What is a CTA (call to action)? Examples for outdoor recreation websites

A call to action (CTA) is the button, link, or phrase on your website that tells a visitor what to do next. “Book Now.” “Check Availability.” “Find My Trip.” Those are calls to action. Every page on your site either has one or is quietly losing bookings.

If you run an outdoor recreation business, the CTA is often the difference between someone browsing your trip page and someone completing a booking. The content might be great, the photos stunning. But if the next step isn’t clear, visitors close the tab.

What a CTA actually is

In marketing, a call to action is any instruction designed to prompt an immediate response. It can be a button (“Reserve Your Spot”), a hyperlinked phrase (“see all available dates”), or even a line of text at the bottom of a blog post (“If you’re planning a Boundary Waters trip, start with our paddling gear checklist”). The format doesn’t define it. The intent does.

On most outdoor recreation websites, CTAs fall into two categories: conversion CTAs and engagement CTAs.

A conversion CTA pushes toward a booking. “Book Now,” “Reserve Your Seat,” “Buy Your Pass” - these work best when someone is already close to deciding.

An engagement CTA keeps someone moving through your site without demanding a purchase. “Learn More,” “See All Trips,” “Download the Trip Guide” serve visitors who are still in research mode, which, according to booking platform data, is about 97% of website visitors at any given time.

Most outfitters only use conversion CTAs and wonder why they convert at 1% or less.

The CTA on a trip page

Your trip page is where the conversion CTA belongs. Someone visiting this page has already decided they want to do whitewater rafting in West Virginia - they’re deciding whether to book with you.

Put your primary CTA above the fold. FareHarbor, Peek Pro, and most booking platforms default this to a “Book Now” button. That’s a start, but it’s rarely the highest-converting option.

One documented test found that switching from “Book Now” to “See Dates” produced four times as many conversions. “Book Now” puts psychological pressure on a visitor who may still be weighing options. “See Dates” invites them to take a low-stakes next step. Other softer options: “Check Availability,” “Find My Trip,” “Choose Your Date.” Someone considering a five-day river trip isn’t ready to click “Book Now” on their first visit. They’ll click “Check Availability” without hesitation.

Keep button text between two and five words. Shorter is almost always better.

The CTA on your homepage

Your homepage CTA is different from your trip page CTA. Most homepage visitors haven’t decided which trip they want, or whether they’re booking with you at all. They’re orienting.

This means your homepage primary CTA should be exploratory, not transactional. “Explore Our Trips,” “See What We Offer,” “Browse the Schedule” - these move visitors deeper into the site without demanding a commitment they’re not ready to make.

OARS, one of the largest river outfitters in the US, uses “Find My Trip” on their homepage. It implies the visitor has a specific need and frames the outfitter as a guide to getting there. Outward Bound uses a dual structure: “Enroll Now” as the primary and “Request Info” as the secondary.

One CTA per page is the standard rule. If you have a secondary CTA, make it visually subordinate (smaller, outlined instead of filled, a different color) so the hierarchy is clear.

CTAs in your blog posts

This is where most outdoor businesses leave money on the table. You publish a post about what to pack for a Colorado rafting trip. It gets 400 visitors a month. At the bottom, there’s nothing. No link, no button, no next step. Those visitors evaporate.

A blog CTA doesn’t need to push a booking. It can be a link to a related trip page, an invitation to the email list, or a download. If someone just read your post on reading river levels, link them to your guided trip overview. They’re clearly interested in rivers. Help them find the next thing.

The format can be as simple as one sentence: “Ready to see what a guided float looks like? [Browse our day trips on the Green River.]” The hyperlink is the CTA.

See the anatomy of a trip page that converts for a deeper look at where every element, including CTAs, belongs on a booking page.

Email and social CTAs for outdoor operators

Email CTAs work the same as website CTAs: tell the reader exactly what to do next. If you’re sending a pre-season announcement about your kayaking schedule, the CTA should be “See This Summer’s Dates” or “Reserve Your Spot,” not a generic “Visit Our Website.” Specificity drives clicks.

NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) uses a “Download Course Catalog” CTA for cold leads. It’s a low-commitment offer that moves someone who wasn’t ready to “Apply Now” into the conversation.

On social media, every post should have a CTA in the caption. “Link in bio to check dates” works. “Drop a comment if you’ve run this section” works. They don’t all need to drive bookings. Engagement keeps your content visible in feeds.

One thing worth testing: switching from “your” to “my” in button text has shown 90% higher click rates in A/B tests. For outdoor rec, that’s “Plan My Trip” vs. “Plan Your Trip.” We’ve seen operators swap the pronoun and nothing else, and pick up measurable booking improvements.

Common CTA mistakes outdoor businesses make

“Click Here” is the most common failure. It tells the visitor nothing about what they’ll get. Replace it with something specific every time.

Putting a booking button at the top of the trip page and nothing else is another. Visitors who scroll to the bottom are the most engaged people on your site. They hit a blank footer and leave. Add a second CTA at the bottom of long trip pages.

Letting the platform default stand. FareHarbor and Peek Pro install “Book Now” as a default. You can change it. The 4x result from switching to “See Dates” is an outlier, but 10-30% improvements from copy alone are not unusual.

Mobile. More than half of outdoor recreation bookings start on a phone. If your CTA button is tiny or buried below text, it isn’t working.

Missing CTAs on blog posts. Every post needs one. A well-placed internal link works.

For context on what to expect once your CTAs are working, see what it takes to move an outdoor website from 1% to 3% conversion. For more on applying these principles across your pages, see our CTA best practices guide for outdoor recreation websites.

One test to run this week

Pick your highest-traffic trip page. If the primary CTA says “Book Now,” create one alternative: “Check Availability,” “See Dates,” or “Find Your Spot.” Run both for two to four weeks.

That one test costs nothing. Most outdoor businesses never run it. The ones that do usually find it was worth the thirty minutes it took to set up.

The CTA is not a design element. It’s a conversation. How you open that conversation determines how many end with a booking.