I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to bars or restaurants that cannot be seen from the street. In Melbourne, they’re tucked away behind graffiti-scrawled alleyways, confusing even the best GPS signal algorithm with their maze like turns. It’s a bit of effort for some Kingfisher sashimi, but boy is it worth it.
Then again, I’ve breezed past nondescript shopfronts on bustling High Streets plenty of times without a second thought.
If you’re thinking about this in terms of website traffic – your number one performing marketing and sales asset – which one does yours fit into? The former or the latter?
In marketing and I suppose, if you’re on team G.I. Joe, knowing is half the battle. Just because someone knows your website exists isn’t enough to entice them to stay, let alone buy or interact with something.
Across all business categories, bounce rates (people looking at one page then leaving without interacting) stands at an average of 60.78% (April 2023, Databox). If you’re paying per click, two out of three clicks are wasting your budget and wasting your time.
Persuasion Nation via WordStream shows that the average page conversion rate is 2.4% with the top 10 percent of websites achieving an 11.5% conversion rate.
Conversions could mean anything: a sale, a lead capture, a download, a referral, an email address, a phone number, a like or follow on your social media. For real estate (which has the lowest bounce rates) the sales cycle is long. No one just buys a house on a whim. Sites selling tech, Software as a Service (SaaS), and construction rank among the highest bounce rates. Why? Because if people aren’t convinced to stay and give away something like their email address or money in return for something, they find a competitor with a better offer (or rather, a better marketed offer.)
If you aren’t prompting users into action, then you are going to lose that battle for attracting and retaining customers.
Calls to Action: The Push That Makes Customers Move
What’s the difference between “Click Here” and “Free Trial?”
Plenty.
I’ve been asked to “Click Here” so many times I almost don’t do it out of spite. “Click Here” is often the gateway to Rick Rolls, NSFW pranks, and my anti-virus going berserk.
It’s hard to say no to a Free Trial, though.
70% of B2B small businesses don’t even use calls to action on their website. According to SmallBizTrends, CTA buttons are at least read by 90% of eCommerce prospects – perhaps why ConversionCow does so well – and are engineered to lower bounce rates. You can measure, predict, analyse, and refine CTAs as part of your Conversion Rate Optimisation. Lowering the barrier to entry – such as adding a “Share With Friends” social panel – can do wonders for your marketing. I’m sure you’ve clicked one of these on a blog or news story without even realising it. Boom, done! Another potential customer!
Using specific CTAs can increase conversion rates by 161% (2025, Wisernotify). If you’re converting 24 people out of a thousand and making $100 clear profit per sale, upping that to 38 people out of a 1000 means $1,400 more in profit per 1000 who visit, just for writing a couple of lines urging someone to do something rather than nothing.
As a copywriter and marketing strategist, I’ve seen plenty of dismal websites with no calls to action. It does take a bit of expertise and knowledge to craft enticing CTAs. Making them obvious by enlarging the button is known to increase click-through rates by 90%. Urgency and FOMO can increase rates by 332%. Personalized call-to-actions perform 202% better than basic CTAs, according to Hubspot.
There is an art to it – but apps like ConversionCow nail the science part, that being the tracking, analytics, and deployment. Adding a human touch doubled average conversion rates. Delving into ChatGPT’s robotic tone of voice—and love of em-dashes—can and will turn people off. AI slop is called that for a reason. Your CTA not only needs to compel your audience into acting, but it also needs pairing with an “irresistible” offer.
A CTA They Can’t Refuse
Persuasive copywriting can and should be subtle. It’s better that way, because we want our customers to buy or act and believe it was their idea in the first place.
Thanks to ConversionCow, you can optimise headlines, concisely communicate your unique selling proposition and irresistible offer, as well as the holy grail CTA instantly. No faffing about with convoluted CMS bits and pieces or *gasp* handing it off to your web team.
Adding a guarantee also raises your potential of conversion. (I offer guarantees such as 25% minimum open rates for my email marketing, or I keep writing for free until we get there.) Money back if I don’t like it? What have I got to lose?
The art of the headline should convey your benefit in such a clear and unambiguous way, only someone who doesn’t speak the language could misunderstand. My favourite at the moment being Mailchimp: “Turn SMS & Emails into Revenue.” Sounds great to me, where do I sign up? Oh, that yellow “Sign Up” button? Done.
If you have the traffic coming in and they’re not buying what you’re selling, the copy has to do its job, so you consistently get runs on the board.
No one made the history books winning half a battle, did they?
