Call-To-Action Buttons Usage Guide
Tags: Marketing, Call To Action, Buttons, Inspiration, Cta

Call-to-action buttons on websites are often neglected. Designers sometimes don’t understand exactly what makes a good call to action button beyond being attractive and fitting into the overall design. But the call to action buttons is too important to be designed without some kind of understanding of what makes them effective. After all, the main point of a call to action button is to get visitors to do something.

Call-To-Action Advantage Buttons

Your CTA has to really provide some sort of benefit to the user to make him/her click. Just imagine the last time you bought something on the internet… what prompted you to take action? I’m sure you took action not because you were looking for what to buy, but because you saw a good benefit attached to the ‘Buy’ button.

In the same vein, a user cannot take action if your CTA is not convincing enough — they want to know exactly what they’re getting, and what they’ll achieve with it to avoid wasting money. Therefore, your call to action has to provide a solid benefit to your customers. If people are not so sure about the value they’ll get from your CTA button, they won’t click. It’s as simple as that.

Furthermore, apart from the text in your CTA button, the button color and placement are equally as important as the message. For example, lots of marketers have discovered that placing a subscription box on the bottom of the landing page performs best, while other people saw an increase in conversions when they placed the button on the left side of the page.

It’s your duty to find out which placement works best for you. You don’t have to do what others are doing, just test, test, and test some more before choosing a winner.

Also, figure out which button color works well for you. Green buttons may imply money and prosperity, but the best choice is to always test. Test every element of your CTA (including button color).

Looks Like Buttons

The subject of “signifiers” is critical when it comes to conversions and user-experience (UX). When we mention “signifiers” in the web design space, we’re mostly talking about making every element on a web page to look exactly like what it’s supposed to be used for. It means that a button should look like a button… and nothing else.

This will make it easy for users to immediately identify it as an element that they should click on to initiate an action. So let me ask you… when a first-time visitor lands on your landing page, will he/she absolutely identify which elements are clickable? Or will he/she get confused and start guessing what to do? If you agreed with the second question, then you have to change something immediately. In a nutshell, buttons are generally easier to click when we’re sure they’re clickable.

It’s no wonder why gray buttons often convert poorly — they look deactivated, so lots of visitors won’t even know they’re expected to click them. Can your visitors easily identify the CTA on your site and landing pages? Is the call-to-action visible enough? Does it have signs implying clickability? Finally, another good idea to make your call-to-action stand out is to have lots of space around it, like the PayPal ones.

Curiosity

When a user sees this level of openness, they know exactly what they’re supposed to do. Make Your Visitor Curious. Use curiosity effectively, and you’ll see a massive boost in conversions. According to Andrew Sobel, one of the 6 rules for evoking curiosity is: “Tell people what you do and the results you get, not every detail about how you do it. The former is interesting; the latter can become tedious.”

Curiosity brings out the burning desire to know something you didn’t know before. If you design your call-to-action message in a way that could create a burning desire for your prospects to find out what’s on the other side of the CTA, they’ll be more willing and eager to click, thereby giving you the lead generations you want. And, remember: The higher your click-through rate, the more sales you’ll generate.

In other words, emotional triggers like surprise, trust, fun, delight, and, most importantly, satisfaction arouse curiosity in your users: For example, when people trust you, they’ll be more willing to click. In the same way, when people are delighted with your PPC ads or landing page copy, they’ll immediately click, because they envision a benefit.

You should always remember that your target audiences are human beings who continually make emotional and rational choices depending on the information presented before them.

For Free

We all love free stuff, especially when it’s useful free stuff. Although there may be no such thing as a free lunch, even in free town, as humans, we can’t resist the attraction of a bonus, including a free eBook that sounds interesting. Offering your customers a helpful freebie is one super-effective way to attracting and retaining more of them. Therefore, you have to start offering a bonus in your CTA message, too.

For example, when a company offers you a great opportunity to save a little money while making a purchase, that’s a reward because they’ll bear all the risk and you’ll gain more. In fact, the majority of telecommunications service providers out there offer some kind of “bonus”, such as free shipping, extra savings, rebates, and “buy-one-get-one-free” offers.

Attractive Call-To-Action

Your sales copy and PPC ad campaigns, promotional banners, and landing pages can only drive quality leads and customers to your business when they click on your call-to-action button.

To a significant extent, a high click-through rate (CTR) equals a higher conversion rate. If all the other important elements like your sales funnel and offer are properly optimized for your target users, and you’re not seeing conversions. The problem is likely with your CTA.