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Filthy Rich Writer

Tips, tools, & training for new and aspiring copywriters.

Tips, Tools and Training for New and Aspiring Copywriters

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Copywriting Q&A: What’s a CTA?

By Nicki Krawczyk

The keys to great CTAsToday’s questions comes from Erin R., who asks: “What does CTA refer to?”

Great (and important) question, Erin. If you haven’t yet, you’ll probably see “CTA” all over creative briefs and project outlines. CTA stands for “call to action” and refers to the copy you use to tell the reader what you want them to do next.

Calls to action are always commands and, thus, always begin with verbs. Depending on the project, a call to action might be “Sign up now for our newsletter!” “Like us on Facebook” or even just “Buy now.”

Every single piece of copy you write has to have a next step for the reader to take. (We’re writing the copy for a reason, right? We want the reader to buy the hand towel, sign up for the course or watch the video–depending on the project, of course.) The call to action tells the reader what step to take next and how.

And, by the way, each call to action implies what’s going to happen for the reader when they take that action. If they click on your “Buy now” button, the should be taken to the web page where they can actually buy now. If you’re encouraging them to sign up for your newsletter, the next click had better take them to a place where they can do that. And if you’re telling people to come into the health club and sign up for the raffle, it had better be pretty clear where that raffle is, the second they walk in the door.

Last Updated on August 10, 2014 by Nicki Krawczyk

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Filed Under: Copywriting Q&A, Copywriting Tips, Terms to Know

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About Nicki Krawczyk

Nicki is a copywriter, copy coach and the founder of Filthy Rich Writer. She's been writing copy for more than 20 years.

Comments

  1. Niko Holmen says

    May 28, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    Hi, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam feedback? If so how do you prevent it, any plugin or anything you can recommend? I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any support is very much appreciated.

    • Nicki says

      May 30, 2012 at 11:54 pm

      Hi Niko!

      We’ve been monitoring it ourselves, but the Genesis framework we’ve built the site on does a nice job of monitoring it. It’s probably too late since your site is already up, but if you’re interested, here’s the info http://www.studiopress.com/themes/genesis

      Good luck!
      Nicki

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