Call to Action: 5 ways to make it a true Star!

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like Marketing” states Tom Fishburne, Founder & CEO of Marketoonist. This quote encapsulates a key concept for being able to communicate effectively with your audience.

This is why, when implementing a marketing strategy, you should build a Journey containing a variety of channels and contents distributed in such a way as to make the conversion funnel as natural as possible. To do this, you should carefully study all the elements making up the content promoted. Among these, although often underestimated, a strategic role is played by Calls to Action (CTAs).

This blog will provide you with some useful tips for creating successful CTAs to optimize the conversion rate of your marketing campaigns, focusing on graphics, content and especially on the results and the reaction of the audience in a proactive perspective of continuous improvement.

1.Frame your target

Every good marketing action starts with the definition of the goal you want to achieve through it. Whether it’s the subscription to a Congress or the download of an educational content, if you want to guide the user’s path as precisely and specifically as possible, you must always start setting up the whole campaign and its messages carefully on the basis of Awareness, Evaluation or Conversion objectives. From the Subject, to the Body text up to the Call To Action.

2. Rem Tene, Verba Sequantur

Let’s get right to the point! We mentioned that Calls to Action (CTAs) play an important role in content marketing. But before we understand why, let’s analyze them in detail.

One of the most important elements of a Call to Action is the copy: the language should be concise, but at the same time persuasive and motivating. When choosing your text you should put yourself in the users’ shoes and ask yourself “why should they click here?” Choosing verbs related to the sphere of action, for example, facilitates the attraction to the message. Similarly, the choice of the imperative tense leverages persuasiveness. But this is valid if, in keeping with the company’s Tone of Voice, creative balance replaces banality (just to be clear: “Click here” or “More information” is not what we call creativity).

3. Style Matters

As we were saying, Calls To Action are composed of a textual and a graphic part and, with reference to the latter, every small variation in terms of style can have an impact on performance. The color, in particular, is one of the most important features as it makes the CTA visible, easily dishernible and consequently clickable. But how to choose the right color?

A. First rule of style: color is not a random choice!

Often, brands choose for their CTA buttons a color that matches the ones of their logo (which typically appear in the header of the email). According to Really Good Emails, 48% of brands match their CTAs to a color found in their brand logo. This choice allows them to build consistency in message design while reinforcing the brand.

For example, if you are subscribed to Trueblue’s newsletter, it is likely that you will recognize our emails even with your eyes half closed 😉

B. If your brand’s palette was a closet…

Matching the CTA to your logo/header, however, is not the only parameter. In fact, many brands use a color that suits the context of a particular email or campaign, in particular by changing the color of the Call To Action. This choice is effective when the visual identity of the brand is well established, but especially if you stick to the palette of your brand identity and choose a color that, although different from the logo, is in harmony with the chosen color scheme.

4. Propose a solution

As obvious as it may seem, at the end of my journey along a textual and/or graphic content, I may be looking for a solution or I may be led to discover the solution to a need that is not explicitly expressed or of which I am not yet aware. And that’s why, if well designed, the Call To Action can be the key to increase conversion rates and audience engagement.

5. Data never Lies

Now let’s assume that you’ve implemented the best strategies and followed our tips for crafting your Call To Action. Have you achieved your business results?

We’d be delighted about that, but the truth is that the only way to know what’s working or not, is to test and measure the effectiveness of different actions and understand if, where and why a change of course might be needed.

How?

We are aware of how important it is to create the best customer experience in order to achieve the best business results and therefore we want to offer you a solution.

AiDEA Marketing powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365®:  the marketing automation tool that combines Trueblue’s Artificial Intelligence with the power of Microsoft Dynamics 365®, for a 100% customer-focused result.

Not only is the solution user friendly, but it also includes A/B Testing features and performance Insights on specific KPIs and on every single marketing action. This is essential and strategically functional because – for example – this way you aren’t forced to choose between the brand color or a different one for your CTAs.

As a matter of fact, the A/B Testing feature enables you to create the same email twice, in which only one element changes (the color of the CTA) and to see which of the two versions has been more appreciated in terms of performance after sending.

Just as easily, you can access detailed insights into the mail channel and compare it to other channels and integrated information at a Customer Journey level for the optimization of each channel with respect to the target audience.

In short… Here is the sketch of the perfect Call To Action

• It’s concise and clear
• It stands out: placed in a strategic point of the page, where the eye can easily see it
• It follows stylistic and visual strategies to emerge and stand out
• Hover Effect: if inside a button, it should change color when the mouse moves over it
• It’s only one: the rule is that there should be a single one for each piece of content or page to avoid user confusion.
• It’s Bulletproof
• Test it: As we wrote above every element must be tested, even Calls To Action. You just need to have the right tools to do it!

And now, leave room for your creativity and make Calls to Action the real protagonists of your marketing content, the CTR will thank you (and your users will too)!

Elisa Ambroso – Communication Manager

Elisa Valentino – Social Media Manager

Martina Fiore – Marketing Manager