What Is A Call-To-Action?
A call-to-action is a way for business owners to get their customers to act on something. Whether it’s buying a hot new item or signing up for future emails, businesses have been using CTAs for decades to encourage customers to become aware of their products and services.
Let’s answer one simple question to find out how CTAs are useful and provide a few examples to understand how to best use them.
Definition
Call-To-Actions, also known as CTAs, are phrases or words used to get customers to act on a decision. From “Sign Up” to “Buy One Get One,” consumers have seen these phrases while shopping and continue to be directed by them every day.
CTAs are a big part of your customer’s experience, and as an owner, you should know about them! Why not learn about them to provide a better experience for you and your customers? Whether you’re directing your customers online or in-person, you want to use CTAs to offer value and encourage them to start buying.
Why Are CTAs So Important?
CTAs are important because they provide easy-to-understand checkpoints that customers can use to dive deeper into their experience with your business.
Most of the CTAs customers see and experience today is online. If you watch a funny video on YouTube, there’s a CTA asking you to subscribe. If you’re scrolling on Instagram, there’s a CTA asking you to follow. If you’re shopping online, there’s a CTA asking you to buy now. CTAs are everywhere, and they allow customers to freely roam through a website with the right expectations.
Whether you want them to subscribe to your email communication or look at a new product, CTAs clearly lay out what the customer will experience next. Understanding why, could be the difference between closing a sale and missing out on one.
More often than not, you’ll use CTAs to ask for a sale. Think about it, that “Shop Now” button you frequently see isn’t just there to lead customers to see new products. It’s also subliminally pointing them towards purchasing your product. This should lead to more purchases from your customers.
A Few CTAs We Really Love
We’ve put together a few examples that exist online to paint a better picture on how you can use CTAs for your business. We love these brands and how they used Call-To Actions to enhance their experience.
Quip
Quip is a company that focuses on making dental hygiene products that make your dental routine a lot easier. Their star product is the Quip Toothbrush subscription – an electric toothbrush that comes with a new replaceable brush head every 3 months.
Quip focuses on making dental hygiene easier and hassle-free. One clever way Quip uses a CTA is right in their web address – getquip.com. This address is perfect because it’s both fun and actionable.
This approach makes the user feel like they should subscribe to this service. Quip also uses this approach in their “Our Story” page. On most About Me pages, you’re met with stories about how a company came to be.
Quip, instead, uses this page to redeliver their message to the user. By highlighting the care they take in developing their product, providing expert opinions, and explaining the research behind their work, Quip manages to sell a great product with a clear CTA: Get Quip.
Corkcicle
A native of Orlando, Corkcicle has really made a big name for itself in the past couple of years. They specialize in making fashionable thermoses and other products that keep liquids hot and cold.With the growing pace of their company, they’ve made adjustments to their product line and added new and exciting accessories to support their star item.
Corkcicle’s website immediately showcases all of their available products organized from star products to lesser known. As you scroll to the bottom, you’ll notice a large black banner that reads: “SIGN UP FOR 10% OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER.” You’re instantly pulled into the CTA.
This CTA is doing 2 things at once. First, it’s asking for a sale in an indirect way. They assume you want to buy a product for the first time, and in doing so, offer you a discount. Second, they provide a worthwhile discount to a new customer. 10% may not seem like much, but feeling the excitement of getting a discount on a new product could be that push that persuades you to buy this product. This way of demonstrating value can help capture new customers and possibly lead to a new sale.
Target
We are huge fans of Target! They constantly offer deals to their target audience (😜pun intended) and they provide a great experience in-store to keep customers coming back. They use CTAs all over their website, but we wanted to highlight a seasonal CTA that they are currently using – “Stay Cool.” These two huge words greet you when you visit Target’s homepage and are being used for a 2019 summer campaign for women’s clothing.
This CTA is great because it’s asking you to keep cool in the hot weather with their new looks, and it’s also telling you to buy fashionable, trendy items at the same time. This form of a CTA is effective in two ways. It informs the customer on what to expect and builds excitement for the clothes being sold for the summer season.
Outro
CTAs are effective at getting consumers to act. Whether you want them to sign up for your email or follow you on social, using a CTA will make that process a lot smoother. We encourage you to use CTAs in your business to help garner different actions from your audience. This should help you build awareness online and help drive business in-store.
Your Turn
Are you using CTAs in your business? Which ones do you recognize every day? Have you asked your audience for the sale? Let us know in the comments below.