How to Optimize Social Media CTAs to Boost eCommerce Conversion

71% of customers who had a good experience are likely to recommend it on social media to others. Let’s admit it. Social media has influenced our lifestyle to a great extent. While most of who worry we are spending too much time on it, for businesses it is actually a reason to rejoice.

Social media gives a direct connection with customers from all around the globe.

Facebook has a user base that is bigger than few continents put together.

Twitter has become a base to complain and redress consumer grievances.

LinkedIn is the best virtual networking medium.

All these and several other social networks put together to create a stunning channel for businesses to improve sales.

But, for every social media medium to convert visitors into customers, they need a motivating tool, a button that inspires users to take action Call-to-actions or CTAs are such tools.

However, designing, tracking and setting up CTAs from scratch can be quite a demanding task. Luckily, there are integrations which make the task easier by creating a direct link between businesses Facebook and Twitter account into a single channel where it is easy to manage and respond to requests.

Call to actions: To sell effectively without actually selling

Do you know? Almost half of the visitors to any website spend less than 15 seconds on the same page. You have such a small window to win them or lose them. It is CTAs that do the task of making them take an action after skimming through the content. In other words, CTAs turn visitors into leads for prospective sales.

So that makes CTA development a sensitive process and one that you must do with action.

To make things easier, here are some best practices to create CTAs that turn visitors into customers. For example, with the help of Click-2-call technology, a site visitor can make a call to the company and talk with sales or service team members, by simply clicking on the CTA button.

The right use of words

CTAs are basically ad copies in tiny bits. So, actionable copy in your CTA plays a major role in boosting conversions. Be informed that you cannot write a paper or not even few lines for CTAs. The best you can afford are few words put together that inspire immediate action in the user.

Here are some good examples of Call to actions for social media:

Good examples:

• Shop Now
• Like our store
• Get connected
• Buy now
• Add to cart
• Ask for pricing
• Get custom pricing
• Submit a review

As you can see from the above, good examples persuade the customer to take action. They are polite and drive the point straight, unlike the bad examples.

Create an urgency

When do you want your customers to react to your CTAs? After a day, or a week or never at all?

If you want them to give an instant reaction, the CTA must be capable of creating a sense of urgency. Words like Today, Now, Hurry, Fast, etc. create a sense of urgency.

It makes users believe that it is a now-or-never offer that cannot be missed at all. When actionable words like Exclusive, Share, Start, Discover, etc. are also used, the CTA becomes a lead magnet.

Keep it personal

Social media is like a personal hangout for most users. The content that is directed at them is personalized down to the last level. Hence, the CTAs used must also be hyper-personalized in order to provoke immediate action.

Personally pointed words like You, My, Me, Your, etc. have a far-reaching impact than generalized words. In fact, a ContentVerve was able to increase its click-through rates as much as 90% by using first-person phrasing in the CTAs. Also, HubSpot confirms that personalized CTAs gather 42% more leads than non-personalized CTAs.

Align them to an inbound strategy

CTAs are primarily for lead generation and conversion. In social networking websites like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. you can set buttons or links as CTAs which will bring leads.

To make the most of the CTAs, you have to equip them with certain characteristics that are aligned to the whole inbound strategy.

The essential ingredients to integrate the CTA to the inbound strategy include:

• Value suggestion through simple and action driving content
• A well-chosen color apt for the action (Red, Yellow, etc. create sense of urgency. Green, Blue, etc. are considerative and reassuring)
• Keep the CTA bright, bold and well visible within the page
• Position them strategically throughout the content where the customer is likely to click or think of an action

Improvise through A/B Testing

A/B testing is not just for processes but also to fine tune your CTAs for conversion optimization. You can test your CTA with reference to the size and shape.

• A circle, rectangle or oval CTA can win more clicks. Making CTAs look like buttons helped CreateDebate increase click-through rates by 45%.
• How about the color? What colors and guess make the maximum impact? SAP was able to increase its conversion by 32.5% when it changed the CTA color to orange. (QuickSprout)
• Does use of imagery in CTA help it stand out from content and make it click-worthy?
• Is the size and length of content apt for conversions?

These are some things that you can tweak and fine tune to make your CTA buttons for maximum conversions.

Track how they perform

There are 3 main metrics that help you follow your CTA performance.

• Click through Rate: How many visitors who have seen the CTA clicked on it?
• Click to submission Rate: How many visitors who clicked on the CTA filled up the lead form?
• View to Submission Rate: How many people who saw your CTA from some other page came to the landing page and filled in the lead form?

These metrics show how effective and successful your CTA has been in funneling in leads. If either of these metrics shows growth or decline, it means your CTAs need to be optimized accordingly.

Winding it up

Writing CTAs is almost like writing ad copy. Your copy, the CTA positioning, shape, color and all play a major role in winning leads and turning them into customers.

This article described in detail how you can fine tune your CTA for maximum conversions. These hacks will help your CTAs to stand out from the crowd and grab user attention by the collar.

Let us know if you have any queries or suggestions.