• 3-minute read
• 19th June 2020

5 Top Tips for Writing a Strong Call to Action (CTA)

If you want to turn casual readers into committed customers, you need a strong call to action (otherwise known as a CTA). But how do you write one for your website or promotional materials? Check out our five top tips.

1. Think About Your Goal

The first step in writing a strong call to action is thinking about what you want to achieve. Common examples include:

• Directing the reader to more content.
• Promoting a service, event, or product.
• Encouraging readers to subscribe to a newsletter.
• Suggesting an action (e.g. downloading or sharing something).

Whatever your goal, this should inform your writing. This will typically involve using strong action words. For example, rather than simply telling people you have a newsletter available, urge them to ‘Sign Up Now!’

Don’t forget that a call to action is literally that: a call for readers to act!

2. Give Readers a Reason to Act

As well as encouraging readers to take an action, you need to give them a reason to act. Think about how to appeal to your readers. This might involve:

• Communicating value (e.g. offering a free sample or discount).
• Using fear of missing out (e.g. a limited offer or deadline).
• Offering assurance (e.g. using phrases like ‘risk free’ or ‘tried and tested’).

Ultimately, this comes down to knowing what your audience want and finding the best way to offer them that via your call to action.

3. Keep It Short and Simple

A call to action should be short and simple. Some are as short as one or two words. And if all you want to do is let users know that they can ‘Pay now’ by clicking a button, anything more than two words would be unnecessary.

But it is fine to use a sentence or two as long as you keep your message simple. Users need to know what will happen if they do what you suggest, so try to express this as clearly and concisely as possible.

4. Make It Impossible to Miss

Think about how you will present your call to action on screen or the page. Ideally, it should be impossible to miss!

This could involve making it a button that stands out or using a different font or format from the main text. But if someone has read the bulk of your copy, you can’t afford for them to skip over the call to action.

5. Proofread It!

It should go without saying that a typo in your call to action will look bad. It could even put people off clicking it. Likewise, a poorly phrased call to action could be confusing. As such, proofreading your copy is essential!

Minimally, you should ask a friend of colleague to check your call to action. But to be extra sure your writing is the best it can be, you could also ask an expert proofreader for feedback. And if you want to see how our editing services could help you, simply upload a free sample document today.