Calls to action are mandatory on websites, because you want to convert your site visitors into leads and leads into customers. As we all know, nobody will spontaneously subscribe to a newsletter or buy a product – you need to tell them to do it. As things stand, there is a general belief among many business owners that CTAs are of two types only: for subscriptions and for sales.
In reality, CTAs are varied and they serve various purposes. The path from total stranger to loyal customer is very long and sinuous, and it involves many invitations to take action one way or another. After all, what you want to get with a CTA button is a response, an interaction from the person who read your blog post or homepage presentation.
These interactions need to be subtle and adapted to the reader’s status with respect to your business: newly landed on the site, subscriber or customer. Also, you need variety on your website. If all your CTAs are about “subscribe here!” or “buy now!”, people will feel irritated by the repetition.
Thus, you should spice up your website with several types of CTAs. Here are the most effective ones:
- Anchor Text CTA
The anchor text CTA is very effective because it does not really look like a CTA, but a link embedded in the text of your articles. It is efficient because it occurs at the moment when the person is engaged with you, by reading your article, and is most likely to have a positive and favourable opinion of your business.
Anchor text CTAs can be placed either inside the body of the text or on subtitles.
- Read More CTA
This CTA serves an aesthetic purpose. If your content is large, it does not make sense to clutter the page with the entire article. Instead, you place a Read More button after the first three or four paragraphs.
In this way, you can distinguish casual visitors from those who are really interested in what your business stands for, by comparing total page visits with the click-through rate of the CTA button. Also, it helps your web page design look clean and clutter-free, with lots of white space around the text.
- Social Connect CTA
You are probably using this CTA and you do not realise that it is one. The header or footer which contains social media icons with links to your accounts is a CTA. To make it more effective, place it on the side or at the bottom of your content pieces, next to social sharing buttons.
In truth, if someone is willing to share your article on their social media accounts, they will also be willing to follow you and discover your content directly on the social media platforms.
- Comment CTA
Inviting readers to comment on your blog post is also something you are already doing (we hope). Why is it a CTA? First of all, because the reader does not remain passive at the end of the lecture; instead, they are invited to share their views, their agreement or disagreement with you. Secondly, your readers become content creators on your website. A blog with many comments and continuous activity receives a higher ranking from Google.
- Smart CTAs at the Bottom of the Article
This is indeed a smart way of giving each website visitor an adequate call to action according to their relationship with your business. Thus, first time visitors will see a CTA inviting them to subscribe to your newsletter. Leads will be invited to try your products. And customers will be invited to discover complementary products, or discover premium content available only to people who have completed at least one purchase.