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SciCom – Making CTAs Your Friend
Published 7 days ago • 2 min read
How to Convert Your Audience
Hi Reader, how do you get people to actually engage with your content?
Imagine you have a poster or a newsletter and want people to read more.
In a surprising number of cases, nothing happens.
The reader is quietly left to work out what they are supposed to do with all of it – but today we’ll see how to change that.
The Value of Calling to Action
A CTA, or “Call To Action,” is a prompt for your audience to take a specific action or click a certain button.
There are many myths around CTAs, but we can make it simple: they are your chance to get your audience to engage with more of your work.
Even if people realize how useful they are, many use them incorrectly - as generic “click here” or “read” buttons.
Here are a few tips I use to be more creative and effective:
You Must Determine the Path
Before you finish a piece of content, you must know what you want your reader to do next:
What to read next, where to apply, what to respond to.
I’m pretty sure it’s easy for you to immediately identify all the CTAs in these examples. While it can be annoying to be bombarded with CTAs you’re not interested in, it’s even more frustrating when you like the content, want to see more, but can’t find it.
Put yourself in your audience’s shoes - what do they need to know/prepare/do to get where you want them to be?
Of course, most of us skip this step because we think: surely they know they can register; the link is right there.
However, they are moving through your newsletter with only a fraction of their attention.
Additionally, they might not know that you have more content ready for them to read.
Also, when you're giving a talk and want to end by pointing people to your live microscopy sessions, demonstrations, or even a lab tour to attract new students, don't just put up a QR code - tell them what to do and what they'll get out of it. Remember that some people will have been distracted, and a bare QR code is not something they'll bother scanning.
Not all posters are accompanied by papers, and not everyone goes the extra mile to provide more for their audience.
Be Direct: Vagueness Costs You
We usually soften the ask because a direct one feels pushy.
Instead of “Read the/my paper now,” we write, “More information available.”
That feels polite from where we are standing.
From the reader’s side, it creates a small pile of questions - Is this for me? What will I learn if I engage? Is there a cost? How do I reach out?
Every one of those questions creates a little friction, and friction at scanning speed simply means scrolling past.
Being concrete also signals trust and competence because you know what the sensible next move is.
Compare “Have a look at the programme and see if anything appeals” with “Learn how to calibrate your microscope in seconds.”
Sometimes, people just read the headline, realize something is for them, and therefore want to jump to the paper, registration page, or full article immediately.
Your CTA, for example as a button, should enable them to do so. If they have to search for more than three seconds, they might move on.
Next Up:
Now you know what a CTA is and why you should use one if you have anything beyond what your audience is currently seeing.
Next week, we will discuss how to craft powerful and convincing CTAs.
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