14 Call to Action Examples (and How To Write an Effective CTA)

In this post, we'll look at somecall-to-action examplesthat stores use effectively. Then, you can take their CTA techniques and apply them to your own store so your potential customers convert into sales.

Your online storefront looks great. You’ve spent a lot of time tweaking the aesthetics and making sure the customer journey flows properly. That is, if therewerecustomers. Why aren’t visitors adding products to their carts? Your small business is getting traffic, so why isn’t it converting?

It could be something simple, like your visitors are having a hard time navigating your store. That could be because there isn't a clearcall-to-action (CTA) button, so they don’t know where to click to get what they want.

What is a call to action?

Your call to action tells visitors what to do, where they should click, and what they should buy. It’s what lights a path to your checkout and turns a visitor into a customer as quickly as possible.

The most obvious example of a call to action is a Buy Now or Shop Now button on your storefront. There’s no definitive answer on which button, phrase, styling, or size works best, so a bit of trial and error is normal.

Don’t be afraid to test new CTAs on your site and take note of which ones work best. Your goal is to place relevant and compelling offers in front of buyers.

For example, if you’re targeting a cold audience on Instagram for your women’s shoe campaign, a Shop Now CTA makes more sense than a Buy Now. It gives the viewer freedom to explore your collection versus feeling forced to buy right away.

Market researchshows that a person needs to know you, your reputation, and your product before they’re willing to make a purchase. So if your goal is to create an efficient selling engine generating the most revenue at the least cost, strategic CTAs are critical to its success.

How to write a call to action

While this nudge toward action can—and should!—be tested, optimized, and modified for years, you need a basic understanding of techniques for an effective call to action. It’s a bit more strategic than just slapping a Buy Now button anywhere on your site.

1. Consider the funnel stage

Funnel stages refer to the customers’ mindset on their path to purchase. It represents the marketing strategy used to turn prospects into paying customers. The goal is to map out the route to conversion and automate sales. Since you don’t have a salesperson on every marketing asset 24/7, CTAs encourage action.

At a high level, a funnel consists of three parts:

• Top of the funnel (ToFu):awareness stage where people learn about your product
• Middle of the funnel (MoFu):interest and decision stage where people are looking for solutions
• Bottom of the funnel (BoFu):action stage where people are ready to buy

Your offer varies depending on what stage of the funnel they’re at. First-time blog post readers, for example, will respond differently to a Buy Now CTA than an engaged email subscriber or loyal customer.

Jewelry retailerPura Vida Braceletsperfects the funnel using a series of calls to action. After you land on the site, a timed pop-up shows an offer for a 20% discount in exchange for your name, email address, and phone number. It’s low commitment and engaging for first-time buyers—because who doesn’t want 20% off of these awesome products?

After completing the form in the pop-up, Pura Vida sends a confirmation email and SMS with the discount code. The SMS message uses a text-based CTA to click the link and use the coupon. The email uses the call to action “Treat yourself” to encourage clicks.

People are more warmed up here in the decision stage. They are familiar with your brand and its offerings, so a more aggressive call to action is acceptable.

Pura Vida makes it easy to add products to your cart. You can read about an item on the product page and add it to your shopping cart from there or directly from the category page using an Add to Cart CTA.

After choosing your desired product(s), you can check out in your shopping cart by clicking the Checkout CTA.

These targeted CTAs are used to engage visitors with the right call to action based on their intent and where they are in your funnel. When you’re creating a CTA, think about engaging your viewers based on their behaviors and mindset. It can help get your message across and encourage people to act on your offers.

2. Make early offers low risk

It should be easy for potential customers to engage with your business. People are more likely to click on a button that’s not going to cost them anything or rope them into anything. And you can lead them to a landing page giving you another chance to make a sale.

By offering something of high value (like a free-with-purchase item or a discount) in return for something of relatively low value or effort (like a social follow or email signup), you give your customers the incentive to engage. Who doesn’t want something free just for following an Instagram page, or a 15% discount for signing up for a newsletter?

A great example of a low-risk CTA isColourpop’s offer of a 15% discount in return for an email address. This is a no-risk offer to the customer—they don’t even have to commit to anything, just give out their email list for a good discount.

3. Use urgency to increase conversions

When shoppers feel an opportunity is limited, they are more inclined to purchase. It creates a sense of urgency and triggers the FOMO in all of us. Arecent CXL studyshowed that adding a sense of urgency increased conversion rates by 332% for one online seller.

It’s no wonder you see it in retail store displays all the time. Like end-of-season sales that run for a week or products only available seasonally. The same can be applied to your ecommerce store.

For instance, if you highlight a stock level or include wording like “Buy now—only on sale until midnight,” then you’re building on that sense of urgency.

Notice how Pura Vida uses urgency in the example below. At the top of the checkout page, the retailer has the countdown message “Hurry! Your order is reserved for 9:31 minutes!” The brand will only hold your order for 10 minutes, max.

4. Test different colors

While there’s no definitive button color that converts best, it’s important to make sure you’re using a color that resonates with your visitors—and reflects your brand. The way to figure that out is by usingA/B testing. Create a few versions of the same ad using different colors and see which ad generates a higher click-through rate.

Here are a few tips to consider when determining which color to use for your CTA:

• Use white space around your CTA to make it clear where to click
• Select a color different enough from the background so it stands out
• Don’t make it too crazy with colors and animation—simplicity is your friend

5. Use simple buttons and copy

It takes50 millisecondsfor a visitor to form an opinion about your website or ads, so it’s vital that you make it eye-catching and simple. One of the ways you can do this is by using buttons to direct visitors’ attention to the action you want them to take.

While most Shopify themes already include this feature, do make sure your CTA appears as a button and not just text. Even if it's surrounded by a small border, it’s better than having just a text link.

Tip:You can cater your button copy to the market you’re selling. If you’re selling something like coffee, try changing the copy on your buy button to Brew It and see if that helps with conversions!

6. Use captivating hero images

Hero images—the main, featured images on a website—can be used to highlight a product or collection. In other words, they can be a massive call to action. Be sure to have your hero image link to a product or collection to get visitors to check out faster.

Gamestop做一个伟大的工作,新游戏在家里吗epage. It uses great images that make you want to find out more about the game, and if you click on the images it takes you to a page that lets you buy it. Simple and easy and sure to turn into sales.

7. Keep it “above the fold”

The phrase “above the fold” comes from the newspaper industry, as the most important stories appear on the top half of a paper’s front page—the half you see when it’s on the newsstand or in a box. Below the “fold” of a storefront is the area of a website you can’t see until scrolling down. Any content above the fold is what visitors immediately see upon entering your online store.

If you can grab a visitor's attention above the fold, chances are they’ll continue to click and navigate through your store.

Dr. Squatchputs all of the information you need well above the fold here. It has a call-to-action button in a prominent position, as well as all the menu options at the top. The copy is simple and prominent and its hero picture perfectly features its products.

14 examples of effective calls to action

Let's take a look at businesses that use effective CTAs across social platforms, on their websites, and in your inbox. The following list is broken down by channel:

• Facebook and Instagram
• Website
• Email

Facebook and Instagram

hideAWAY

hideAWAY’s homepage pop-up is nothing less than catchy. It uses emojis consistently throughout the copy and invites visitors to engage with Ashy, an international fitness coach, to motivate people to sign up for its Messenger and SMS marketing list.

The button is effective for two reasons. One, the Messenger icon informs a subscriber that the conversation will open up in Messenger, and two, using words like “my” and “me” instead of “your” and “you” has shown to increase conversions by up to90%.

Ladystrategist

Canva template creatorLadystrategistpromotes a mini-webinar to grab the attention of potential customers in its Facebook ad. There’s a short video clip of ways to increase optimization of social media marketing templates, which details thevalue propositionfor customers. Ladystrategist then uses this piece of content to promote an 80%-off sale on its product.

Action words, like “design,” “say” and “spend” are used in the CTA copy. This urges potential customers to take advantage of this opportunity to make their lives easier by simply clicking on the “Learn more” CTA button.

Slidequest

Slidequestgrabs its target audience by using its own product to create the ad. A video shows the available templates and infographics in the digital marketing campaign.

Within the video, Slidequest uses lots of color to garner attention, but keeps it mostly on a muted white background so as not to overwhelm.Copywritingphrases like “unlimited downloads” and “lifetime updates” are used, and the ad also mentions popular programs like Adobe Illustrator and PowerPoint.

The cherry on top is the 50%-off deal that Slidequest offers if people act now. It uses a deal to pique interest and create urgency by making the deal available only for a limited time. This encourages people visiting its social media pages to click on the link to its webpage, at least to find out more.

Sephora

Sephorauses Instagram Stories to create a sense of urgency. Here, it’s tickling our sense of FOMO by using the action phrase “Don’t miss out,” and because it’s a Story, viewers only have 24 hours to click this link before it disappears.

A limited-time offer creates an even greater sense of urgency, even though we don’t know what the offerisyet. This also encourages followers to continue to check Sephora’s IG page every day, just in case there’s another offer posted on Stories.

Sephora has kept this ad simple. It’s only a handful of words on a yellow background, with a prominently displayed CTA button in white. But the mystery will undoubtedly result in lead generation and clicks to the website.

5 Napkin Burger

5 Napkin Burgeris a full-service burger restaurant in New York City. The company wanted to attract new local customers and generate a database for future marketing efforts, so it ran click-to-Messenger ads with a Send Message CTA button through which potential diners could redeem a two-for-one burger special. Now that’s a juicy deal!

Below are the highlights of thisFacebook ad case study:

• 477 in-store offer redemptions
• 20% increase in average order value
• 10 times return on ad spend
• 2,500 new Messenger and email subscribers
• 17% redemption rate

Lyft

It’s clearLyft's goal is to get you to download its app. Besides promoting a great deal (50% off your first five rides), it uses a timely photo of a woman in a face mask, subtly communicating you’ll be safe and secure when riding with Lyft. The description and CTA clearly encourage you to tap the download button.

Walmart

Walmartran a Facebook ad campaign to promote its sustainability leadership during Climate Week 2020. It used a Facebook carousel ad to showcase a series of videos promoting its work and overcomecognitive biasabout its brand. If you wanted to read more, you could click on a Learn More CTA that would send you to a landing page to do so.

Website

FashionNova

这个提议visitin上立即弹出窗口gFashion Nova’s website. It captures the attention of website visitors and is a great first step to creating a successfulsales funnel.

An unexpected deal can do several things. First, it can prompt a visitor to actually buy something from Fashion Nova’s landing page when, maybe, they were initially only curiously browsing. Or, it can cause a customer to buy more than they’d intended to best make use of a good deal.

This pop-up window is simple but bold. It uses gold to make visitors mentally link it to something valuable, and it’s made to look like a scratch-off lottery ticket. This makes customers think of themselves as winners and as lucky for visiting this page.

Zanerobe

Men’s fashion brandZanerobegathers website leads through push notifications, which have a 30% CTR and can earn areturn on investment of up to 2,200%. When browsing the store, a small pop-up shows at the top of your screen with the above message. Viewers can click “I’m in!” to subscribe to the push notifications and get access to news and deals.

Pura Vida

Some82% of peopledon’t like website pop-ups. They appear everywhere online and oftentimes as soon as someone lands on a website. To combat this, Pura Vida uses an embedded CTA that blends into its category pages. As you’re browsing, you can easily sign up for its SMS list and get 20% off your order. It uses the CTA Sign Me Up! to encourage action.

Craftd

Men’s jewelerCraftduses a pop-up to grab your attention, share a targeted message, and build its email list. If you’re a new browser, Craftd offers you 10% off your first order in exchange for an email address. It’s well designed and relevant to its audience. There are no distractions because the store fades into the background, easily winning it more conversions.

Email

Cotton Bureau

Cotton Bureau, a shop that sells graphic tees and prints custom designs, uses an email ad that hits a lot of CTA-marketing best practices.

The special offer is in bold, so there’s no chance of overlooking it. The ad copy creates urgency, as this is a “while supplies last” opportunity. The photo being used displays a diverse group of people, so a lot of customers can see themselves represented here. The call-to-action button is big and unmissable. Andallof this is accomplished above the fold.

Buck Mason

This email fromBuck Mason, a Los Angeles–based menswear brand, uses multiple CTAs that correspond to what they are promoting. For its Field-Spec Cotton Surplus Crew, it uses the CTA Shop Field-Spec. For its podcast, it uses “Listen.”

Notice how the context-specific CTA buttons feel more relevant than a generic Show Now button you typically find in ecommerce emails.

If you want to promote different products or services in an email, create different CTA buttons for each to keep readers engaged.

Magic Spoon cereal

Readers can instantly relate to the title of Magic Spoon’s email “How to cure a case of the Mondays,”which helps elevate it above the other generically titled emails sitting in their inbox.

Magic Spoon’s email design also makes it simple to understand what it’s promoting and how to take advantage of it. Its eye-catching pink palette and creative imagery practically jump off the screen, leading you directly to a purple ORDER NOW CTA button you can’t help but click.

Create engaging calls to action for your marketing campaigns

You need a clear, persuasive call to action in order to improve yourecommerce metrics. Because you don’t want casual browsers—you want customers, and repeat customers. Put the tips and tricks we provided to the test and try them out on your own ecommerce website or social media pages. Test out what works, and make adjustments to what doesn’t, then watch as your sales grow!

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