Getting Action from Your Calls to Action

In the world of marketing and sales, the Call to Action (CTA) is the primary driver in getting potential customers to take the next step. However, getting people to act on CTAs is an art and science that involves understanding consumer psychology, crafting compelling value propositions, and leveraging customer feedback effectively.

Getting Action by Compelling Others

To get insight into what makes people want to take action in a transaction, you first need to understand what motivates a person to buy.

Top 12 Reasons Why People Buy Anything

Whether it's buying into a charitable cause, choosing a health insurance policy, investing in shares/crypto or purchasing something expensive and exclusive. There are real reasons behind every decision to buy.

1. Solve a Problem: People often buy to solve a specific problem they are experiencing.
2. Fulfill a Need: Basic needs, like food and safety, drive purchasing decisions.
3. Satisfy a Desire: Beyond needs, desires like luxury or entertainment motivate purchases.
4. Improve Self-esteem: Products or services that boost self-confidence can be compelling.
5. Convenience: Ease of use or time-saving aspects can be significant motivators.
6. Emotional Appeal: Emotional connections, such as joy or nostalgia, influence buying.
7. Trust in the Brand: Trustworthiness of a brand can drive purchases.
8. Value for Money: Perceived value for the price paid is a key decision factor.
9. Peer Influence: Recommendations from friends or family can prompt purchases.
10. Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): The desire to stay in trend or not miss out can motivate buying.
11. Quality and Durability: Long-lasting quality can be a crucial consideration.
12. Unique Features: Distinctive attributes or innovations can attract buyers.

Marketers need to understand how what they are promoting fulfills these different reasons for buying and come up with a value proposition that will get a person to take action.

What Is a Value Proposition?

A value proposition is a clear statement that explains how your product or service solves customers’ problems or improves their situation (relevancy), delivers specific benefits (quantified value), and tells the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from the competition (unique differentiation).

A value proposition becomes truly effective when it's tailored to address the specific buying reason of the target audience. Here are three examples of value propositions crafted to resonate with different buying rationales and reasons to buy:

• Buying Rationale: Consumers want to make environmentally responsible purchases that align with their values.
• Reason: Improve Self-esteem
• Value Proposition: "Our products are crafted from 100% recycled materials, helping you make a positive impact on the planet with every purchase. Join us in our mission to reduce waste and protect the environment, without compromising on quality or style."

• Buying Rationale: Busy professionals seek solutions that save time and boost productivity.
• Reason: Convenience
• Value Proposition: "Maximize your productivity with our advanced software, designed to cut your workload in half. Featuring automated workflows and intuitive design, our tool lets you reclaim your time and focus on what truly matters in your business. Get more done in less time."

• Buying Rationale: Students need affordable educational materials that are effective and accessible.
• Reason: Value for Money
• Value Proposition: "Achieve academic success without breaking the bank. Our comprehensive educational resources, available at a fraction of the cost of traditional textbooks, provide high-quality learning at an affordable price. Invest in your education smartly with our budget-friendly solutions."

Creating a Compelling Value Proposition

Creating a compelling value proposition that aligns with your target audience's reasons for buying involves a deep understanding of their needs, desires, and pain points. This requires research, analysis and the ability to speak directly to the heart of what your target audience needs and values.

1: Research to Understand Your Target Audience

• Identify Your Audience: Clearly define who your target audience is. Consider demographics, psychographics, and behavioristics.
• Understand Their Needs: Research to understand their needs, challenges, and desires. This can be done through surveys, interviews, focus groups, or analyzing customer feedback.
• Identify Buying Motivations: Determine what drives your audience to make a purchase. What are the reasons why they buy what you offer? Are they looking for convenience, quality, cost-effectiveness, status, or something else?

2: Analyze Your Offering

• List Features and Benefits: Make a comprehensive list of the features of your offering. More importantly, identify the benefits each feature brings to the customer. Grade these benefits in order of how relevant/important they are in terms of your target audiences reasons to buy.
• Differentiators: Clearly understand what sets your offering apart from alternatives. What can you offer that others can’t?

3: Connect Benefits to What Your Customer Needs

• Prioritise Benefits: Decide which benefits of your offering will be the most motivational for your target audience. Are these benefits really deeply important to their buying decision?
• Emotional Connection: Consider the emotional payoff of the benefit you've identified. How does it make the customer feel? Does it bring them joy, peace of mind, a sense of belonging, etc.?

4: Craft the Value Proposition

• Clear and Concise: Your value proposition should be clear, concise, and easy to understand. Avoiding jargon and overly complex language.
• Compelling Message: Use persuasive language and words to emotionally resonate with your audience. The message should capture attention as well as generate interest.
• Unique Value Statement: Refine and rework your statement until you have crafted a message that motivates action. Test, validate and refine to get a value proposition that engages and converts.

Making It Easy to Get Action on a CTA

How to Influence CTA Motivation with Pre-buying Touchpoints

Pre-buying research heavily influences CTA responses. Today’s consumers often research products extensively online before purchasing.

The pre-buying research phase is a critical juncture in the customer journey, where potential customers gather information, evaluate options, and form opinions that greatly influence their purchasing decisions.

In this phase, strategically placed educational and supportive touchpoints can play a pivotal role in guiding customer decisions, making their inclusion essential for any effective marketing strategy.

Educational touchpoints, such as informative blog posts, detailed product descriptions, comparison guides, FAQ sections, and informative videos, provide potential customers with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions. These resources help demystify products or services, address common questions or concerns, and present solutions in a way that resonates with the customers' needs and pain points. The more clearly you address needs and solve pain points, the more compelling your CTAs become.

Supportive touchpoints, on the other hand, focus on assisting the potential customer in their decision-making process. These include live chats, customer helplines, interactive tools like cost calculators, product finders or chat bots, and customer reviews or testimonials.

Such touchpoints offer personalised assistance and real-world insights, making the research phase less overwhelming and more user-friendly. They also create opportunities for direct engagement, allowing brands to address specific customer needs, clarify doubts, overcome objections in real-time and ask for the sale (present their CTA).

During the pre-buying phase, customers are not just looking for products; they are also subconsciously evaluating the brand itself.

A brand that provides comprehensive, accessible, and helpful information is more likely to be perceived as customer-centric and reliable. This positive perception can be a deciding factor in not only the current purchasing decision but also in establishing long-term customer loyalty and advocacy.

In essence, by effectively educating and supporting customers through tailored touchpoints during the pre-buying phase, businesses can significantly enhance the likelihood of engagement and conversion, when presenting offers via calls to action.

Leveraging Customer Testimonials and Reviews to Improve CTA Performance

Customer testimonials, reviews, and feedback comments serve as persuasive tools that enhance the credibility and effectiveness of CTAs. Positive reviews build trust and reduce the perceived risk associated with a purchase as well as providing the social proof needed to encourage action.

Customer reviews and feedback have become increasingly influential in shaping customer behaviour and decisions, particularly in the digital era where information is abundantly available. Potential customers often look to the experiences and opinions of others before making their own purchasing decisions. It is this reliance on peer insights that makes customer reviews and feedback critical factors for motivating customers to respond to your CTAs.

Reviews can act as a powerful endorsement, encouraging customers to proceed with confidence. When used in CTAs, highlighting positive customer feedback or high ratings can immediately capture attention and lend credibility, making the CTA more compelling.

Feedback and comments often contain specific details about customer experiences, which can address common questions or concerns that potential buyers might have. This detailed information can fill gaps left by traditional marketing content, offering practical insights into the product's use, benefits, and performance.

For instance, a CTA for a skincare product accompanied by customer testimonials highlighting specific benefits like "reduced my acne in just two weeks" can be more convincing than generic marketing claims.

Successful CTAs and Inquiry Response Times and Engagement

In today's fast-paced digital marketplace, where instant gratification is often the norm, the speed and quality of a brand's response can be pivotal in determining the success of a CTA.

For customers expected to quickly take action when presented with a CTA (whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a service, or any other action); they will expect fantastic responsiveness from the business behind the CTA.

First and foremost, quick response times demonstrate a brand’s commitment to customer service and efficiency. In an era where consumers are accustomed to immediate access to information and rapid service, any delay can lead to frustration and a potential loss of interest or trust.

For instance, if a customer responds to a CTA by asking a question via live chat or email, a prompt reply can be the difference between securing a conversion or losing a potential sale. This immediacy is particularly vital in competitive industries where customers have numerous alternatives.

It's not just about answering quickly but also about providing quality, helpful, and personalised assistance.

Exceptional support means effectively resolving issues, offering insightful recommendations, and ensuring that the customer feels valued and understood. This level of service can profoundly impact a customers motivation to take action.

For instance, a customer who receives immediate and comprehensive assistance is more likely to proceed with a purchase and develop a positive long-term relationship with the brand. In contrast, slow or inadequate support can result in lost conversions and negative word-of-mouth.

For brands keen to urge customers to quickly act on CTAs, be aware that the ability to provide fast response times coupled with exceptional support is critical to success.