You’ve started with a great hook, carefully crafted your message, kept it interesting, and delivered it succinctly.
As your message wraps up, what is it you’re asking your viewer to do? That’s your call to action or CTA for short.
A CTA is the ultimate point of your message. It’s what you want your audience to do.
As far as your messaging goes, it’s a fairly simple and straightforward element. But it’s still important!
So in this blog, let’s look at some great examples of CTAs in videos.
A clever and simple CTA for a clever and simple ad for Dollar Shave.
The video ad itself is easily one of the best ever made, with plenty of self-aware subversive humor.
Not only is it a great CTA, but “isn’t it about time” has a subtle double-meaning, pointing out that you could save more than just money with their budget-friendly product.
Envato makes stock assets, sound effects, and royalty-free music for multimedia editors and creators.
It’s a valuable resource, but stock graphics sites can be tedious to use.
And then there’s the added hassle of paying for the elements you want to use, all at different prices and licensing and whatnot.
Beyond a certain point, it becomes more trouble than it’s worth.
So Envato tempts its potential users with simplicity and convenience, offering flat rates and unlimited downloads, and works that directly into the CTA to really hammer the point home.
The great thing about this CTA in Canva’s video is that it feels as though you’re already on board with their offering,
And you’re being gently persuaded to explore it deeper.
It’s not pushy and tempts the viewer rather than pressuring them.
Evernote is one of those apps that does so many things, it’s hard to explain.
It’s like a note-taking productivity app on steroids.
While this can also be a negative, making it sound like you’ll be overwhelmed with all its features, its CTA does it justice with “find your productivity happy place.”
This centers the offering on the viewer’s comfort and emotions, rather than yelling at the viewer to sign up.
GoPro’s marketing strategy deserves a blog all on its own.
And the CTA is both its tagline/motto while also mentioning the product’s name, the Hero 4, all in three simple words.
It only makes more sense when you understand that GoPro is the pioneer in action cameras, tiny wearable rugged cameras that can film its users in impossible situations that regular cameras simply cannot.
Adventurous amateurs can get professional-looking footage of themselves in action, and most of GoPro’s marketing itself was simply to release truly stunning footage filmed by their own customers.
Their flagship camera line is called the Hero, so “Be a Hero” is deliciously clever, both as a tagline and a CTA.
For this real estate agent’s video, the CTA seems pretty simple and straightforward.
But it’s the “me” in “contact me today” that makes all the difference, bringing a personal and human touch to an offering dominated by what often feels like faceless corporations.
A great CTA can be like icing on the cake.
This video ends with casually dropping a free consultation almost as an afterthought.
If you’ve ever worked with lawyers and accountants and such, you know their time is valuable and a free consult is quite tempting!
And now for something a little different. Mr. Ballen is a famous storyteller on YouTube, narrating usually fairly dark, scary, and mysterious true stories that are not for the faint of heart.
Perhaps to lighten the mood, or to differentiate from the usual boilerplate “like, comment, share, and subscribe” phrases uttered by fellow YouTubers,
He persuades the viewer to harass and torture the like button in comical and absurd ways, delivered in his usual serious monotone.
It’s different, stands out, and adds just a touch of humor to lighten the mood.
In this age, full of ever-present screens dominating every waking minute of our days, eye strain is a real problem.
Felix Gray is so confident that you’ll love their solution, they worked their risk-free trial into their CTA.
It’s tempting and appealing without being aggressively pushy– just the right touch.
CTAs need to be short and right to the point. All the explanations have already been covered.
You can think of the CTA as the period at the end of the sentence (pun not intended).
It doesn’t get much shorter than this clever CTA for Thinx, taking advantage of the internet slang trope of turning a noun into a verb for humorous effect.
HelloFresh is an innovative service that sends you a box of ready-to-cook ingredients so you get the best of both worlds: great food that you can also easily cook yourself.
So their CTA goes for your taste buds, offering you a box of delicious goodies to get you started right away.
Again, like a lot of the best CTAs we’ve seen, it’s simple and subtle, not aggressive or pushy.
There are few marketing strategies as powerful as a customer testimonial.
A close second would be a company with an offering or product so good, they’re happy to let you try it out and see for yourself first-hand, rather than just brag about it.
With Previsico and their CTA saying “see how our tech works for you,” there’s a level of confidence that says “we’re so good, we don’t need to hype it up with advertising and marketing buzzwords, come try it and see for yourself.”
Inviting people to sign up is a pretty straightforward CTA.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t get a little creative with it, and turn it into a more deliberate, specific kind of action that almost sounds like you're the one getting something, rather than performing yet another task.
With SalesForce, their CTA button invites you to download a free sales report, which almost sounds like a free gift and tempts you to click it.
CTAs don’t have to be boring. For Klientboost’s Bootsauce podcast, they threw in just a pinch of humor with “subscribe to get more sauce,” a hint at their podcast’s name.
It’s different and unique, and the sauce implies delicious flavor, adding an emotional hook to their CTA.
When it comes to connecting with people as a business, never forget the “people” part.
All businesses– regardless of their size or industry or customer base or what have you– work on human relationships built on trust.
By saying “let’s connect” as a CTA, Cengage eschews the usual “click here to enter your email and blah blah” and brings a human touch to their communication.
Anyone in marketing worth their salt is familiar with Hubspot, and it’s no surprise why.
Their innovative tools are top-notch, but it’s their resources and expertise that prove they really know their stuff.
In one of their many amazing videos, we get more valuable knowledge and tips, ending with the CTA “make sure to subscribe to our page” almost as if it’s a final tip.
It flows naturally and smoothly with the list-like script and almost doesn't feel like a CTA.
There is never a lack of healthcare professionals, so recruiting is vitally important to keep any country running and healthy.
This beautifully animated video for the NHS goes through the pain points and joys of a career in healthcare,
Dispensing valuable advice to applicants and recruiters on how to land the perfect job through their Speciality Training portal.
Following a list format, it ends with the CTA “find out more at [website].”
It tempts the viewer to keep the flow of information going by visiting their portal site.
It’s just the right touch for a CTA, where it’s not aggressively pushy or “sales-y.”
There’s a lot of hype around AI.
So it makes sense that even the CTA for Nvest.io is charged up with some of that bombastic energy.
In this video we crafted for them, we wanted it to end on a powerful and exciting note, so the script and narration flow smoothly into a suitable CTA too.
Here’s a CTA from a video we did for our client SK&T.
Trying out a new product always feels like a bit of a gamble, no matter how stellar the company’s reputation is or how robust your research.
That’s why a CTA like this attacks that fear and hesitancy, inviting the viewer to try it out with no strings attached.
A CTA is a simple enough thing that you don’t need to overthink it much.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t get creative with it, either. Take this Zoom AI Companion video, ending with a CTA that says “explore more.”
It’s just two words but there’s a lot going on there.
You’re being invited to enter a world of possibilities, but it’s subtle enough that it’s a light touch, not aggressively pressuring you to do something.
It also gets away from the usual cliched “enter your email address to sign up” kind of thing,
That immediately brings to mind the tedium of combing through your email spam folders to find a link and whatnot.
It’s a CTA done just right.
Hopefully, our blog gave you a healthy shot of inspiration and got your creative juices flowing.
A good CTA is like icing on the cake, a clever flourish to end your message with.
When done right it can make quite a difference, so make it count!
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