Any time your Australian Not-for-Profit asks for donations, volunteers, or other forms of audience engagement, you must have a Call-to-Action (CTA). Without a way to convince viewers so they convert to action-takers, you’re simply sending out a basic, informative piece of content that gets lost in the digital ether.
The trick is knowing how to format a good quality CTA so that customers, clients, stakeholders, and donors will take action to help support your NFP’s mission and goals. Here are some top tricks we at Web 105 have seen work the best.
What is a CTA?
Let’s begin with a very simple explanation. A CTA is a call to action. It is the final piece you include on a webpage, email, or social media post, asking the viewer to then act on your information.
For example, if you are promoting a new service with a coupon code, you might have a button at the end of your form saying, “Enter Code to Subscribe.” Or, if you are running a donor drive for your nonprofit, you may have a simple button with “Donate Now” strategically placed in your email.
While your audience may be filled with highly professional people, making everything clear and easy increases your conversion rate and leads to more engagement.
The Basic Elements of a CTA
Every CTA will be based on the messaging your NFP is using. What works to increase the number of tickets sold to your upcoming Gala to support deaf and hard of hearing people will not be the same as raising funds for a local school.
Every CTA must have the key elements you’re trying to deliver. These include:
- Who: What people are you asking to take action?
- What: What action are you requesting? Be specific, like “donate now,” “sign up here,” etc.
- When: Create urgency in your CTA. Make it clear that you need this action to occur right now and not in the future.
Why: What is the reason for your CTA? Are you raising funds to help a family in need?
- Where: Place your CTA in a clear, easy to read area of your content.
- How: Help your readers by telling them how to take action.
These basics can be expanded and personalised based on the needs of your NFP and behaviours of your target audience.
7 Tricks to Boost NFP CTA Conversions
1 – Create Urgency
We’ve already mentioned it once, but you want a sense of urgency in your CTA. Delayed action is nowhere near as valuable as immediate responses. Using data analytics and conversion rates, you can track how well your urgency is working. Using action words helps a great deal in setting the stage for this urgency.
2 – Use FOMO
FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, motivates people in your audience to engage instead of being left out of the activities. When they can see how much others are enjoying whatever benefit your CTA brings, they will feel more interested in having that same experience for themselves. Even if this is the feeling of “doing the right thing,” it helps add value to your CTA.
3 – Keep it Simple
Think about how many emails you receive a day. With so much traffic and activity from all the places you follow, it can be hard to identify what is truly worth your time. A simple way for visitors to read your content and determine the action buttons helps to increase conversions.
4 – Customise & Personalise CTAs
Whenever possible, personalise your messaging. Even something like putting the name and one demographic in your email makes your content feel more personalised to your target audience. This is why email platforms exist: to categorise your audience and personalise the content for greater engagement.
5 – Use First-Person Voice
The content around your CTA can be in whatever voice you choose (and there is good evidence for each one), but your CTA should be in a first-person voice. This makes users feel like they already own or are a part of what you’re proposing. So, instead of saying, “sign up for your free eBook,” you might say, “get my eBook today!”
6 – Make it Stand Out
That CTA needs to scream from the page. While keeping the idea simple, be sure to use white space and frame the button so it is clear, concise, and properly aligned with the tone of your content. You want it to stand out just enough so no one can mistake what they are supposed to be doing from your “ask.”
7 – Focus Only on One CTA
A frequent problem many clients encounter is trying to combine CTAs. Maybe you’re hoping to expand funding and also include a note for those interested in volunteering. If you want to use this multi-faced approach, maybe use them only in a newsletter. For an email or direct offer, stick to only one CTA so you get the most value.
Conclusion
Your CTA matters. The more you can convince readers and viewers to sign up, follow, or engage with your NFP, the better. Use these tips to customise the value your CTA brings and test out different methods until you find a tried-and-true way to boost engagement.
At Web 105, we help design the buttons and content you need for just such powerful CTAs. Our website design and development team is full of professionals with experience working on Australian government groups, healthcare organisations, and NFPs of all sizes and scopes.
Call us today, and let’s build a smooth and easy to navigate site with clear CTAs that drive conversions.
FAQs
What is the meaning of CTAs?
A CTA is a call to action. It is a prompt you include in newsletters, emails, social media posts, and around your website for visitors to take specific actions.
What are the most common CTAs?
You’ve probably seen CTAs every single time you’re online. The most common are “shop now,” “buy now,” “subscribe today,” and “get started.”
How effective are CTAs?
A CTA with clear and concise formatting increases clicks astronomically. One study reports email conversions increase by over 371% with CTAs.