CTA buttons are the lifeblood of any sales funnel. There’s a certain sense of real satisfaction that comes from designing eye-catching CTAs that drive in tons of sales an hour. Unfortunately, they aren’t something you can just dive headlong into, without fundamental knowledge of what actually drives people to click them.
Here’s 5 solid tips to drive more clicks out of your CTA buttons:
1. Nail down the right colors (test, test, test).
Figuring out which colors to use for your page background, button and text color requires some study in what colors are proven to turn the most people on. Then, once, you’ve followed all the rules, you have to test the heck out of a bunch of variations to laser target your CTA buttons to consumers.
Orange and green button colors, with white or other light colored text are considered the best performers across the board, in all industries. However, you may not have considered how your background and other on page elements may interfere with consumer color preferences when you designed the site.
Don’t rush off and redesign your site if you feel the color options for your CTA buttons are limited. Instead, stick to split-testing a bunch of buttons with colors and color combos that contrast as much as possible with the other colors on the page, to make sure the call-to-action stands out.
The CTA button needs to be the biggest attention-grabber on the page. If you’re really smart, you’ll choose what colors to use based on the emotion you want to evoke in buyers and subscribers:
2. Use “actionable” text in your CTA buttons.
Actionable text is words that make people do exactly what you want them to. Less-is-more should always be your designer’s mantra, as more text leads to more confusion and/or disinterest. The trick is to make whatever words you use mutually beneficial to both you and the visitor. Words like “Go”, “Submit”, and “Enter” are all old school and rather over done. Try these action inspiring words instead:
- Try (“Try right now!”)
- Download (“Download your PDF / Gift / Sample”)
- Reserve (“Reserve your spot today!”)
- Get (“Get it right now!”)
- Take (“Take advantage of this offering before time runs out.”)
Though it’s not always necessary, including additional click triggers can also increase clicks:
- Gripping testimonials about the product like “I used to spend X hours a week doing my books, now X product does it all for me!”
- Anxiety-relieving information such as “No personal information required” or “Your credit card won’t be billed during free trial period.”
- Key benefits of buying, joining, trying.
- Key data such as “Users experience X results after just two weeks of use.”
Size does matter, too, when talking button text. If it’s so small users need to zoom to read it clearly, the campaign will flop. If it’s so big it overwhelms the rest of the content on the page, or inside the button when using images, it will most certainly come across as threatening or demanding and people will be turned off by it.
Last, all marketers know that using value proposition words like free, no cost, discounted, limited time, and so on will increase clickthroughs and potential conversions if the offer rings true to your visitors.
3. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes.
You literally want to get customers talking to themselves in a first person narrative with your button text. Doing so can increase clickthroughs by up to 90 percent!
Let’s look at a couple of simple examples and you’ll see how simple this is to use (don’t forget to split test!):
- First person: “Get my free membership now.”
- Second person: “Get your free membership now.”
- First person: “Find out how I can save thousands of dollars a year in bank fees.”
- Second person: “Find out how you can save thousands of dollars a year in bank fees.”
Simple right? I don’t know about you, but I’d much prefer nine out of ten people click the offer button, than one.
4. Get creative with button shape and layout.
It’s generally accepted that rectangular buttons work best for all products. Test variations using both sharp and rounded edges on your buttons. Enough said on this point. Neither design has ever proved to be universally more effective than the other. However, many marketers will be able to tell you stories about a time when split testing made it very clear one was better than the other on a given campaign!
5. Use one button at a time.
In other words, don’t make one button compete with another in the same space. Newbie marketers do this all the time and there’s no other way to label the practice than that of sheer greed.
The problem is, by putting too many options in front of your visitors, you’re effectively competing with yourself for their attention. What sense does that make?
The example below shows how two CTA buttons competing for the same digital space can lead to undesirable clickthrough rates:
I hope everyone gained some valuable insights from these tips.
If you have any tips for maximizing the effectiveness of CTA buttons, feel free to leave a comment and share your knowledge.
Main Image Credit: Robbert/Flickr
