Use CTA Psychology To Unfairly Dominate In Business
Want to make more money from your ads or SEO campaign? Then you need to understand CTA psychology.
Because when you consider your prospects mindset and what motivates them to click, you can completely transform your conversions and sales.
As our business has evolved, we’ve started to look at our content through a different perspective, one focused on our call to actions. The results are breathtaking.
If you think about it, a 20% increase in conversions on a landing page or button tweak is a 20% increase in profits. Huge!
Using CTA psychology has evolved the way we get customers to convert. We want to help you do the same.
Continue reading to learn how you can improve yours.
What Is A Call To Action?
A CTA, or call to action, is a tactic used to suggest your audience takes a specific action. This can be buying a product, scheduling a consultation, or following your business on Instagram.
A clear CTA will persuade customers to take the next step, in the form of a button or link, and do what you desire them to do.
An example of a CTA would be a Facebook post with an additional button that says “Buy Now” or “Shop Now”. Once a user clicks on that button, it will take them to a landing page that has the offer that was featured in the post.
The average conversion rate for a landing page is only 4.02%. That means most of the people that visit your website aren’t buying anything.
Adding effective CTA’s to your website is the solution for this as it gives users the final push they need to buy.
Whether you’re a small business just starting out or a large business that has been thriving for decades, you need to start implementing persuasive CTAs. These are at the heart of CRO. (Wondering what is CRO?)
Otherwise, you’re wasting marketing dollars, and potential sales, left and right.
What Is CTA Psychology?
Buyer psychology is the secret code to unlocking your customer’s greatest needs and having them spend all of their money with your company.
Knowing that, CTA psychology is the idea of applying psychological principles to understand what motivates consumers to take the next step with a business.
Most businesses only focus on the surface level aspects of CTA’s, such as:
- Font type
- Placement
- Color
- Copy
- Other design aspects
These are important, but they can’t fully explain why users actually click on something in the first place.
CTA psychology goes beyond design and copy. It focuses on the “why” of consumer behavior.
You can use this concept to create call to actions that coincide with the psychological behavior of the consumer. And everyone knows understanding your consumer is one of the core concepts of marketing.
So combine design elements and psychology principles to take your business to the next level and increase your conversion rates.
Alright, now let’s talk about how you can use this to improve your business.
10 Ways To Improve Your CTAs
1. Offer Limited Time Only Coupons
People hate to feel like they’re missing out. FOMO (fear of missing out) is a real human condition.
We see this in everyday life. You feel upset if you see that your coworkers are getting dinner together and didn’t invite you. Or if your friend is having a birthday party and you can’t go, it’s the worst feeling in the world.
This idea can be applied to offering coupons to your customers.
If there’s one thing I know for certain, it’s that people don’t like to lose out on saving money. Coupons are an opportunity for customers to receive big savings.
Combining this fear of missing out with the desire to save, many consumers who are encouraged to click on a coupon will do it and spend more money with your business.
To really guarantee that a customer will click on the offer, put a time limit on how long they can use the coupon. That’s how the pros separate themselves from the rookie marketers.
Limited time offers create urgency and are a great place to start with improving your CTAs.
2. Check Your Website UX
Fair or not, customers will associate the state of your website with the state of your business.
First impressions are vital when it comes to improving conversion rates.
If you have a bad website that has slow loading speeds and unclear information, the user will assume that they will have to wait a long time with your business to get products and information.
It takes 8 positive encounters after a bad first impression to officially change that consumer’s negative perception of your company. The online world makes it extremely difficult to get 8 more encounters when the consumer can go to 10 different sites that look like yours.
Having fast loading speeds will make your business seem efficient in the eyes of the consumer. No wait for the website to load means no wait to get the product they ordered.
You should also be as clear as possible with what you offer. The customer should never be confused about what you do. If they click on any page, there should be no question as to who you are and what you offer.
Quality branding is a must to really pick up market traction. People trust brands they know so the more you share your great website, the more people will know who you are.
If you need help improving your website design, work with us we’ll improve your leads and sales off your site.
3. Place CTAs First And/Or Last
People tend to remember either the first or last thing they see.
This is especially true if they are viewing long copy that goes into extreme detail.
If you want the user to remember anything from what they just read, it’s your product and how they can get to it. This is where your CTA comes in.
Place your CTA at the very beginning of the copy, the very end, or both. It doesn’t hurt to put it in both places; if they miss one, then they’ll see the other.
You can also apply this to a short Facebook post, a brief email, or anywhere else you put out content.
For shorter posts, using a layout of 3 can be effective. Placing a CTA on either side of a limited time offer will guarantee that the user will click somewhere to get to your site.
Before you post, ask yourself if you can clearly see where the CTA is. If you can’t find it, then it’s getting lost in your content and you need to reposition it.
4. Reciprocity
Offering free products is a classic move.
When you get an unprompted gift, you’re filled with joy to such a degree that you feel like you owe them something in return. Whether it be a gift of your own or volunteering to help them, you feel like it evens out the score.
You can use this concept to your company’s advantage with free products. This can be anything from free samples to a free ebook.
Offering a taste of what you offer gives the user a chance to try it out before they invest in it. If they like it, they’ll buy it. They’ll also feel like they owe you something because you gave them it for free and they found value in it. They’ll want to return the favor by buying it.
To make this work, what you offer must be valuable to the user and helps if they get first access to it. Don’t be stingy here or it’ll never work.
The offer also needs to be unprompted. Reciprocity comes from making the consumer feel like they are not obliged to do anything in return.
This can work on both prospective and existing customers. The more free gifts you offer builds the feeling that the customer owes you something.
Including CTAs with the free gift will show the consumer exactly where to go to pay back the favor and purchase the actual product.
5. Be Concise
Besides only remembering the first and last thing someone sees, most people can only remember short statements.
Producing content that includes long paragraphs is great for education. But you run the risk that the information you bring up won’t be retained.
Your content, especially important content, needs to be straight to the point. The more fluff you add will decrease the clarity of what you want the viewer to gain.
Sometimes, the most powerful messages are those of only a few word phrases (hello Nike with, “Just Do It”). Use this idea to your advantage by putting it everywhere.
Incorporate it into your content, post it on every page of your website, and spread it anywhere else you can.
The repetition of your short message will help people remember it and then associate it with your business.
Eventually, people will see those few words and know that it’s your company they’ve stumbled upon.
The more a person sees your business will increase their curiosity and lead them to your website.
6. Capitalize On Expectations
Past experiences help establish expectations.
For example, you expect there to be certain foods at Thanksgiving, like turkey and mashed potatoes. If you get there and see chicken fingers and fried, you’d be confused.
This same idea applies to CTAs.
Customers are used to seeing call to actions and they expect it to come somewhere on the website.
Since it is an expectation, it is okay to make it an obvious part of your page. In fact, it should be an obvious part of a page or else the expectations of users will not be satisfied. If they can’t find it, they’ll be confused why they were even on your landing page.
You’ll want to put the CTA in a logical place above the fold on landing pages.
A landing page will let the user know that there is likely going to be a CTA somewhere. It builds up anticipation until the user finally sees the CTA and then feels the urge to click on it.
Fulfilling the expectations of your consumers is a must. Ensure that your CTA is obvious to find and matches your visitors’ expectations.
7. Create Anticipation
The human mind creates an expectation for greatness when we plan to do something.
It can be something as small as the burger you’re planning on ordering at dinner. Or as large as a month long cruise across Europe you’ve been dying to take.
When something special is on the horizon, anticipation builds until it actually happens.
You can create this same unique feeling with your CTA.
The content that leads up to the call to action is your golden ticket to getting someone to click.
It needs to be engaging and intriguing. A story that captivates their attention.
As humans, we respond well to stories. It keeps us going from one sentence to the next.
Writing a story will build anticipation to the climax which is your CTA. The heading and copy are the introduction, and rising drama will lead to that perfect action step.
People buy from companies they like. Use anticipation and stories in your communication to be likable.
8. Add Rewards
Humans are reward driven. Babies are given toys for taking naps. Kids are paid for doing chores. And 18-year-olds are given cars for graduating high school.
Marketers can use this conditioning to associate CTAs with rewards. Usually when you click on a CTA, there is some type of reward that comes with it.
People will be excited to click on your button if they feel there is a reward coming with it.
Offer a discount for members when they first sign up. Or give a coupon for their next purchase if they buy a product.
Getting your viewers to associate positive rewards with your company’s CTA will produce long-term results that pad your bank account.
Using reward based language is a great way to accomplish this. You don’t want there to be any confusion on if the viewer should click or not.
Some examples of reward based language are:
- “15% off your first purchase when you sign up for our rewards program”
- “Free gift with your next order”
- “Get 20% off when you refer a friend”
Be intentional with the words you choose and follow through with what you say for maximum effect.
9. Give Users Ownership
People are more invested in the things we own than those we don’t.
We’ve all worked on projects that we put all of our efforts into and feel extremely nervous when it comes time to present because we own them. The feedback you get holds much more value when it’s something that is entirely your own.
Creating a feeling of ownership in prospects before you sell a product will drastically increase the likelihood that someone will make a purchase.
This applies to all kinds of businesses.
Netflix does this by allowing users to create their own profiles that have all of their shows and recommendations based on what they watch. They have their customers invested in their product and can then sell new offers to them.
You can do this by offering free trials or early access to products to get users to invest in them.
Once the time comes to purchase, the user will purchase because they’ve already invested so much time into making it their own.
Using wording like “make it your own” can help create that feeling of ownership.
This is a guaranteed way to ensure that the product will be valuable to the consumer.
When it’s yours, it’s valuable to you. Make your audience feel this way and you’ll be golden.
10. Increase Time Investments
Ever go to an event, it rains, and you decide to stay since you’re already there? That’s this last point put into effect.
The more time people invest in your business will increase your chances of making a sale.
This doesn’t mean that this only works for existing customers.
This can be as simple as adding a progress bar when a customer is signing up for your services. When a customer sees they’re at the halfway point, they’re not likely to leave the page.
People don’t like to feel like their time is wasted so they’re more likely to follow through if they spend a lot of time engaging with your business.
This also applies to money. If someone has invested a lot of money in your business, they are more likely to follow through with another purchase.
Creating additions to products and heavily customized products will increase the potential future investments.
The more you can get customers to continue using your products, the better your sales performance.
Apple does a phenomenal job with this. They offer upgrades and new products all the time. And most of their customers have invested a lot of time and money into their business. It is unlikely that one of their customers will leave them because they’d have to learn an entirely new way of using a phone or computer.
Conclusion
Improving your call to actions is a great way to improve conversion rates.
Armed with this new CTA psychology, your customer base and business is sure to grow.
Start implementing these easy changes to see the lasting effects.
Good luck and look forward to a future of improved conversion rates!
What customer psychology works on you as a consumer?