Whether you’re running an online store or not odds are you would like visitors to your website to take some sort of action once they get there. Could be as straightforward as clicking buy now or add to cart, or maybe filling out a contact us form, maybe registering for a newsletter, or downloading your e-book. Creating effective calls-to-action can mean the difference between your site being a truly useful business tool or just on the online address book.
The major factor to whether your visitors actually convert or not is your call-to-action (CTA). Once you’ve clearly established what your ideal actions or conversions look like, and you’re ready to add the appropriate CTA, check your plan against the following:
Easy to see: consider contrast, size, and location. Is it above the fold? Is it close to content that would preclude an action? Is it easy to identify as something to be clicked? There should be some logical flow to taking action. Don’t make your visitor search for it because people won’t waste their time.
HubSpot provides some solid tips here on designing your call to action.
Easy to understand: be clear and concise as to what happens when action is taken (Register, Buy Now, Sign Up, for example). Don’t try to trick anyone. That’s shady. And now is not the time to put on your Shakespeare hat. Short and to the point equals intentional action.
If you see people clicking through your Call-to-Action but quickly bouncing from the page it leads to your CTA copy is one thing to immediately look at.
Easy to Convert: don’t put unnecessary obstacles between your potential customer and the final conversion. Make the path logical and with the least amount of steps possible while providing the right content for an informed decision.
For more check out 5 Common Call-to-Action Errors
Photo credit: Fe Llya