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How to Create Terrific CTAs for Twitter Conversions

CopySmiths June 1, 2020

You’ve got a product or a service to sell and you think about how best to go about it.

“How do I reach the most people and get them to buy into what I’m offering?”

The first part of that question (“How do I reach the most people”) is easy to answer. You create a huge amount of content and you use social networks to get the word out.

After all, everyone who’s online is on at least one social media platform or another.

Now, you need to come up with a social media strategy and all it entails.

And this partly means figuring out which social media platforms to use.

At some point, you contemplate Twitter. It’s one of the largest social networks, with over 330 million monthly users. And it’s also perfect for brands to interact directly with their target audience, and for trends to go viral.

So you start advertising on Twitter.

Cracking the Twitter code can tremendously benefit your conversions.

And yet, few actually manage it.

And this is where the second part of the question (“get them to buy into what I’m offering?”) comes in.

For this, you need to write the perfect call-to-action to prompt your audience and “buy into” your offer. CTAs are crucial because they’re the first step people take in a sales funnel journey.

But what are perfect CTAs and how do you craft them?

The Best Twitter CTAs

According to Twitter itself, there isn’t one single awesome way to crack the code as a marketer. But rather it depends on different factors such as each brand’s:

  • Goals set in their marketing strategy
  • Target audience they want to reach
  • Quality of tweets (whether they’re really useful, conversational or interesting enough)

But it’s not all hopeless. The good people at Twitter do provide suggestions on the best advertising practices. Including the top 4 types of CTA tweets that get the most conversions.

To do this, they conducted an extensive study on promoted tweets.

“The study looked at how various types of Promoted Tweet engagements differed depending on which types of calls to action were included in the Promoted Tweet, as compared to a baseline of Promoted Tweets including no calls to action.”

— Jenni Romanek, Twitter blog

Offer Your Audience Content​

One of the most compelling tweet CTAs is one that asks audiences to download content from your site.

You can get many leads by directly asking people to do so and sharing a link to your downloadable product. According to the study, these kinds of promoted tweets in search increase clicks by 11% on average.

Twitter doesn’t allow the use of too many words so it’s important to make every one of them count. Don’t use too many hashtags or mention too many handles.

Describe your offer and then end your tweet with a phrase like “Click here to download!” and the link.

Play the Game

It’s important to explicitly ask for a retweet, but your audience also needs to have a good reason to do so. You can hold a contest based on retweets to stand a chance at winning a prize.

Or even offer a reward to someone if they reach a specific number of retweets.

Some brands are experts at this.

“Promoted Tweets in timelines with an ask to retweet increased Retweets by an average of 311%.”
— Twitter study

Reach a New Audience

Tweets asking for a follow are also effective. These promoted CTAs in timelines increasing follows by about 258%.

Here you should feature what type of content new followers should expect from you and only you.

Offering exclusivity is the key to gaining a new audience.

Start a Conversation

The fourth type of CTA that works really well is one that asks for a reply.

You can start interacting with your audience by posing engaging questions or requests.

“Promoted Tweets in timelines that highlight an ask to reply increased replies by an average of 334%.”

— Twitter study

Techniques to Craft the Perfect Twitter CTA

Now that you know the four types of tweets that get the most conversions, learn how to craft them.

Prompt an Instant Action

The key to getting conversions is creating a sense of urgency. You want your audience to act on your CTA right now. After all, there’s a lot going on on everyone’s feed so you only have their attention for so long.

Using time references is a great way to create urgency. Let your audience know that there’s an exact deadline to their action and use phrases like:

  • Offer valid till the Xth!
  • Buy before midnight!
  • 24-hour flash sale!

Convince Your Audience

Give your audience a good reason to do what you want them to. Show them what they’ll gain in doing so. Your tweets should add value otherwise they can seem pointless in your audience’s eyes.

You also need to reassure your tweeps that there’s little to no risk in taking action. When targeting a new audience that doesn’t trust you yet, offer them something free to start.

Personalize Your Tweet

Don’t send out a generic tweet and expect great conversions. This feels forced, dull, and slightly even desperate in a way.

Create tailored tweets targeted at a specific audience and build a connection.

To achieve this, you’ll need to conduct thorough research into who makes up your audience. This includes identifying important factors such as:

  • Demographics
  • Geographic location
  • Behavioral characteristics
  • Psychographics

And remember that your tweets represent your brand’s voice. Be authentic to it in the words you use.

Know When to Tweet

One of the keys to cracking the Twitter code is knowing when to send out your tweets. Tweeting at the right time ensures that you maximize on potential conversions. Because people are more active on Twitter some days more than others.

According to Sprout Social:

“The best overall time to post for the most exposure is Wednesday at 9 a.m. and Friday at 9 a.m. The best days to post are Tuesday and Wednesday. The worst day to post is on Saturday when there is very little engagement on the platform.

For consistent engagement, it’s recommended to schedule the majority of your posts for Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.–4 p.m.”

twitter global times to post 2020

Source: SproutSocial

Keep it Concise

You don’t have much space to work with when it comes to tweets – only 280 characters to use. Be clear and direct with your tweets. And the shorter your CTA the better nowadays where attention spans aren’t what they were.

Start your tweets with the action you want them to take if your goal isn’t conversation-oriented. If your prompt is the first thing they read in your tweet, then they know what to expect from the start.

Repeat

And once you’ve sent out a great tweet, do it again. Getting your tweets noticed is all about consistency.

You need to keep tweeting on a regular basis because there are so many different tweets in a feed. It’s even estimated that the lifespan of a tweet is between 15 to 20 minutes(!), which isn’t much. Especially when compared to other social networks.

You should, therefore, tweet at least 10 times a day. And you can even reshare content you’ve tweeted about before. Not everyone in your audience will see every tweet you send.

Invest in Your Online Education

In the world of new marketing trends and ever-changing technology, you need to always be improving your game. If you aren’t learning something new you’re already behind.

With every brand competing for people’s attention, you need a lot of copywriting and social media savvy to stand out. Otherwise, you risk your content and your CTAs being forgotten in the immenseness that is the internet.

Now that you understand the importance of a great Twitter CTA, it’s time to think about maximizing your abilities as an online copywriter.

The only way to stay ahead and keep your skillset relevant is to be continuously investing in your education.

However, continuing your education doesn’t have to mean enrolling in your local university or spending thousands on degrees and diplomas.

Gone are the days of stuffy classroom learning. Educators of today are incorporating technology at every step and this has resulted in more online courses being made available, both at university and through online institutions.

Donna Abernathy, former editor of Training + Development Magazine, had this to say,

“Online learning is not the next big thing; it is the now big thing.”

You can learn to improve organic traffic and clickthrough on your CTAs from the comfort of your home. Online learning will explain the intricacies of writing for social media and search engines.

Online courses are the perfect way to increase the value you offer. You need the necessary skills to attract employers. Continuing your education will also improve the quality of your own eCommerce projects.

Katrina McKinnon

CopySmiths

I'm Katrina McKinnon, founder of CopySmiths and Small Revolution. In my 20 years of experience, I have helped online businesses create high-performing content specifically on an eCommerce store's blog. Find me on LinkedIn and Twitter.