previously in this article, ‘click here’ is a cliché and doesn’t activate the same emotive responses as some of the other call to action phrases mentioned. However, you can still utilise it well if you combine it with more of a descriptive sentence. For example, you might have an app in development. Your CTA could say: ‘Click here to get updated on our new app!’. Your customer then knows what the call to action button does, rather than just being told to click on it. You are much more likely to generate interested customers by describing what they will get by doing what you say.
7. Shop Now
Using ‘Shop Now’ on your CTA is a great way of getting your users to start browsing your online store. Most shop now call to action buttons are found on the front-page sliders of fashion companies; however, they could be made useful elsewhere. Try to be adventurous, by expanding on your shop now CTA, and annotate a button with ‘shop now for 10% off’. Create an emotive response from the customer by combining it with a big image of your product.
8. Enter now
Generate some hype about your competition by advertising it on your front-page call to action button. Use it to tell your customers exactly where they can enter the giveaway. This could lead to a big increase in entries. Make sure your CTA links to the page where customers can enter their details and get confirmation of their entry. Why not try putting it on your front-page slider along with a countdown timer for when the giveaway ends.
To conclude…
By using a combination of some (or maybe even all!) of these call to action phrases, you could begin to turn cold leads into hot ones. Simply changing how you word your CTA buttons and links can have a profound effect on the number of people that click on them. Here are some key things to remember:
- Try to generate an emotional response from your customer;
- Give them a reason to click on your button;
- Stay away from the ‘click here’ cliché;
- Use these phrases to get users into your sales funnel.