Six copywriting tips that encourage people to do that thing, that you want them to do

Every bit of business content you write exists to persuade a person to act the way you want them to. Buy the thing, download the thing, sign up to the thing, book the thing. You get the idea. Your content’s job is to move curious bystanders toward converting. Think of this as a kind of marketing alchemy. 

The all-important call to action (CTA) plays a crucial role in making your marketing copy effective, dare I say it, unignorable. So I‘m not using the word important lightly.

​All hail the masterful CTA and its proven powers of persuasion 

You pour tonnes of time, energy and sometimes money into social posts, sales pages, email campaigns and blogs. How can you make sure this content delivers? A well-crafted CTA is the essential, proactive step you take to get a return on the marketing that you serve up. 

Leaving out a CTA is a missed opportunity. You’re providing information as a freebie. Technically, what you’re creating isn’t marketing. You’re asking nothing of your audience. You’re leaving people floundering. They’ve read the thing, but what should they do next? If you don’t prompt or straight up tell them to act, they’ll bounce. 

“Oh, that was a jolly article. I’ve got the information I need. Ta-ra.”

Give them the logical next step that links what they’ve read to the action you want them to complete. And BOOM! Your jolly article morphs into a piece of proactive marketing copy. 

That’s why CTAs are important. They link, they prompt, they give people the next place to go … your place, the place where you provide the thing that’ll make their lives …easier, more interesting, more fun.

But are they actually effective? 

Fuck yeah, they are. In CTA-speak, this is where I should probs insert one that says ‘Show me the evidence.’ So here we go. 

Check this case study that reveals how following a whole heap of CTA best practices, increased conversions by 232% for one company. (Oh my days, that sounds dreamy.) 

This survey by Databox shows that including a CTA in email marketing gets a 3%-5% click through rate. And an email with a single, focussed CTA does 43% better than those with two or more.

CTAs work when it comes to getting conversions. But what exactly do you do to get those enviable stats? 

There are a fair few elements that go into creating an effective CTA—design, UX, copy, audience, budget—geez! And I’m certainly not well-versed in some of that stuff, much of which will be business-dependent. So from here on in, I’m coming at quality CTA creation from a beginner’s perspective and focussing (mostly) on the copy rather than design.

Different types of CTA

There are only a handful of marketing actions you can ask people to take. 

• Buy now
• Book now
• Click here
• Download 
• Sign Up
• Contact.

But there are lots of ways to ask people to do those things. (I’ll get specific on wording soon.) Choosing the right action depends on motivation—yours and theirs. 

Motivators and logical action

When it comes to thinking about your CTA, start with your audience. You need to know who your content is aimed at. How well do they know your business? Why are they drawn to your content and what are they looking to get out of it?  

Now check your motivation. What’s your marketing goal and how does the specific bit of content you’re working on (and its very particular CTA) fit with it? Finding it tricky to get clear on this? HubSpot sums up your options really well in their 10 types of CTA.

I’m not gonna list all 10 here. My point is, choose the action you want someone to take (book, buy, download, contact etc) and marry it with the specific marketing goal you’re aiming for. For example, is this CTA there to

• generate leads
• introduce a new or signature product or service 
• encourage social sharing and user generated content
• promote an event 
• nurture a hot lead.

Bring their motivation and yours together to create a logical call to action. 

Sometimes the match is really simple and obvious. Your motivation is to sell a thing. The audience’s desire is to buy a thing. And it’s a product or service page, so the CTA is to click the buy button or complete the intake form. It can be that easy. But what if it’s not? 

Logical next steps not leaps into the unknown

Make sure the CTA is a logical step from what the person reads to what you want them to do. And (ideally) don’t ask too much of them.

Here’s a rather extreme (but easy to demonstrate) example using blog CTAs and a high-ticket industry, such as the wedding industry. 

Imagine you’ve just written a blog about the benefits of a destination wedding, which is a service you sell. At the end of the article you say something like, Now you know the benefits, book your wedding with us.

OK, it’s possible a few super impressed or wildly impulsive humans might jump on board with that. But for most people, it’s going to feel like a really big leap. Thinking about this logically, the person may well

• have only just found your company through search
• know nothing about your business.

They’re highly unlikely to part with thousands of dollars and book one of the most important, personal days of their life after reading just one article. Better, more logical, tempting and trust-building CTA options might be to link to:

• another article (Now you know this, it’s time to think about that)
• your about page or service page to read about the specific benefits you offer
• a case study showing these benefits in a real-life scenario.

Logical CTAs increase the likelihood of people taking that next step with your business. You’re asking them to do something that makes sense and matches the commitment level they’re at. This is the hallmark of a strong CTA that will benefit your business.  

​Six copywriting tips that deliver strong CTAs

There are loads of best practices for call to action buttons and links. But as I’m not a designer, developer or user experience (UX) specialist, I’m going to leave those points to people who are better versed in that stuff. I’ll stick to taking you through six solidly tested CTA copywriting tips you can try.

1. Be specific and accurate 

Your CTA copy must match what you’re offering or where the click leads. As the Neilsen Norman Group writes:

 If we send people down a wrong path at the expense of what they’re truly looking for, we’ve actually failed.  

So, if you have a Download Now button, I expect to be able to download the thing I want. And if I click Buy Now, I want to go to a checkout page. Don’t redirect me to another sales page. 

2. Use your tone of voice

Your call to action copy—be it a button or link text—should be in line with your business tone of voice. It’s an authenticity, consistency and familiarity thing. For example, rather than just saying Download now you can write Oh yeah, gimme the download! Or Contact Me could be Get in touch, babe. Make it sound like you.

3. Play and experiment

Some words work better than others. Using the word ‘Free’ for example is very powerful. But slightly tweaking your  language helps you to:

• be more specific 
• be more reassuring 
• prompt more people to take the action you want. 

I really like this case study example on Keep It Usable, where a retailer changed the button copy from Where to Buy to Nearby Retailer and increased clicks by 4.1%. So I urge you to play and experiment with your CTA copy, tweaking a word and seeing what impact that has    

4. Keep it short

For buttons, stick to 2-6 words. Any more looks massive, which makes it feel like hard work. You want short, snappy, easy to do. 

If your CTA is link text to another article, use 2-4 of that article’s keywords or keep the whole title. Again, this helps with specificity. People get a clearer picture of where you’re sending them.

Image source: uxmistakes.co

5. Use active verbs

It’s called call to action for a reason, so use the verb that relates to the thing you want the person to do: buy, book, call, download, click, like, share, and so on. You can wrap this verb in on-brand copy (as mentioned above) or better still, remind people of a benefit. Click here for more sales or Download for simple content planning. 

6. Think about position

Where you position your CTA in your copy or on your page can matter. There’s a lot of talk about making sure you have one in the first fold. (The area before someone has to scroll.) This can work, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. 

In long-form sales copy, you’d be unlikely to ask someone to take action until you’re at least a third, if not half way through your pitch. Sometimes, you’ll get the best result by saying it once right at the end. Just like conversion optimization consultant Michael Agaard, who got a 304% increase in conversions when he moved his CTA from the top right margin of his page, to the bottom. Nice.

Image source: cxl.com/blog/above-the-fold

Time to check your CTAs

Working on your CTA copy is well worth the effort. Clear, accurate, on-brand CTAs improve communication between you and your audience, clarify your offering, and inevitably lead to more conversions.

Don’t fret if your CTA isn’t quite right the first time. Tweak a word here or there, change its position, and re-check that it’s a logical step on from where your reader currently finds themselves. Strengthen a well-placed CTA and you’ll prompt people to act, so get your desired outcome. 

Take my CTA challenge 

Check the CTA on one of your most recent pieces of marketing copy against my six copywriting tips. Is it clear, logical, and performing? If you think there’s room for improvement, give it a quick edit.

A quick word on CTA performance.

It can be fiddly. You need to track marketing conversions and check them in Google Analytics. Or use heat mapping tools to see if and where people are clicking. 

Or you can do it in a crude but simple way. 

If your CTA on a page is to sign up to your emails, have you noticed more subscribers on your list? Or if you’ve asked people to share your post, can you see on your socials that it’s been shared? 

Now let’s put my CTA skills to the test.

Want a free CTA copy check? 

I offer a free copy review service. When you get to question eight in the request form, tell me you wanna work on CTAs. I’ll happily send you some free ideas to kick them into action. Ask for a free copy review.