Why are Call to Actions (CTA) so important?
Call to Actions (CTA) are essential for any website and can be the difference between success or failure. Having good Call to Actions can literally be the difference between you getting a lead and nothing at all, which you definitely don’t want! They are designed to provoke an immediate response by using prompts such as ‘call now’ or ‘buy now’.
Inviting users to take a desired action can be hard unless done properly, so how can you improve your site and get people to where you want them to be? Keep your CTAs consistent throughout your site and always stay true to your brand guidelines.
Make them stand out as much as possible! You want people to see these easily when looking at your pages. Think about how you can word them and if you could word them better. You want to make sure these run throughout your website, promoting each CTA’s purpose to the people.
Copy
Great copy is important on everything you do not just on your website. This isn’t different for your Call to Actions – make sure you put thought into what they say. Remember! They don’t always have to be about buying something.
Provide assurance and let users know you aren’t fooling them, which is something that happens online far too often these days. If you’re offering a free trial you can tell them there’s no hidden fees or payment details required.
Placement
Where should you place your CTAs? Somewhere it stands out and is relevant obviously! There really is no right answer to this question, however, a mistaken idea that having more than one Call to Action on a page is bad is completely false! You can have as many as you like but don’t go overboard and scare any potential customers off. Don’t fall into the trap of placing them everywhere and making your website look spammy.
Prompting Urgency
Not always the best solution but it can be very powerful. Provoking a sense of urgency in a CTA can make customers interested sooner rather than later. An example of this could be promoting limited time offers where the customer acts fast because they don’t want to miss out on the offer in front of them.
Improvements
If you have the ability to do so, tracking conversions can be key to making your website better and better. It gives you the ability to see what’s working and what perhaps isn’t. If a CTA isn’t working effectively there are numerous reasons why it might be failing. It could be placement, not standing out enough, the link’s a 404 error (invalid link) or something to do with the wording used.
Always think of it from your customer’s point of view and you’ll soon see improvements that can be made. After all, nothing is perfect…
User Experience
You can use CTAs to improve how people use your site. Examples include having submit buttons on forms, next buttons on pages or even a checkout button on a product page. All of these would still be classed as a Call to Action, yet their purpose is to help users navigate your website effectively with ease.