What is a CTA on a website and when to use it?

Simply put a call to action on a website is a button or a text that communicates or directs the visitor to complete a particular action, the action could be to subscribe, like, or follow (anything that involves taking action). Just to illustrate further what a call to action is, every time you or anyone joins a newsletter, joins a mailing list, or adds something to a cart, it is most likely because of a CTA.

CTA s are considered a great way to get users to click around and view other pages on your site.

Types of call to actions

There is a wide variety of CTAs that you could use on your website based on your needs and requirements, strategically placing them on your website can lead to good results.

Lead generation

This is a good way to go if your priority is to convert all your visitors into leads. This type of call to action works best when placed in a spot on your website that sees a lot of a high number of new visitors, if your website also has a blog that goes along with it then consider adding a call to action at the end of it. In order to make sure it gets noticed, make sure your CTAs are eye-catching and communicate their messaging effectively. After all, what is the purpose of a CTA? It is to generate or help in generating leads, revenue, and sales.

An example of a lead-generating CTA is Quay Australia

Form submission

After a visitor clicks on a lead generating CTA they will most likely be redirected to a landing page that contains some kind of form that requires to be filled out before the visitor can officially be considered as a lead. This is more of a two-step process because the visitor will have to fill up the form and then also click on the submit button, which is why it is important to keep the visitor engaged and interested.

A good example of a website that uses effective form submission as a CTA is a clothing company called Madewell

Read more

The read more option is essentially a CTA that encourages visitors to continue reading, this is a good way to go if you have long-form content. Displaying the first paragraph and giving the visitor the option to read further is a convenient way to not bombard them. Moreover, incorporating a “read more” feature makes sure you have more free space on your page and ensures that certain elements and articles get more traffic. Another version of this CTA is the “learn more” option. The whole point behind this kind of messaging is to not bombard the visitor with too much information and allow them to choose how much content they want to consume.

A great example of a website that uses this kind of CTA is the G2 homepage

Social sharing

In today’s world where social media is a great place to promote your business and products (it is the digital hang-out of the crowds). One of the most convenient CTAs is to encourage visitors to share your message on social media,  this obviously leads to a wider audience and increases the chances of gathering leads and revenue. A social media share button is something all websites are doing now and with good reason.

It is also good to give share options to multiple platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, and WhatsApp.

Event promotion

CTA s that promote any event your company is holding is an effective way to go about it. Not only does it raise awareness but also attracts an audience.

This kind of CTA works best during checkout.

Some examples of creative calls to action are as follows:

• Crazy egg: “Show me my heatmap”
• Manpacks: “Build me a manpack”
• Giftrocket: “Send a giftrocket”
• Contently: “Talk to us”
• Less accounting: “let’s do it”
• Quick sprout: “I want to..”