What comes to mind when you think of a call-to-action or CTA? Is it something like sirens are blaring and asking you to take action, or is it something like developing that sense of urgency in you that if you don’t react now, you will miss something big? Prepare yourself for an engaging experience.
In this blog, you will learn:
The definition of a call to action.
How to write a text marketing CTA to enhance your customer bucket
Best practices for CTA buttons
How to use texting to incite zeal among customers
So, first of all, without further adieu, let’s understand the definition of text marketing call to action.
What is a Call-To-Action in SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is a strategy used by businesses to send promotional text messages to customers and potential customers via SMS (Short Message Service). The CTA or call-to-action is a well-crafted, attractive message encouraging recipients to take a specific action after receiving the text. It creates a fear of missing out (FOMO), which the audience can’t resist.
The call to action can be a request to reply with a keyword or a short code to enter a contest, claim an offer, or get more information about a product or service. It can also include a link to a website or landing page where the recipient can purchase, sign up for a newsletter, or request more information.
Impactful SMS call to actions
Click here to know more information
Show this text
Subscribe for free
Visit our website
Follow our Instagram page
Click here for a limited-time offer
Buy now!
Don’t miss out on this opportunity
Register here
Enter [Code] at checkout
Importance of call to actions in text marketing
CTA has several action verbs which incite the audience to act. This helps marketers to convert the audiences into leads. It is the most crucial weapon in the arsenal of marketers. CTA by itself doesn’t give you a strategic advantage. It depends on how effectively you can use it to gain a strategic advantage.
Earlier, you might have listened to radio advertisements making lucrative announcements or seen some attractive promotions on television giving special offers during festivals. The promotion also suggests you visit the websites and use a particular code to avail of the offer. That is an example of a call to action, but people once listened to the ads and didn’t remember it forever. This is an example of passive promotions.
Now, imagine your shop wants to run a campaign about some offers which you want to convey to your customers. You reached out to your customers with SMS marketing with lucrative phrases like “20% off on all the items, click here to grab the deal Now!”.
Here “click here” is a CTA button. These CTA buttons provoke the audiences to take action immediately and thus convert the audiences into leads with a single click only. Isn’t it quite exciting?
CTA is a part of active advertisement by which we drag the audience’s attention to take a particular action rather than passive promotions where most of our effort goes in vain as we never know if our ads are even working.
Perform an A/B Testing to find the best CTA
Now you might think that if this is so easy, why can’t everyone do it? You might have read that the CTAs should be short, crisp, and to the point and impart the information you want by looking at the action phrases used in the texts. Still, after using all those technical jargon, marketers often fail to get the response they expect from SMS campaigns.
For this, marketers generally use A/B testing to develop some of the CTAs. So, before diving into some best examples of CTAs, let’s understand a bit about A/B testing.
What is A/B Testing?
A/B testing compares two marketing campaign versions to determine which one performs better. This is done by randomly dividing a sample group of users into two groups, each showing one version of the campaign. The performance of each group is then measured and compared to determine which version performed better.
For example, let’s say you are marketing a new product for a fashion brand, and you devised your SMS campaigning like this:
New T-shirt at 20% off! Click here to avail the offer.
It is a strong phrase that comes at the beginning of your sales pitch which might provoke the audience to look at the new product, and they may purchase the item as well. It may also be the case that the audience doesn’t get excited after looking at the promotion, and they might be waiting for some other kind of promotion like the one mentioned below:
Don’t miss the deal… Only 2 hours remaining. Click here to avail of it at 20% off!
This type of SMS CTA develops FOMO (Fear of missing out) among the customers. This provokes them to take action sooner. The audience interested in something other than the previous promotion may seem interested now. This is a classic example of CTA application in A/B testing.
So, we make a lot of trial and error to develop a promotion suitable for a particular customer segment.
A person who might seem not interested in some action phrase CTAs like “try now” but may seem interested if you change some wording in your promotions like “access now” or “give it a try”.
So, all the things in the marketing funnel ultimately come down to one phrase that is understanding consumer psychology. That is possible only by applying A/B testing in your marketing campaigns. Now let’s see some best CTA examples used by different companies.
Text Marketing Templates with effective CTA
CTAs are used for several purposes, from linking the customer with the website to signing them up for upcoming events. Here are some of the best examples for using text messages CTAs in different scenarios:
01. Sales & Promotion
You can use the SMS to promote any latest offers to your customers, like "Get 30% off your next purchase! Use code 'SALE20' at checkout. Shop now: www.link.com".
02. Event Registration
You can use SMS to promote your upcoming events to your customers, like “Exciting News! Another keynote speaker for the upcoming TEDx talk has been confirmed. Read about Amitav Ghosh, author, at “https://link.com/n7acrux”.
03. Social media engagement
SMS marketing can also increase your followers on social media like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Examples include "Follow us on Instagram for daily tips and inspiration! Text 'FOLLOW' to 12345 to join our community."
04. Customer retention
Text marketing is used widely for retaining potential customers by using catchy messages like "Leave a review and get 10% off your next purchase! Text 'REVIEW' to 12345 to share your feedback."
05. Survey Participation
The survey can be quickly carried out with a meagre cost using text marketing. For example, "Help us improve our products and services! Text 'SURVEY' to 12345 to participate in our customer survey."
06. Appointment
Appointments can be quickly scheduled by texting Yes in the text message, for example, “Hi, Mikasa. Respond with YES to confirm your appointment for tomorrow at 10 am or NO to reschedule.”
07. Product Launch
Early adopters can be targeted with text market campaigning to gauge the performance of the new product, like “Be the first to know about our new product launch! Text ‘NEW PRODUCT’ to stay updated to 123457."
08. Referral programs
Referral program to develop new leads from existing customers. For example, “Refer your friends to earn an Rs100 coupon. Text ‘REFER’ to 123456 to know more about the scheme.”
09. Abandon cart recovery
Reminding the customer about the pending orders in the cart with "Remember to complete your purchase! Text 'CHECKOUT' to 12345 to go back to your cart."
10. Linking to the website
An everyday use of text messaging is to include a link to your website. With this, you can ask the customers to look for new products, visit your websites, and signup for data collection. This can be done by putting the link to your website at the end of the text message “Visit our website at www.link.com for more information.
It seems easy to go through the above examples, but can you identify some patterns or factors these professionals have followed to make the CTAs successful? Here are some quick tips which might be handy for you later. So, let’s dive into the next topic.
Best practices for writing text messages marketing CTAs
SMS marketing is handy for significant promotions, but this is only possible if your ads come up with irresistible suggestions you want your audience to follow. The suggestions should discard all those hindrances which might come up in the process with the tips discussed below:
01. Keep it short & Sweet
Often, marketers find it challenging to frame those catchy action phrases used for quality SMS campaigning. So, in that case, start with a verb and add some adjectives to keep the CTAs short and to the point.
For example, you decided your CTA would be “Buy Now” for the upcoming campaign. This action phrase is quite vague, and it doesn’t give the user any context or incentive for making the purchase; instead, you can use some catchy action phrases like “Get your 10% discount today”, which gives the customer a sense of urgency.
One another example of a lousy action phrase can be “Click Here”. This Call to Action is quite vague. This doesn’t give any idea to the user what will happen if they click on the button. Instead, you can use “Sign Up Now” in place of that to impart the exact information.
02. Develop a sense of Urgency
Sense of urgency or the billionaires call it, the fear of missing out (FOMO). This works on a particular principle known as the “urgency principle”. So, you can create a sense of time-sensitive benefit so that the user should act now to avail of that benefit. For example, suppose you send promotional messages like “Look at these brand-new items” or “20% off on the Allen Solly Shirt.” Instead of this promotional message, think of sending a promotional message like “Act now. You have only 2 hours left”, which will develop a sense of anxiety among the users or, we can say (FOMO).
FOMO can also be developed by limiting quantities. You might have come across the text messages sent by Amazon like:
There are only seven spots left. Don’t miss your chance by waiting!
This strategy works because the user thinks his peers have taken advantage of this offer. So, for whom am I waiting? I should also grab the deal.
03. Make it Specific
A specific CTA is more effective than a generic one. Use language that communicates what the user will receive or gain by clicking the CTA buttons. For example, "Get 50% off your first purchase" is more specific than "Shop now." This specificity makes the CTA more compelling and motivates the user to click.
04. Test & Optimize
As we discussed above, A/B testing can help you determine which CTAs are most effective. Test variations and measure click-through rates to see what works best for your audience. By continually testing and optimizing your CTAs, you can improve your click-through rates and maximize your conversions. We had discussed this earlier, so we only go into some detail here.
Conclusion
Call-to-action (CTA) is crucial to any text marketing campaign. It's not just about crafting the perfect message but also about encouraging your audience to take action. Whether you want to increase sales, generate leads, or drive website traffic, a clear and compelling CTA can help you achieve your goals.
By following the best practices outlined in this blog, you can create effective CTAs that resonate with your audience and drive the results you're looking for. Remember to keep it simple, focus on the benefits, and use actionable language that inspires action.
With a well-crafted CTA, you can turn your text messages into powerful tools for driving engagement and growing your business.
If you require knowledge of SMS marketing campaigns, take the chance! Get in touch with us for consultation.