Do Visitors Click Your Buttons?

You have successfully driven traffic to your website. You have done this through careful Utah website design, SEO research and content creation. Now what? After they have visited your website, the next important step is to get them to act about what they have seen and read. To help them, you need to make it easier through call to actions that direct visitors to the kind of action you would want them to make.

What are Calls to Action?

Simply put, it tells your readers what to do. This can be to sign up for a free sample or newsletter, share an article via their social media accounts or fill out the contact form. For a call to action to be successful, it should persuade and compel the reader to respond.

Ways to build an effective CTA

• Understand your unique selling proposition (USP). What unique thing do you offer to your readers? What makes your product or service stand out? Identify a problem they have and present a solution via your products and services. Do you offer economy, speed or quality? It is important to understand your USP so that you can best articulate this to your readers. Your USP should respond to the needs of your readers.
• Think about your offer. CTAs come in many forms. You can offer a free gift, a discount, a product bundle, a chance to join a contest or raffle, information, access to particular areas in your website, exclusivity or status. The CTA should be based on what your readers would want to receive from you, rather than what you want to give the readers.
• Use the right language. CTAs need to be compelling, descriptive but short. Use clear and concise language such as “Download Now” or “Start your trial today”. Also, use active verbs as well as phrases that denote urgency. Some examples include: “Act NOW!” or “Avail of this one-day offer!”
• Highlight the CTA using colors and page positioning. Readers tend to simply scan a webpage. The CTA must stand out so that it is easy to spot. The position of the CTA on the page really depends on how the page is designed. Some web designers suggest putting the CTA at the central column at the top or middle section of the page. Also use color contrasts to direct the eye to the CTA on the page. If you have a colored page background, use lots of white space for the text box or button of the CTA. You can also use a color that contrasts with the background. Avoid surrounding the CTA with clutter (e.g. photos, text or other graphics) that can detract from the CTA.
• Size it up. One other way to highlight the CTA is to make the call-to-action button larger. Of course, you will also need to consider the proportion of the CTA vis a vis the other contents of the page.
• Test your CTAs. Which one is more effective? Remember, there is no cut and dried rule as all businesses are unique. Determine the combination of CTA offer, design and placement that works best for you. You can test these CTAs by using a small batch per trial.
• Choose only a few of the most effective CTAs. Having too many choices will only confuse the reader so he ends up not choosing anything at all. Choose only the most effective CTAs so that the reader does not feel too overwhelmed by the need to make too much mental effort. You can also funnel these CTAs so that what comes out is a step by step series of guided CTAs. Once you have gotten the reader to commit to one CTA, you can provide addition CTA options for later pages.
• Include a CTA in every page. Provide the readers with the opportunity to respond as they go through your website. Otherwise, they may decide to drop out of the website without doing anything by way of a response.
• Simplify requests for information. If the response to your CTA requires the reader to provide personal data, only get what is necessary. Resist the temptation of asking for a lot of information, the reader may decide the effort is not worth it and just give up.
• Follow through with your promise. Once the reader has responded, it is your responsibility to send that newsletter or e-Book or deliver what was promised in the CTA.

Calls to action are just one aspect of creating an effective website or e-mail marketing campaign. There are so many other strategies that are involved in SLC web design. Adaptivity Pro offers expert and experienced web design, SEO and other internet-based services for your company’s requirements.