When it comes to achieving marketing goals, getting customers to take action remains a struggle for B2B demand-gen teams. HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report points out that generating leads and boosting traffic are top challenges for businesses.
But how can you guide customers toward specific actions effectively? In this post, I show you that incorporating calls to action (CTAs) in your content is a best practice to clearly instruct the audience on what you want them to do next. Let’s cover the most powerful phrases to engage customers and accelerate conversion results.
Call to action definition
A call to action (CTA) is a text designed to lead the audience to take a specific step – from subscribing to software to downloading a report. Commonly used in content marketing and advertising, these words prompt various types of actions from those reading or hearing them.
Here are the most common CTA formats and examples of actions initiated with them:
- Buttons: To encourage downloads, subscriptions or sales
- Text links: To enhance credibility in SEO-optimized content
- Form submission: To invite users to get a quote or contact your sales team
- Images: To increase clicks in banners or pop-up ads
- Videos: To stimulate viewers to subscribe to a video platform
- Meta descriptions: To drive more traffic to blogs and websites
Check out the best types of CTA and examples for your website
60 best call to action phrases
The best call to action phrase depends on your specific product or service, marketing goals and the B2B buyer journey.
Here are our 60 favorite call to action examples:
To drive conversion
- Get started today
- Start free trial
- Download the report
- Book your appointment
- Request a demo
- Enroll now
- Get early access
- Sign up for free
- Unlock exclusive access
Conversion is the stage of the marketing funnel when your audience is one step away from taking a desired action – be it a purchase or a service-free trial. A call to action that increases conversion rates must be concise (e.g., “book now”), benefit-oriented (e.g., “early access”) and create a sense of urgency, encouraging customers to act fast (e.g., “now,” “today”).
To boost sales
- Buy now
- Upgrade your account
- Get your [product]
- Add to cart
- Subscribe for 30% OFF
- Claim your discount
- Order now
- Limited time offer
- Try premium
Incorporating CTA phrases into your content is more important than ever to enable high-quality deals. Research by Gartner shows that 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience. When the customer becomes the only one responsible for closing the sale, communication must be succinct, clear and decision-oriented, leaving no room for ambiguity regarding the expected action. Mention discounts or benefits you have and invite customers to act immediately.
To increase brand awareness
- Learn more
- Start your journey
- Discover [your brand’s name]
- Watch a demo
- Take a tour
- I’m interested
- Tell me more
Making a strong first impression is crucial at the top of the marketing funnel, where your buyer persona hasn’t encountered your solution yet. That’s why effective CTAs at the awareness stage focus on cultivating user knowledge about your brand, encouraging actions such as “read,” “learn,” “watch” and “discover.”
To enhance consideration
- See our plans and pricing
- Customize your experience
- Discover our solutions
- Explore our products
- Get a free quote
- Find your ideal solution
- Compare price
- Explore our premium features
In the consideration stage of the funnel, your audience is looking for benefits, price information and other features in your channels. But B2B buyers are quick to move on if they don’t get what they want — according to McKinsey, 74% of customers jump to another supplier if the product availability isn’t shown online. So, when crafting a CTA, include words that may express your differentials, like “price,” “solutions,” “premium” and “customize.”
To generate leads
- Subscribe to our blog
- Sign up for our newsletter
- Register for our webinar
- Get your free consultation
- Access our hub
- Click here to download
Lead generation through content is the biggest challenge for 54% of B2B marketers surveyed by Semrush. Want to attract the audience’s interest in your topic through good CTAs? Make it clear what your offer is (e.g., “demo page,” “white paper,” “newsletter”) and why it is helpful (e.g., “free,” “new,” “limited,” “special”).
To engage customers
- Let’s talk
- Follow us on social media
- Ask a question
- Contact us today
- Leave a comment
- Join the conversation
- Take our quick survey
- Share your thoughts
- Connect with us
- Talk to our sales team
According to a report by Contentoo, marketers rate interactive content — with formats encouraging audience engagement — as 93% effective, while non-interactive formats are considered 70% effective. To create connections with potential customers, your CTAs must start the conversation. Invite them to share opinions, ask questions or simply contact your team.
To promote events
- Register here
- Save your spot
- Don’t miss out
- Reserve your seat
- RSVP today
Events are a cornerstone of B2B marketing strategies. A Bizzabo survey reveals that 80.4% of marketers consider in-person events the most impactful channel for their organization. But how do you turn a targeted audience into registrants? An event subscription CTA button must inspire a sense of urgency and a desire not to be missed. Include powerful words such as “now,” “today,” “last chance” and “ending soon.”
To build a relationship with customers
- Join our community
- Receive exclusive updates
- Chat with our support team
- Become a member
- Unlock member-only benefits
- Join our loyalty program
Retention, satisfaction, loyalty, re-targeting: whatever your relationship goals with customers, CTAs should convey a sense of value to them. Highlight words that express a sense of exclusivity (e.g., “special offer”), personalization (e.g., “share your opinion”) and community (e.g., “join us”).
Can call to action phrases drive results?
Yes. Catchy CTA phrases guide your audience to take actions that effectively enhance marketing and sales metrics. Since we mentioned the B2B marketing funnel as a model of the customer journey, let’s review what kind of results CTAs drive at each stage:
To evaluate your CTA performance, make sure you monitor the appropriate metrics. Here’s a list of CTA performance metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your content:
- Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of users who click on a CTA compared to the total number of views or impressions
- Conversion rate: The percentage of users who complete a specific action after clicking on a CTA, such as signing up for a newsletter or attending a webinar
- Time to conversion: The average time users take to convert after clicking in a CTA
- Bounce rate: The percentage of users who leave a page with no further interaction
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC): The cost of acquiring a customer through any marketing channel, including your CTAs
- A/B testing results: The number of clicks or conversion rates across different CTA versions during A/B tests
- Engagement rates: The number of shares, likes and comments on social media — or the user engagement on a website, including scroll depth and time on the page
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Now that you’ve identified CTAs that align with your objectives, let’s check out the best persuasive words to customize them.
20 power words to create CTAs for B2B
To prompt your audience to take action, relying on subtle suggestions won’t be enough. You require a CTA with the power of persuasive words. When creating impactful CTAs, certain words evoke emotions and instill a sense of urgency that leads to swift action.
Discover the words you can’t miss in your call to action ideas.
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- Free: Amazon Web Services’ strategy to promote their free products and services was to use “free” as a keyword in the copy, as well as in the CTA. Include this powerful word when encouraging customers to try a demo or download special content, such as a report or a guide.
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- Talk: Fintech company QuotaPath offers a “talk to sales” CTA in their premium plan. Driving potential customers to contact your sales team is a common strategy for closing B2B deals, and this short verb makes the action more natural and persuasive. Instead of “call,” “contact” and “chat” — actions that require extra effort to start a conversation — “talk” assumes the interaction has already started. Much simpler, right?
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- Watch: Work management platform Smartsheet employs a common CTA found among SaaS companies: “Watch the demo.” “Watch” is a compelling word when the audience is not yet familiar with the product and you want to showcase all its features and differentiators. But you can also use it to share video content featuring success stories or recent SaaS product launches.
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- Now: As a persuasive word to create a sense of urgency, “now” is commonly part of CTAs that prompt users not to miss a limited opportunity, like this banner from the online learning platform LearnWorlds. Use “now” to lead your audience to reserve their spot at an event, claim a discount or sign up to get early access to your product.
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- Get: You probably won’t find a more versatile power word for your CTAs than “get.” Email management platform Sedna employed it to lead users to their demo, but you can also invite your audience to “get started,” “get pro,” “get a trial” or “get the app.” Just make sure your phrase is strong and concise to impact potential users.
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- Your: Businesses that aim to create more personalized CTAs use this word, as the project management platform Teamwork.com. The reason why it matters is quite subtle: it implies that the experience is already yours. When you compare, for example, “download our free e-book” to “download your free e-book,” the second one assumes the benefit applies to the audience, creating a sense of ownership.
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- Discover: If use content to generate awareness of a product or service, include “discover” in your CTA, as cloud-based software company Salesforce did. It’s helpful when you present a topic, a feature, a technology or a solution.
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- More: “Learn more,” “find more” and “see more” are power phrases used to amplify a topic related to your business. Conversation intelligence software Echo AI used “read more” all over their homepage, leading to expanded content about every feature. You can also use the word to increase traffic to a blog, a news page or a product landing page.
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- Buy: The video conferencing platform Zoom has multiple CTAs on its pricing page, but “buy now” is unquestionably the strongest phrase. Compared to similar words, like “purchase” or “shop,” “buy” is shorter and clearer, often triggering the satisfaction of achieving a goal.When using “Buy,” make sure it aligns with your product and audience. If your brand is yet unknown to the audience, consider other CTA options — such as “Request your demo” or “Get started” — to better achieve your goals.
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- Our: IBM’s newsletter CTA is “subscribe to our AI newsletter,” which is a long phrase for a call to action button. However, it creates a sense of authority: by using “our AI newsletter,” IBM subtly positions itself as an expert in the field of AI. The power of this word also fosters a sense of belonging (e.g., “join our community”) and expresses a brand’s differentials (e.g., “explore our premium features”).
Need help to design on Figma? Learn 7 best practices for stunning CTA buttons
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- Start: Like the content platform WordPress, many other businesses use “start” as a persuasive word in CTAs. Phrases like “get started,” “start your free trial” and “start today” suggest an easier step to take, especially when the audience experiences their first contact with a product or service.
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- Download: It might seem obvious to say “download” is a strong word for a CTA, right? But the obvious can be powerful when triggering potential customers to take a conversion action like a product download, as it leaves no room for confusion. So, don’t try to reinvent the wheel when sharing a report or PDF resource for download. Make your customers’ lives easier, just like in this Box downloads example.
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- Learn: I brought up a persuasive word we often use on our website to express authority on a certain topic: “Learn.” Use it to share your expertise (e.g., “learn more”) or informative content (e.g., “start learning today”).
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- Join: The word “join” is often used in CTAs on business careers pages, like this example from tech company Accenture, to convey a sense of union, collaboration and participation. Use it to create CTAs for events (e.g., “join our expert panel”), communities (e.g., “join our networking”) or exclusive benefits (e.g., “join our exclusive webinar”).
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- Upgrade: This pop-up from the survey tool Typeform displays a CTA commonly used by SaaS companies offering a demo or a free version: “Upgrade my plan.” However, the term “upgrade” implies that the copy should clearly mention the benefits of taking this action. Remember to address the user’s pain points before promoting any professional or premium subscriptions.
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- Try: For products with trial versions or early-stage startups introducing their brand, “try” is a powerful word to include on CTAs. It suggests a low-risk action, inviting the audience to explore and discover your offering. Use it when presenting your product’s features or launching a new solution.
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- Early: From the same category as “exclusive” and “limited,” “early” conveys a clear benefit: being among the first to try a product or new feature. The CTA from Zapier, “join the early access program,” creates a sense of privilege, implying that there’s a small window of opportunity to take advantage of the offer. Remember to use this word carefully and not too often – you want your customers to view it as a rare opportunity.
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- Subscribe: In a subscription-based business model, this is an essential word that leads to conversion and sales. But even if this is not your case, “subscribe” is a persuasive word for a CTA. Use it to promote newsletters, like this example from the finance platform Unit, as well as YouTube channels, podcasts, news pages and forums.
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- Today: Just like “now,” “today” also motivates your audience to take action swiftly to avoid missing out. It conveys the idea of not postponing the action, reducing the chance of a user forgetting about the offer. It is a word commonly used in CTAs for conversions, especially for trying free trials or limited-time offers, like “sign up today.”
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- See: As an authority in cybersecurity, Brinqa created a good CTA to provide access to a demo video. The phrase “See how we do it” is conversational and invites users to expand their knowledge about the brand.Use the word “see” to generate awareness of your technology (e.g., “see the future of AI”), clarify specific topics (e.g., “see more”), and encourage potential customers to witness your brand in action (e.g., “see what [product’s name] can do”).
Create effective CTAs with high conversion potential
Creating compelling CTAs is key to achieving marketing goals, but make sure they’re not buried within your content. As a B2B agency for SaaS businesses, we help you create, design and optimize your calls to action to boost engagement and sales. Here’s how:
- Content writing: We develop persuasive and targeted copy that speaks directly to your audience, using power words to drive action and increase your CTA conversion rates
- Web design: Our designs ensure that CTA buttons are strategically placed, visually appealing and easy to find, leading to higher engagement and streamlined navigation
- SEO consulting services: We assess your CTAs to confirm they align with conversion rate optimization (CRO) best practices, helping to improve their performance and increase conversion rates
Let’s talk about the best solutions to drive your marketing results with powerful calls to action.
Discover how to drive your marketing results with powerful calls to action