This is a copywriting (with a pinch of design) post looking at calls to action and how to improve them in 2 easy steps. What's a call to action? It's a piece of content intended to induce a viewer, reader, or listener to perform a specific act, typically taking the form of an instruction or directive (definition courtesy of Oxford Languages)
What should your call to action be?
A great way of working out what the call to action should be is asking a simple question:
"What do you want the visitor to do?"
Whatever it is you want the visitor to do is exactly what your call to action should be. So if you've got an eCommerce site, it's probably something like 'Add to Bag'. If you want to start a conversation, a prompt to 'Get in Touch' works well.
Simple? Sort of. Once you know what the call to action should be, it's then a matter of thinking of it not as an action, but what the benefit is for the visitor. That's where we get into step one, being specific.
Step One: Be Specific
Curious what a popular call to action is? click here. That's not a link by the way, it's an illustration of the text people quite often link to as their call to action because it's specific. But is it?
Yes, I have a target zone to click. This isn't target practice though, this is about guiding a visitor to a desired next step. And to do that, we need to get into specifics:
- What happens if I click here?
- What's the benefit to me?
- Why should I bother clicking here?
The pitfalls of click here text
What click here text doesn't do is state the benefit or the action that happens. It's also bad for SEO as you're missing out on the opportunity to show the relevance of the link by using keyword text. That doesn't mean you should have a full on sentence as your call to action though! Think relevant, short & snappy rather than long-winded, overly descriptive and *yawn*.... Calls to action should make sense as a standalone bit of text and shine with relevant body copy. This means the copy preceding the call to action is related to it and helps support that action.
In the case of an eCommere site, around the "Add to" button there's usually descriptive text to clearly address a visitor's questions about the item they're looking to buy.
Step Two: Be Obvious
Look at your content & ask yourself what the obvious next action for a visitor to take is. The key being "obvious". If you had to pause & think about it or search for it then it's not obvious enough. We may be always on these days but we're rarely always engaged...
If your call to action looks like ordinary text, it gets lost.
Calls to Action should clearly signpost visitors. This is a combination of being specific (as per above) and also have a visual distinction.
Design helps make it obvious
Clear design helps the call to action stand out so if someone's skimming it's easily findable & actionable. Buttons are great for this. And so are content cards.
Sometimes the best way to make a big impact is to make a small change. Going through your content and updating your calls to action so they're Specific + Obvious is one of those small changes that can make a big impact. Our copywriting & design services are here to help you, so get in touch.
- Written by Maureen Young
- 19 January 2022