Getting your call to action right can be tricky. Not so much where you want them to go, or what you want them to do, but the way in which you ask it.
As I used to get told time and time again as a stroppy teenager – âitâs not what you say, itâs how you say it.â
Kath Pay wrote a great article about the difference in the appropriate calls to action in push vs pull channels. To summarize (although the full post is certainly worth a read), you should base your call to action on the sales funnel stage your prospect is at, and tweak it depending on whether theyâre engaging with push or pull marketing activities.
At one end of the spectrum, if someone is reading a marketing email (push) at the top of the funnel, try a softer, more enticing CTA e.g. âWhy not considerâŚ?â âWould you like toâŚ?â
Once theyâve clicked and committed, and are actively engaged, nowâs the time for more direct CTAs – âBuy nowâ âDownloadâ âFree trialâ.
Getting the tone of your CTA to align with the emotional engagement of your audience makes them more likely to convert.
The article got me thinking about how an insightful CTA can make a big difference to how you engage. Here are two of my favourite examples:
Bizible – The False Choice CTA
Well, theyâve really got you hostage here. What self-respecting marketing professional could click ânopeâ without looking over their shoulder first.
Clever, very clever. (But I outsmarted them by clicked the cross in the top right. Ha! Didnât see that one coming eh Bizible!)
Jelly Splash – The Mind Game CTA
To my shame, a few months ago, I developed an unhealthy obsession with a mind-numbing game called Jelly Splash. Youâll be pleased to hear that Iâve kicked the habit now. Iâm over it, and Iâm coming to terms with the clever psychological warfare they played on me time and again.
In Jelly Splash, when you run out of lives you have two options – you wait 20 agonising minutes, or you pay. But hereâs the thing: to decline either of these options and quit the game youâre forced to declare that you âgive upâ.
Itâs so subtle, and so clever. Nobody wants to be a quitter. Especially when youâve just been beaten by a blob of jelly. It goes again countless proverbs and fables that are ingrained in our psycheâŚ
âQuitters never winâ
âIf at first you donât succeed, try and try againâ the list goes on…
I went there. I paid. And yes, I am ashamed.
Itâs easy to be lazy and pick the obvious, most direct option with CTAs. Both of these examples have gone the extra mile in their audienceâs shoes, and it pays off.
And now my blog is winding to an end, looks like itâs my turn to conjure up a clever, creative CTA…
My CTA is a Call to Arms rather than a Call to Action. I challenge you to think outside the box in your next campaign – be it email, DM, social, sales calls, whatever. Come up with a call to action that stop your audience dead in their tracks and makes them think carefully about their next action.
And let me know how it goes for you.