A call to action, or CTA, is an important element in the healthcare marketing toolbox. When planned strategically and executed properly, CTAs can help hospitals, health plans and a variety of healthcare and medical businesses improve campaign outcomes. CTAs are an important tool to effectively drive traffic and make an impact with product and service lines when deployed properly across various media channels.

Here are 10 tips that will improve the results from your CTAs:

1. Begin with the end in mind.

It’s simple, but it often gets overlooked: Before you do anything else, determine what you want to happen. Is the goal to increase patient volume in an underperforming service line—or promote one that delivers high margins? Instill trust in members about a new plan offering? Highlight a star oncologist? Taking your desired end result and placing it front and center to help develop a strong CTA is the key.

2. Put on your user hat.

One key to creating effective CTAs is recognizing your audience’s needs. So ask yourself: If you were a member of your health plan or a patient at your hospital, what would YOU want? What information, events, or services would help you navigate the system, increase your trust in the staff or save time? For the professional marketer, knowing the personality nuances of the individual HCPs can make all the difference. Knowing how the personality profile of a vitreoretinal surgeon differs from a primary care provider is paramount to setting your strategy and developing an effective messaging platform.

Don’t make the mistake of underestimating your audience; they may be more information hungry than you think. Quality content will get read. So offer them 10 FAQs about your cardiology department or preventive health program, in return for signing up for a newsletter—which has long-term benefits of its own. And to learn more about users’ interests, vigorously examine not only page views but also audience engagement—through Google Tag Manager—to get a clear idea of how the relative success of past CTAs are flowing through your marketing funnel.

3. Now, what’s your CTA?

Remember, there has to be a win-win when creating the CTA. If you offer value to your target audience, they’ll do something meaningful for you. Some examples:

• Offer a trackable, mobile-compatible phone number prominently in your CTA where prospective patients can easily get a referral to an obstetrician and schedule an appointment.
• Ask patients (and prospective patients) to access an easy-to-navigate landing page explaining your expanded range of chronic care services, as well as how to access them.
• Tie in with national health observances, such as Breast Cancer Awareness Month in February, and offer a related free checkup.
• Offer an article on what to look for when choosing a pediatrician (such content may already exist elsewhere in your organization).

In all cases, be sure to address your audience’s concerns and use friendly language. For example, when offering heart screenings at your facility, it may be appropriate to use terms like “easy” and “concierge” and “we’ll be there to help you.”

Whatever you say or offer, don’t blindside or annoy your users. State up front if they’ll have to pay anything. Tell them how you’ll use their information or how often they’ll receive your emails. CTAs are no place for surprises.

4. Keep it “on-brand.”

As with all messaging, CTAs need to be consistent with your brand and tone of voice, with your ads and your collateral. They should look and sound like the other content within your integrated campaign.

5. The follow-up: Plan it now, not later.

Early in the process, consider: What will actually happen when a user responds to your CTA?

Go step by step through the entire user journey—along with what your team needs to do on “the back end.” For users, there may be a sign-up process or any number of different steps you’ll walk them through. Plan for those.

For your team, it might mean producing a new microsite, a new form, or a new database for tracking CTA responses and ROI. Think these through now, so there are no roadblocks for users when the CTA goes live. Every step, every interaction with users is an opportunity for your organization to show value and to gain trust.

6. Consider not only “what,” but “when.”

Timing for CTAs is important. For example, use the new year for exercise- and diet-related CTAs or to coincide with a bariatrics campaign you’re running. These are natural tie-ins.

But also consider the point at which users see the CTA in their journey through your organization’s website, print ads, or other touchpoints. You’ll want the CTA to be a natural extension of, or conclusion to, your messaging—not a surprise popup that seems randomly placed.

7. Vary your CTAs by service or product line.

So, you’ve thought through your goals for your service or product lines (see tip #1). This will help you develop a plan for creating and scheduling CTAs, similar to an editorial calendar. And by choosing a different service line each month or quarter, prioritized in alignment with your marketing plan, you’ll have enough diversification to do A/B testing, analyze data, and make tweaks to optimize your response.

8. Better page design, better response.

Remember, many visitors will view your site on a mobile device. Pages need to load quickly—and the writing must be concise. For best results, place the CTA prominently, high on the page, and keep that space uncluttered with other messaging. Depending upon your goals, you may have the CTA on each page. If that’s the case, work for a happy medium between good visibility for the CTA and not being in competition with other messaging.

9. Create. Measure. Revise. Repeat.

Be sure to measure how each CTA performs. Keep that data handy for evaluation and comparison; it enables your team to know which ones worked best, and to tweak the language or response mechanisms for even better results next time. Funnel your data into a marketing dashboard if possible. These metrics and campaign performance stories will enable you to show the value to product managers, service line administrators, and other stakeholders.

10. Do CTAs right. They’ll pay off.

With proper planning and execution—and by offering real value to visitors—CTAs can increase site stickiness and the frequency of visits. Further, they’ll help you meet service and product line goals, gain trust, and strengthen your brand for the long haul.