How to Make Your Call to Action Buttons Actually Actionable

You’ve no doubt seen them… call to action buttons. They’re all around the web. Swarmed. Vying for attention.

The key thing about a CTA is your users need it more than you do because it guides them on what to do next. It never leaves them hanging in the middle of nowhere. It helps them get what they want.

For you, CTAs compel users to take action. It marks the beginning of a new relationship – that of trust… from where you can prove that you truly take their trust to heart and convert them into superstar customers.

We want to begin with an instance that articulately highlights the importance of CTAs.

Timothy Sykes recently removed CTAs from his site’s store page, not because he wanted to test it, but because it wasn’t fully developed. And he got more inquiries than ever.

That happened because prohibition leads to an increase in temptation. When people know they can’t have something, they want it even more.

Take the fall of man, for example. There’s a theory that states Eve was somewhere, deep down, tempted to taste the forbidden Apple – that’s why Satan was able to cause the fall.

Let us now talk about how you can make your CTAs work.

Take care of the size/placement/color/copy of your call-to-action buttons

Size

Make sure the size of your CTA is decent – neither should it get unnoticeable nor overnoticeable. The thumb rule, however, is that it should be the largest button on your page and that the secondary CTA should be a little smaller than the primary one.

Placement

Above the fold is often the best place for a CTA. However, it’s better to have it below the fold in some cases. Take blogs, for example. Almost every blog reader would subscribe only after reading a post (and liking it).

Kissmetrics does it the creative way and places its CTA within a video.

Color

Remember that your CTA colour should contrast with your background color so that it stands out and draws maximum attention.

Example:

Copy

If you want to rise above the noise, avoid generic calls to action, such as click here and buy now and discover one that works for you.

Don’t overuse CTAs – and don’t underuse them, too.

Using too many calls to action on a page is as stupid as using no call to action – both don’t help you convert.

So ensure every page on your site has at least one CTA button. Also, ensure no page looks swarmed with CTA, as this will repel users away from your site.

Give an offer (even better, give it for a limited period).

We recently talked about the importance of offers on my own blog. Offers have the power to influence people to buy from you.

Related: An offer can improve your conversions almost always

CTA is a way to leverage the power of offers.

Consider this example:

Visual Website Optimizer, an A/B testing tool, instead of using “TRY IT NOW” uses “TRY IT FOR FREE”.

If you want to go one step ahead – and we may experiment with it soon 😀 – keep your offer for a limited period.

Remove distractions

One thing that significantly keeps your users from buying from you is distractions. By distractions, we mean the content around your calls to action.

We’d recommend putting nothing around them as it makes them all the more compelling.

Conclusion

Remember: there’s no golden CTA. It’s all about what works for you. And the best way to check that is through A/B testing.

Now it’s your turn to tell us how you make your CTAs convert. We’ll see you in the comments.