#callstoaction

Call-to-actions (CTAs) are a critical part of any digital marketing strategy since every piece of content you create should be crafted with a specific goal in mind—an action you’d like your followers to take after engaging with your posts.

A call to action is a written directive used across various marketing initiatives, like social media, websites, and emails. CTAs encourage your followers and site visitors to take the desired action. Examples include "Learn More” or “Subscribe Now,” but can be longer, such as “Subscribe now so you’ll never miss a post.” The possibilities are endless!

Maybe you want to drive users to your website, invite them to sign up for a newsletter, or encourage them to share your profile with their friends. A good CTA can help with decision fatigue even if it’s just a two-word phrase - users need some direction to know what to do next.

Here are a few tips on how to ensure your CTAs will deliver results.

Use strong action words

When crafting your CTA, start with a verb (“Buy”) and follow with an adverb (“now”).

Some of the most common CTA verbs are:

Learn More

See More

See How

Start Now

Find Out

Check it Out

Click here

Continue here

Swipe Up

Ensure that the words you use will make it very clear to the user what will happen when they follow your CTA. If your CTA copy is vague or does not align with what users will see after they click, rethink the word choice so that they match.

Choose the right placement

Your CTA needs to be in a place where it will attract the viewer's attention. For example, putting a call to action at the very bottom of a web page is not the best idea. While you may have some site visitors who will get to the end and take action, you will miss out on other users who did not scroll that far. On a long page, you may want to have two CTAs—one near the top of the page to grab attention right away and another one at the bottom for anyone who is still browsing.

Speak the right language

The tone of voice you would use to communicate with your target audience should match the tone of your CTA.

Read through your reviews, customer service conversations, and other outlets where you can find words and phrases that came directly from your customers and followers. Then, if possible, work that language into your CTAs.

By testing this method, you may see better results because your call to action will sound natural to your audience.

Continuously test your CTAs

CTAs are easy to test and can make a difference in your overall success.

If one phrase did not inspire as many clicks as you had hoped, try another! You can also search for inspiration from competitors and other brands.

Just be sure not to expect that what worked for another business will work for yours without testing. Everyone’s target demo is different, even if only slightly, and yours might have unique preferences that lead to alternate results.

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is an online marketing tool that is a combination of strategies used in search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing.  Internet marketing companies are now offering this service as part of their online marketing strategy.

Your business should be able to address critical customer behaviors such as online visibility and customer interaction.  SMO is designed to increase brand awareness by maximizing social media outlets and communities.  Your goal is viral publicity in order to drive traffic to your website. If you want to increase your website traffic you may  [WD_Button id=1431]   When used effectively, social media can extend your company’s reach and increase the opportunities for people to easily link to your main business website. SMO can make your site highly visible in social media searches and included more often on relevant vlogs, podcasts, and blogs. All your social media accounts will be cohesive and will consistently deliver the same message that your brand wants to achieve . Here are some important guidelines in conducting an SMO for your business’ website. These are the same strategic guidelines that industry experts use to assist clients in building an effective SMO base:- Linkability Boost Instead of having a static website, it should contain “links” that people find relevant and useful, and would possibly want to use as reference in a post or blog of their own.  Your website should contain linkable assets such as blog posts, think pieces, or aggregates of other related content. These linkable assets should be quality content that people would want to share.  

Hashtag Properly Hashtags are used to find your posts on Instagram and Facebook and tweets on Twitter easier to find.  When you use a hashtag for your posts, it helps reach new audiences on social media and therefore helps boost your brand.  When using a hashtag, keywords that are relevant to your brand should be used.  Some businesses use at least two hashtags.  This allows them to check which hashtag works best for their customers. Tagging and Bookmarking Your SMO strategy should also include features to make tagging and bookmarking pages simpler. Palatable Content Just like in Search Engine Optimization, great content is still needed in SMO.  Content should be tweetable, share-able, like-able, and pin-able.  In short, they should create enough buzz in social media sites to create brand awareness.  Not only should content be engaging and relevant, they should also be written well with great visuals so that people are encouraged to share them.  

Social Media Profiles Your company’s social media profiles should be optimized.  Your profile should contain all relevant information about your company such as the URL to your main business site, address and phone numbers.  You should also complete all the fields in the profile. There is nothing more off-putting for a first time visitor than incomplete company information.  You should also ensure that all content, images and formats are all the same across all social media profiles.  You should also have a network-specific and dedicated landing page.       Mash-ups and Calls to Action Social media marketing thrives on giving users the opportunity to create their own content.  Your company should be open about letting other users re-use your content through RSS feeds or YouTube.  After all, this exposes your content to a new audience. In the spirit of co-creation and interactivity, your social media posts should be able to gather feedback from customers and followers. You can ask them what they think if they have suggestions or ideas to make the brand better, or you can even tell them what to do next.  It should be very specific such as “Please share” or “Please Re-tweet” or “Help us reach 10,000 followers by liking this page”.