Are you wondering how to create a call to action? The call to action: it has long been the subject of study and debate in the marketing world. It can be simple—buy now—or incredibly complex—driving you to take a specific political action, for example. The goal of the call to action is to convince the reader to take a specific step or steps as soon as possible.

Tips for Crafting a Call to Action

Of course, like anything in marketing, when a call to action isn’t well crafted, it can be disastrous. So to ensure yours are as good as they can be, keep the following tips in mind.

The Verb Is Key

Of course, we don’t mean any verb. With a call to action, you need a command verb, a verb that implores the reader to take a specific action. Buy, vote, click, read—all of these can work in various circumstances. Make that verb obvious and powerful in the call to action.

In General, Shorter Is Better

How short? In an advertisement or pop-up, keep it to 35 characters or less. In a blog post or other longer piece of content, 100 characters or less is the rule. This may be hard to do, but the results it nets are worth spending extra time working with the character limit.

Emphasize the Benefit of Taking Action

What will the audience get if they buy, vote, click, or read? They need to know—otherwise they aren’t going to buy, vote, click, or read. Your audience isn’t willing to operate on blind faith, so make sure they don’t have to.

Create a Sense of Urgency

People love to procrastinate. And when it comes to marketing, if the audience procrastinates in taking action, they never will take the action. You can do this by noting that something is a limited time offer or that a deadline is approaching, or otherwise installing the fear of missing out.

Use Numbers

Numbers are great in calls to action. They take up less characters than words, they stand out against the rest of the text, and they communicate ideas quickly. While it may not always be applicable, when you can, use them.