Every day, we are called to do something—your significant other calls you to go out and have dinner with them. Your boss calls you to do a task. However, they are generally phone calls. And they do not resemble a call to action. So, why am I giving these examples to you? Keep reading to learn more!
What is a Call to Action (CTA)?
A call to action is basically a phrase that is uttered to motivate your visitors or potential customers to take the desired action. Essentially, you give instructions to visitors that will result in leads. To exemplify, a call to action can motivate people to purchase certain items or services from your website. When utilized in the right way, CTAs can help you reach your desired goals.
What makes a CTA good?
In order to answer this question, you have to see a model that has been proposed to create good CTAs – namely, the LIFT model. According to this model, there are six factors you have to understand to create a good CTA.
Every CTA has a value. The proposition’s value is the most important factor according to this model. The remaining five factors either increase or decrease the value of your proposition.
The first increasing factor is relevance. The landing page has to contain the same message as the link that your visitor first clicked. Otherwise, your visitor will depart the page because there is a mismatch between what you have promised and what you are offering.
The second factor that increases the value of the proposition is clarity. The landing page has to be clear about what is being discussed. The marketers generally struggle to comprehend this part. The text, the images, or the design should be clear. Your design should not be a burden to visitors’ eyes. Then, the content has to be easy to comprehend.
The final factor in increasing the value is urgency. Your visitors have to be convinced that there is an action they have to take immediately. Generally, urgency is made up of two parts – internal and external urgency. Internal urgency is based on how your visitors feel after seeing the CTA – this urgency type already exists, generally.
The external urgency is based on how effectively the marketer influences the visitors. If you want to stimulate a high external urgency feeling, you have to adjust and enhance the tone, offers, and deadlines.
The first value-decreasing factor is anxiety. The visitors should not be anxious about following your instructions. Otherwise, your credibility and the trust your visitors have for you are going to be damaged.
The second factor that decreases value is distraction. The CTA you show to your visitors should have the required amount of visual inputs and actions. The more there are options less likely they will answer your call to action. Eliminate the unnecessary product options, links, and extra information.
So, after covering all these six factors. You should have an image on your mind of what a good CTA looks like. However, to be on the same page, let’s give an example.
Let’s say that you have published an e-book regarding topic X. Your visitors have come to your page to download this e-book. So, in order to have a good call to action, you write something like this;
“Download this e-book on topic X now! No credit card or payment required!”
As you can see, download supports the relevancy. This e-book on topic X is where CTA becomes more clear. Now is the element that creates urgency for your visitors. And putting the last info on there is no need for payment eliminates anxiety for your visitors.
Top 8 Examples of Call to Actions (CTAs)
Generally, the LIFT model is not directly applied to CTA, but the supporting material – images or graphics, etc. The examples you will see now are mostly following the rules of the LIFT.
1- Dropbox: Find the Plan for You
Dropbox has always been known for its simple design with spacious pages. The graphics throughout their site are simple and subtle. The simple design and negative space help their blue call to action button that says find the plan for you stand out from everything else on the page.
Another plus of having such a blue button is that the visitors associate the color blue with Dropbox – since blue is the main color of their logo. This is the main pattern you can see with Dropbox CTAs.
2- Facebook: Create New Account
Facebook has simplified its landing page so well that you only see the necessary information and required boxes. Its simple design helps you to see CTA faster than ever. The green button design of the CTA Create New Account makes it greet your eye.
In a quick glance, you can understand that Facebook focuses on clarity and distraction. The page does not distract you from creating a new account or logging in to your account.
3- Canva: Start Your Free Pro Trial
Canva is one of the most useful online design tools you can use for a variety of projects. There are lots of features of Canva that are only available for its pro plan. To converse people into purchasing the pro plan, Canva uses a good CTA design – unsurprisingly – that is simple and attracts the attention of the people. The button that says start your free pro trial catches the eye and stands out.
4- Slack: Try for Free
In order to understand how the app works, the anxiety of purchasing something happens to lots of people nowadays. Slack reduces this anxiety by simply saying that you can try Slack for free. The design also makes the button stand out from the background and makes you click on the purple button.
5- Instagram
Apps like Instagram generally use the same CTA on their websites. There are two buttons that say the CTA Get it on Google Play and Download on the App Store. The general tendency for these apps is to have a very simple design that does not create hindrances for your eyes and have the black CTA-filled buttons at the end. This way, you can easily see the CTA then click on them.
6- Spotify: Get Spotify Free
Spotify is used by millions and millions of people every day – so as to listen to podcasts and songs. On its main page, Spotify utilizes the distraction and anxiety factors to the top. As one can see, the design is extremely simple. The only thing your eye will see is the texts that stand out.
Also, Spotify confirms that you don’t need any credit card information to get Spotify for free. This reduces the anxiety of the visitors when they visit the site in the first place. Then, your attention gets to the CTA that simply says you can get Spotify for free. Simple, yet effective.
7- Huemor: View Our Work
Huemor is one of the design masters in the industry. And their CTA is according to their expertise. As one can see, Huemor highly uses external urgency and relevancy on their webpage. As soon as you see the image they show you; you want to see their work. And relevancy aspect is there since you are to see their work. It is one of the meticulously crafted CTAs in the industry.
8- Classical Examples
There are so many CTAs that are used repetitively by different websites, brands, and people throughout the internet. Instead of making a list out of them, you can simply discuss them in one section.
Buy Now
You have probably seen “Buy Now!” on a number of websites. The key point of this type of CTAs is that they are focusing on the urgency aspect of the CTA. “Now” is generally used to invoke fear of missing out. People don’t want to miss good offers or limited offers – which leads us to the next classical example.
Limited
“Limited” is another word you see in CTAs. Again, similar to “now,” this stimulates the fear of missing out. People tend to benefit from offers that are limited; otherwise, they think that they will have to pay an extra price for the same service if they are to miss out on this offer.
Claim
“Claim” is one of the famous words that are uttered when it comes to CTAs. There are plenty of CTAs that make you feel you have achieved something. Generally, these all start with the verb claim. They make you feel like you are successful after all. And positive feelings are the ones that can make your customers invest in your product.
Free
As stated before, there is an anxiety of paying the price of a product just to see how it works. “Free” in this regard eliminates this anxiety for the visitors or potential customers. “Sign up for free” is one of the most used CTAs across the industries that eliminate anxiety.
More
Finally, there are CTAs that make you want to see what is extra about the content or the brand. These CTAs are generally followed by the word “more.” The availability of the extra information makes you interested in that specific brand or blog post. Similar to this, they can also use just “view.” This, too, uses the same curiosity aspect and gives you “a command” to explore the brand.
Here is the end. You have a clear sense of what is a CTA and how you can write a CTA that will intrigue people to explore more about your product or content. After using the tips, you have read, and with the help of the examples above, you are clearly eligible to write a CTA that is unique to your brand.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you write a call to action phrase?
You can write a call to action phrase by sticking to the six factors of the LIFT model. The propositional value, relevance, clarity, urgency, anxiety, and distraction.
What is a call to action sentence?
A call to action sentence is a sentence that is uttered to motivate your visitors or potential customers to take the desired action. Essentially, you give instructions to visitors that will result in leads.
What’s another way to say a call to action?
If we are to read the context where a call to action happens. The most fitting way to say a call to action is encouragement – or maybe call-up.
What is a call to action in a presentation?
In a presentation setting, a call to action is used in order to persuade people to do what you ask them at the end of your presentation.
