I am sure more than half of your day is spent on the Internet, either surfing the web or on social media. 

And this is natural enough because practically everything is on the web. Be it your social circle or your shopping and to-do list. Living without the Internet is next to impossible these days. 

My point here is while surfing the net, how many of you come across advertisements or buttons that one way or the other you are prompted to click on. 

Well, of course, the online world is full of advertisements. But what about the buttons that usually see at the end of these advertisements. 

These are the call to action buttons (CTA) or at least that is what they are called in the technical language. 

In simpler terms, call to action buttons is more or less your actions to respond to the adds. It can be anything from – “Call Us”, “Get a Free Quote”, “Let’s talk over a coffee”, “Get to know us More”, etc. 

CTA buttons basically persuade you to either use the services of any business or get to know them more. 

And in technical terms – “The call to action in web design, and in the user experience (UX) in particular, is used to refer to the elements of a web page that require user action. The most popular manifestation of the call to action in web interfaces is in the form of buttons that can be clicked to perform an action (for example, “Buy this now!”) Or lead to a web page that contains additional information (for example, “Get more information …”) asking the user to take action.” 

Getting to the point let us discuss the…

Top 5 Call To Action Best Practices You Must Definitely Follow

Call to action buttons are no magic wand and you will not magically start getting high click rates or conversions. But trust me, CTA is definitely vital if you are running an online business and more important if you are solely depended only on online customers. 

Lead generation and conversation can sometimes be far from being a fairy tale.

Sometimes people find you, they become customers and we all live happily ever after. But in others, we find frogs that only see a few pages, then leave without telling us who they are or give us any way to contact them again.

(I mean, come in. Even Cinderella has left a glass slipper.)

Unfortunately, as sellers, sometimes we have to admit that they may not be frogs. Maybe they wanted to continue their shopping trip with us, but they didn’t know-how. Perhaps the path of conversion was not as clear as we thought.

That is why each page needs a call to action (CTA) and each CTA must be bold, clear and relevant.
 
So, the first point to keep in mind while putting a call to action button is…

When making your button, make sure the colours are visually striking. Visually striking colours attract the attention of visitors to web pages, so it is so important to use them. 

In addition, the colour you use on your button is most effective when it is in strong contrast to the background on which it is placed.

No one can click on your CTA if they don’t even know it about. Visually, this should be highlighted on the page.

Here are three things to keep in mind when it comes to appearance:

Size: a larger CTA button or banner will stand out, but don’t overdo it. Having a CTA that is too large can be lost due to the blindness of the banners.

Regardless of the size you use, make sure it is large enough to read, but also to see and click on the mobile. While mobile device traffic is more important than ever, mobile performance should be a priority. 

Apple recommends a minimum size of 44 x 44 pixels for anything that can be clicked. It is a good place to start.

Contrast: A simple general rule that allows your CTA to stand out is to create a contrast with the surrounding content. Vibrant colours are excellent for creating contrast and attracting attention. 

To decide which colour to use, a good way to start is to look at the most used colours on your website or landing page design, then choose otherwise. You can also try using orange or red. These are generally accepted as the highest conversion colours.

Image: if you use an image or a custom design in your CTA, it must always be of high quality and relevant to the offer. Think about presenting an image of what you are proposing or maybe an image through which the audience can relate to you.

The use of strong verbs and a language that encourages its users to perform an action is usually very successful. This means that instead of simply typing “Click here,” you should write “Click here now.” 

The words that also work generally well are: save, download, create, etc. (but “save now” and not just “save”). You get the essence. 

Discover ways to be direct with your readers as they are more likely to support and execute the actions that drive the growth of your business.

In order for your visitor to be clear about what to do next and why they need to do this, you want your CTA to directly reflect the message of the content that preceded it. 

For example, if your CTA is at the end of an article entitled “16 ways to increase your ranking on old content” and you want to download a premium SEO guide, don’t just say “Download our free guide”. Ask your CTA to read something descriptive and memorize previous content, such as “Increase your SEO ranking even more with this free guide.”

Also, make sure the message is moved to the next step. For example, if your CTA leads to a landing page, use the same language as the blog post and CTA in its content to ensure relevance and avoid confusion.

If this landing page requests an automated email, use the same keywords again.

Consistency reduces confusion, creates a better user experience and makes your conversion path much simpler.

It is obvious that placing your CTA buttons in smart slots is an obvious step, but it is common for websites to put their buttons in a somewhat random location and expect everything to be fine. 

The best locations for your call to action buttons include your header, footer or sidebar. You can also experiment with CTA buttons at the end of a blog post (or even in the middle) to be repeated again at the end.

Although the call to action buttons are important, it is important not to overdo it. If you put too many calls to action on your website, it is too good and counterproductive (and will reduce the number of clicks you will eventually get).

Only 47% of 500 companies’ websites have a call to action button that allows users to see in less than 3 seconds.

The placement of a CTA plays an important role in optimizing the conversion rate. While it is advisable to place your CTA in the upper half of the page, you should not follow it blindly. If your landing page is long, it is advisable to repeat the use of CTA so that you do not miss any opportunity to get the user’s attention.

The idea is to take into account the current position of your visitor in your purchase cycle (and your marketing funnel). Put yourself in their place and ask if you would respond to your CTA offer at that time. 

If the answer is no, try a different location. The last thing you want to do is send spam to a potential client with a CTA that you are not interested in or for which you are not prepared.

It seems obvious that your call to action should be action-oriented, but I cannot tell you how often I see CTAs that are not.

In order for your CTA to be action-oriented, you must consider the language you use in your copy, as well as the benefits your visitors would enjoy after clicking the button.

The more descriptive of the action you want your audience to perform and what they will get by clicking on this button, the better.

Here are some examples of an incorrect copy of CTA:

Click here
Download
Submit
Connect
Enter
Follow
Continue

All of these CTAs use an action-oriented verb, of course, but they don’t tell the viewer what they will get when they click on it.

Frankly, they all sound like work and the last thing that more people want or need on their plate is more work.

Instead of creating the illusion of work and establishing a “mental problem”, point out that your CTA should reflect a benefit; an action that your audience wants to achieve.

For example:
Get my eBook
Stay connected
Join the fun
Let’s talk
Give me more
Want to know more

When prospects see this type of copy in the CTAs, they don’t read it as a job. They read it while receiving something in return (and who doesn’t like gifts?).

They receive an e-book, keep in touch, have fun. Be creative (while making sense of the offer) and your CTAs will be much more attractive to potential customers.

From your copy to your colour and location, all of these things can affect the performance of your call to action and the only way to know which combination will offer the highest conversion rate is to try them.

Conversion rate optimization is critical to the success of inbound marketing and, fortunately, HubSpot, Optimizely and other marketing software have made the tests extremely simple.

According to HubSpot, here are some basic goals to achieve:

A click rate of 1 to 2%
A conversion rate of 10-20%

To achieve these goals with your CTAs, test the following:

Button colour
Copy / Messaging
Size
Location

Testing before executing is always beneficial. You get to know all the loopholes and drawbacks before others can point it at them.