Weak CTA's (calls-to-action) form impenetrable barriers between you and your customers. Barriers that not only block enquiries but sadly will leave your website nothing more than a dead-end.
On the other hand, when added to a well-designed website with clear content, a strong website CTA will 'seal the deal'. In this post, I'm going to show you how to create a strong CTA for your service-based business website. Follow my CTA advice and ensure your beautiful website generates the return on investment you need.
Know your target audience
First things first, just like proper design and copywriting, you need to really know your target audience before you work on your CTA. In fact, knowing, and deeply understanding your target audience, comes before everything, the design, branding, copy, content and marketing.
But it's always good to remember to go over your target audience again when you come to write your CTA's. You can never go over this too much! Things to think about are; what does your target audience want? What are they looking for? How did they arrive on your website? What tone of voice and vocabulary are they using?
Keeping your language consistent across all of your marketing is essential!
Understand how your business works best
For small to medium service-based businesses, it's crucial that you not only understand your audience but also how your business operates best. This will ensure you create a strong CTA that's well suited for your company.
I have a great story that demonstrates this really well.
When I first started my business back in January 2015, I had two prominent CTA's on my website. I gave my visitors the option to either call me or leave a message via a contact form. On the surface, this makes perfect sense.
However, I hate unarranged phone calls.
I'm busy. I don't like to be disturbed when I'm working. I don't always work during daytime hours. Sometimes I'm in the supermarket during office hours then I work late in the evening to catch up.
Sometimes I play with my kids after school, then pick up messages when they're in bed. The point is, it was a really silly idea to add a direct link to my mobile on my website - I don't answer calls from numbers I don't know!
When I took my telephone number off my website, leaving one CTA - directing visitors to leave a message, I spoke to more potential customers. I now have a link to book a FREE 15 min call because I know my potential customers have questions and booking a call works best for my business.
Use confident, clear and proactive language
For a service-based business, you need to keep things simple and stick to CTAs centred around getting your visitors to contact you and make some sort of initial enquiry. Arriving on your website for the first time, they probably aren't ready to buy your service straight away.
Using strong, proactive language such as "Call us now" "Fill out the contact form" "Book your free session" "Schedule a free call today" "Find out more" will show you're confident in the action you want them to take.
Use exactly the same words for every call to action
I often see websites with variations of the same CTA, but you really need to be consistent here. Your CTA will appear weak if you don't repeat it over and over in the same way.
Similar to when you have too many different CTA's on the same page, I believe when your audience read variations of the same CTA they subconsciously know you're not sure what you want them to do. You appear weak.
Being consistently bold in your request for them to take action will reinforce in their mind that you're a confident business owner who can be relied upon.
The key to a strong CTA that seals the deal for your audience is clarity, confidence and consistency.
Dr Hannah Gibson
Lead Copywriter & Founder of Gibson Copy.
Visit Gibson Copy to learn more about what we do.
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If you have any questions about this, or if you would like some one-to-one support with your copy, book a £149 copy consultation.