How To Create Simple Yet Effective Calls-to-Action

When creating a website or landing page, there should be one main goal in mind: to have your visitors do something. Whether it is to buy a service or product, subscribe to your blog, or download a free eBook, you should have a clear, measurable action defined.  Overall, your objective should answer the question, “What do I want my visitors to do?”

This is where the call-to-action (CTA) comes into the picture. A call-to-action will help persuade your visitors to take action. Creating a well-designed and optimized CTA can significantly affect your lead conversion rates. Here are vital practices for creating a successful call-to-action.

• Show the value in your offer and why your visitor should take advantage of it.
• Express urgency by showing why the offer is important today or now
• Give specific instructions on your call to action. It should be crystal clear to your audience what/where they should click and what will happen once they take action (i.e. download, read, learn, save, etc.).
• Be creative in the way you design your call-to-action by using images and contrasting colors to attract attention.
• Make the CTA big and spacious to draw attention, specifically to the action that should be taken.
• Use convincing yet personal text to help generate a high click-through rate from your visitors – don’t be forceful.
• Test and measure your CTA by creating multiple graphics and placing them in different positions/locations to see which one drives more clicks.
• Use a variety of phrases and keywords to find your best response. Usually that CTA itself is 3 words or less – “ Register Today,” “Learn More,” “Download Free eBook.”
• You may also want to test a CTA graphic verse a simple link.

CTAs can be added anywhere on your website, including a blog. Having a CTA in a blog post is a good practice because the content is new, and is hopefully attracting more readers. Check to see which of your pages have the most views and add a CTA to the page, if there isn’t already one there.

We use HubSpot’s Call-to-Action A/B testing tool. A/B testing allows you to create multiple versions of your CTA and run them for segments of audiences simultaneously This tool allows us to track and measure the effectiveness of our CTA graphics, showing which graphic has the most clicks and conversions. The CTAs shown are just a few examples of what we have designed and used.

What CTA techniques do you use that are have been effective? Share them with us!