Call-to-Action Marketing…Don’t Miss Out!
You’ve heard a lot of call-to action (CTA) marketing slogans – don’t miss out, call today, make sure you get a good deal, deals at your fingertips, etc. There are tons of ways to get prospective customers to act when it comes to your business. But, there are also lots of ways to turn them off based on your CTA. Developing a CTA is complex – it requires market knowledge and an understanding of what is appealing to people. Fusion Group USA has the marketing and advertising background to develop a call-to-action that is appealing to your target market. Here are some helpful things to remember when coming up with your CTA:
- Remove or reduce the risk.
Removing the upfront risk and allowing people to try something for free, or even get something for free, can encourage confidence amongst buyers to give your product a shot. Kathryn Aragon explains this further in her blog on The Daily Egg, giving examples of magazines offering free subscriptions. It’s almost as if you’re so confident that your product/service is great that you’re not afraid of letting people try it for free – you know they’ll love it and be willing to pay.
- Always tell people what to do next.
It’s important to tell people exactly how they should follow through. If your CTA is successful at generating interest but you don’t let people know how to follow through, they may just give up. It’s important to retain their interest and make it easy for them.
- Encourage immediate response.
You don’t want the prospective customer to forget about you! If there is no encouragement to respond immediately, your customers might decide to do it later and inevitably forget. People are bombarded with marketing messages on a regular basis, and if yours doesn’t stand out or make them want to act immediately it will be forgotten.
- Make it all about the benefits.
Of course you want to highlight your benefits, this is what advertising is all about! You want to let people know exactly why they should have your product/service in their life, leading them to feel they have nothing to lose by at least trying your product/service.
- Use strong phrasing and imagery.
In line with #3, people are bombarded with advertisements – according to CBS, we have gone from being exposed to roughly 500 ads per day in the 1970s to roughly 5000 ads a day today. It’s imperative that your ad make an impact so think about using catchy phrasing and unique imagery. Something that is really going to resonate with people and hook them into your message.
- Use friendly, approachable language.
People tend to get turned off if they think you’re only after their money. Make your message friendly and approachable, and of course, stand out. Make sure you let people in your target market know that you will take care of them and that they will not be disappointed in your product.
- Employ minimalist forms.
If you are using online forms to get people to sign up for something, make sure you make them simple! If a form is too complex, or too aggressive, people will be turned off and will likely leave your site without signing up for anything. Some sites employ forms that are required to be filled out before even being able to peruse the site – if you’re like me, I just leave immediately. That is far too aggressive and it’s not risk-free which is unappealing.
- Have more than one option, tailored to different needs.
If you have multiple options for people to try, create different buttons or forms for people to fill out according to their personal preferences. This gives people agency over their choices, making them feel that they are in control of the situation and more likely to sign up.
- Use strong verbs.
Just like you should use strong phrasing and images, you should use strong action verbs to encourage people to act now. This can be incorporated successfully into your marketing slogan, or it can be used by itself to draw attention to your CTA.
- Use words that provoke emotion and enthusiasm.
You want your ad to be remembered, and one way to do this is to provoke an emotional response from people and create a sense of enthusiasm. Billy McCaffrey, in his Wordstream blog, highlights the use of phrasing to make people think that they would be missing out on something if they didn’t act on your CTA. FOMO (fear of missing out) is an excellent motivator! Highlighting a sale or making a time/supply sensitive offer encourages people to act while they still can.
Creating a call-to-action is complex and you want to make sure you get it right! Call the advertising and marketing experts at Fusion Group USA to develop a message that is sure to be memorable and effective. Call today to get started on your marketing campaign and start working on your CTA!
