what is cta in marketing

A Call to Action (CTA) is a marketing term that refers to the next step a marketer wants its audience or reader to take). It is a prompt that tells the user to take some specified action, such as "Sign Up" or "Buy Now". The CTA can have a direct link to sales, instructing the reader to click the buy button to complete a sale, or it can simply move the audience further toward becoming a consumer of that companys goods or services. CTAs can be the culmination of an advertisement or merely a step in the process. They can be soft, encouraging a next step, or hard, encouraging a final step, often a purchase. CTAs can be used on all types of marketing materials and on every platform, including PPC ads, landing pages, websites, blogs, newsletters, emails, and more. To be effective, a CTA should be obvious and should immediately follow the marketing message. CTAs can improve marketing ROI.