There are so many different ways now to engage supporters and would be supporters of your cause and to activate them to take action. Organizations are regularly engaging their lists for specific purposes which means your call-to-action (CTA) needs to stand out. That means it is clear, simple and easily doable. Below is a descriptor of five different CTA’s that work.

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BUTTONS

Who doesn’t love a nicely colored little button to click? Something about it is reticent of a video game and speaks to the child within. Speaking of colors, did you know that orange and green buttons are the most effective? Be mindful of the palate of the remainder of your website pages however, to avoid clashing colors.

There are CTA buttons to drive donations, to drive subscriptions and newsletter sign ups, to garner volunteers, or simply to educate, ie, buttons of  the “Click here to learn more” variety. One study found that adding an arrow to your button, increased clicks by 26%! That’s a significant increase! 

The key with buttons is not to make them too wordy and personalized language is also more effective. Instead of saying “Sign up here” opt for “Sign me up!” 

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DONATION PAGES

“Donation pages” (a page on the website where folks can donate), have grown in their efficacy over the years. In 2019, Giving Tuesday raised  $511 million dollars  this way and that amount rose by $808 million in 2020.

Systems like Prompt.io can even parameterized URLs and pass forward details you have on your supporter. For example, instead of asking them to fill out a first name and address field, we can pass that on through a SmartLink.

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CLICK TRIGGERS

It’s human nature that when we are asked to do something, our innate first reaction is to ask “why would I do that?” For this reason, clever marketers often use “click triggers” below or near a button to help sell the action. These can vary in approach. You might use a “click trigger.” An example of one of these beside a donate button would be what’s known as an “anxiety reducing” trigger and would be a simple statement such as, “All donations are tax deductible.” Other forms of click trigger include testimonials, data points, or statements of reassurance. An example of this would be placing the phrase “We will only ever send you one email per month!” beside a button to subscribe to a mailing list. 

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SOCIAL MEDIA SHARING BUTTONS

Social media remains one of the best ways to generate leads, awareness and to drive action, both called for and organic.

We’ve all had the experience of reading an article about a cause or issue that resonates with us deeply and moves us to want to take action, even without being asked. And we have all felt the frustration of scrolling to the bottom of said article only to find it isn’t instantly sharable to our social feeds and therefore abandoning the idea. Social Times found that adding a shareable button to the bottom of emails increased their click through rate by a whopping 158%!  

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EVENT REGISTRATION

Any event that you have upcoming, should offer early event registration as well as several clear and easy ways that attendees can decide last minute to join. The success of your event registration CTA is largely about how it’s pitched using tried and true marketing tools. The colors, the font, the language, the readability, all play a role in creating a sense for the reader of what the event itself will feel like. It is for this reason that a lot of thought should go into the presentation. A great rule of thumb is to consider peppering throughout exactly what it is the attendee will get from the experience, personally. Are there giveaways? Are there esteemed panel members who will be directly available to guests for QandA and discussion? Will there be refreshments provided? How is the parking? 

If the event is annual, Including fun content from years prior is a highly effective tool and videos are always more successful than pictures and capturing engagement.

Some excellent examples of well executed event registration CTA’s can be found here. 

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