To grow and sustain your eCommerce business, you must constantly convert prospects who visit your site into customers. And that requires persuading them to take action. If you can’t do that, all the effort you put into your marketing strategy to attract them will go to waste.
A call to action messaging is essential to increasing your sales. First, it convinces your prospects to enter your sales funnel. And then, it allows you to direct every action they take until they complete their journey by making a purchase.
But not every call to action button will achieve those goals. You need a compelling call to action message that gives clear direction, builds trust and authority, manages user attention, and persuades them to act.
In this article, we’ll share five ways to effectively use call to action messaging on your eCommerce site to increase sales.
What is an Effective Call to Action?
Call to action (CTA) is a text prompt designed to tell users what to do next. These actions can be anything from asking visitors to share your content and create an account on your store to asking them to make a purchase.
An good call to action message is crafted expertly to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. They not only direct your prospects to take action, but they also persuade and elicit their reaction. Effective CTAs are also designed to align with your brand’s marketing approach.
How to Effectively use a Call to Action Messaging
As an eCommerce owner, you can’t solely rely on your prospects to make the right decisions when they visit your website. You’ve to guide them every step of the way. Without that, you risk missing potential revenue.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach or template to follow when creating an effective CTA strategy. However, there are some general guidelines that you need to follow. Effective CTAs have specific characteristics that can persuade customers and increase sales.
Here are five ways to optimize your e-commerce CTA messaging to make them more effective.
Creates A Sense Of Urgency
You don’t need a master’s degree to understand the law of demand and supply, which says that the less the supply, the higher the demand (and vice versa). You can incorporate this law in your CTAs to create the impression that your product/service is scarce. This influences your prospects to act immediately.
Creating urgency plays on the psychology of consumers. As humans, we place more value on items when their supply is limited. Additionally, we fear missing out on a good deal, so we take action when we still have the chance.
You can leverage this fear and increase your conversion by using CTA messages that create urgency. Some examples include:
- Indicating the number of items left in stock
- Showing the time the limited sales end or offering discounts with deadlines
- Using power commands like “ORDER NOW!”
- Restricting purchases or setting purchase limits, e.g., one product per person
- Promising “free shipping” or “free trials” if the prospect acts within a certain period
Display your Unique Value Proposition
Before your prospects give you business, they will check out your competitors. They’ll compare prices and all the benefits you offer. Ultimately, they’ll settle for the brand offering the best deal.
So how does the value proposition help in all this?
It helps answer the question all eCommerce customers ask, “why should I buy from you and not your competitors?”
Your unique value proposition is, well, unique to you. It is your selling point. Using it correctly can set you above your competitors, help you stand out, and increase your sales. It shows the main benefit that prospects will get if they buy from you.
When incorporating your unique value proposition in your CTA, you must address the prospect’s principal need and pain points. Therefore, it requires that you know your audience well. A “Buy Now” button could suffice if they’re impulse buyers. And if they’re looking for offers, use a “Free Shipping,” “Start Free Trial,” or “Buy One, Get One Free” button.
Your UVP can also be your return policy, money-back guarantees, or brand tagline.
Make Your Call to Action Messaging Clear
One of the worst mistakes you could make when creating your CTA messaging is being vague. Your customers should understand what your button will do when they click on it. You will fail to convince them to act if the button is unclear.
The message on your CTA buttons shouldn’t confuse or make the prospect anxious. They should be clear statements such as strong command verbs or self-explanatory phrases.
Examples of unclear buttons that confuse prospects include “Continue” and “Submit.” Such buttons don’t tell the customer where they’ll be led. Are they continuing to the checkout page or continuing shopping? Additionally, before clicking “submit,” they’ll want to know what you want them to submit.
Consider replacing vague commands with self-explanatory ones like “Submit your Email,” “Continue to Review,” or “Signup For Updates.”
Command verbs, on the other hand, give customers clear direction. Good examples include “BUY NOW,” “DOWNLOAD CHECKLIST,” and “SUBSCRIBE FOR UPDATES.”
Display your Transactional Assurances
One of the best ways to increase your conversion rates with CTA messaging is by buying the customers’ trust. When your customers notice signs of manipulation or scammy behaviors on your site, they’ll leave, and getting them back will be impossible.
As an eCommerce merchant, you can incorporate different strategies with your CTAs to build authority and assure your customer. Some of those practices are:
- Employing social proofs: Display customer ratings next to your CTA buttons, showcase testimonials or indicate the number of people who have bought your product
- Use numbers to convey your message and give customers clear promises
- Display your offer prominently and avoid vague statements like “terms and conditions apply.”
- Show your certifications and security logos that convince your customers they can safely transact on your site.
- Use a professional small business invoice template customers can trust when making payments and destroy point-of-action anxiety.
Make your CTAs Visible
Customers expect a smooth and straightforward process when using your site. They want to be guided along their journey. Therefore, you must make the process easy by making your CTAs noticeable.
Ignoring standard web convection, like making your CTAs design clickable buttons alone, can cost you money. Make your CTA more visible by:
- Placing your buttons in the correct position where they’re noticeable. Place them above the fold top-right corner of a webpage, the center of the landing page, and the bottom right corner of a mobile
- Use colors that contrast the background and text and are in harmony with your brand colors
- Make the buttons big enough to be clickable by anyone and visible to everyone
Effective Use of CTA Messaging Will Increase your Sales
Calls to action are one of the most critical elements of a successful marketing campaign – they can significantly generate leads, boost conversions, and increase sales. But that is not all.
Effective CTAs can also help you direct customer actions depending on where they’re in the buyer journey, eliminate choice paralysis, and reduce prospect frustration.
Finding the most effective CTA guideline that works best for your site will involve many trials and errors. Experiment with different CTA approaches until you find one that works best for your business and audience to help you achieve your objectives.
