Anyone who engages in marketing gets the importance of the call to action (CTA) drilled into them very early on in their education.

The right combination of CTA content, phrasing, and presentation can play a huge role in the effectiveness of any marketing campaign.

Fortunately for Joomla users, the process of crafting calls to action is considerably streamlined by the system's useful automation.

1. Use Custom HTML Modules

One of Joomla's greatest strengths is the way it allows marketers to compartmentalize frequently-used tools in custom HTML modules. Calls to action are an ideal subject for crafting custom modules. This accelerates the entire process described here and makes it much easier to craft effective calls to action.

Custom HTML modules can be easily published in any module postion in your template such as a sidebar on your blog. You can learn more about Joomla module placement on the official Joomla Documentation site.

2. Build Up A Diverse Library

Every marketing campaign needs multiple calls to action. Marketers may use multiple approaches to target different visitor personas, and each sales funnel they employ will likely lead potential customers through multiple steps. A well-organized library of Joomla modules enables the marketer to mix and match effective calls to action in their different pages.

3. Generic Vs. Specific

Certain calls to action are broadly applicable on a number of different pages. A generic CTA can also be useful on dynamic pages that feature changing content. On targeted pages, though, a specialized call to action that refers closely to the featured content can be more effective. Even these specialized CTAs should still be built out as Joomla modules!

4. Experiment With Placement

The exact same call to action can have dramatically different results depending on where it's placed. This is another way a diverse library of CTA modules is a great asset; marketers can experiment with different locations to determine which placements resonate with their audience.

Once an ideal location is identified, Joomla enables the marketer to shuffle existing CTAs to take advantage of the latest insight.

In Joomla, you can also use load position syntax to embed a custom HTML module — or any module — directly in your article. This makes it easy to experiment with placement of CTAs at the beginning, middle and end of an article.

5. Track Performance

With the right analytics tools, Joomla can deliver easy-to-interpret data on the performance of a site's different calls to action. This is the best way to judge the effectiveness of the different CTA approaches a marketer employs. Here's another place where organization is key: When CTA modules are clearly labeled and differentiated, there's no mystery involved in interpreting the results delivered by analytics.

6. Favor What Works

Once a marketer has enough history to review, he or she will dive in and look at which calls to action are producing the best results. This insight should shape the formulation of future calls to action, and highly effective modules can be spread throughout a site to improve overall conversion and sign-up rates. Marketer's shouldn't be afraid to lean on a winning call to action; results are the only things that matter in the end.

7. Eliminate What Doesn't

On a long enough timeline, a marketer's various calls to action will sort themselves out into a fairly clear ranking according to their effectiveness. The lowest-ranking CTAs should be retired without hesitation. Alternatives should be tested in their place, but realistic marketers understand that some pages simply aren't conducive to gathering clicks. A page without a call to action is not a sin, provided it has some alternative marketing value.

8. Maintain Some Variety

Despite the value of employing great calls to action repeatedly, (as mentioned in the sixth tip) few marketers will confine themselves to a single approach. Building a site that employs multiple CTA modules is a great way to cultivate a stronger relationship with long-term customers, and it can easily lead to repeat business when it's done properly. The same customers can be pulled through the sales funnel again and again when the marketer uses a variety of approaches!

9. Build A Consistent Strategy

In the long term, paying attention to how a site's different calls to action are working will make it clear to the marketer which styles, placements, and content are most effective. Once a clear picture of effective CTA use emerges, the marketer can start tweaking the site design to employ the same strategies throughout their online presence. This builds brand awareness and delivers a highly professional experience to the potential customer.

10. Rotate Module Content

In certain circumstances, it even makes sense to swap out one call to action for another. This is when Joomla's modular site construction really pays off. Inserting a new CTA into multiple pages is simply a matter of editing a custom HTML module. As long as the library is organized well and used consistently, this allows marketers to update their entire site with just a few keystrokes.

Every marketer dreams of calls to action that are effective, consistent, and easy to use. Joomla helps make those dreams a reality by providing all the necessary tools to quickly and painlessly manage CTA across even the most complex online marketing campaigns.