Newton’s first law of motion states that “An object at rest will stay at rest unless acted on by an outside force.” Most of your users will arrive at your website in a state of rest. Effective website designs use the call to action to push users into a state of action.
There are two big components of a call to action that you can leverage to your advantage. Arguably, writing a powerful call to action is the most important. This is the technique that will help you accomplish more results through SEO.
However, designing a call to action can be tricky. It’s important to ensure that your calls to action are eye-catching, recognizable and readable. Here are four ways you can use to design a CTA strategy on your website that will ensure they’re read as often as possible.
Bookend the website
Calls to action should be clearly visible immediately when the user arrives on the website. It’s true that we primarily want to provide real and useful value to our users through our content, but we also want them to understand that we want to enter into a transactional business relationship with them right off the bat.
Additionally, a call to action should be presented to the reader once they reach the end of the website. Once a user reaches the end of the website, there will a brief moment where they will wonder what to do next. Generally, a typical user will either scroll back to the top of the website to look for something else to read, or they will click away from the website.
In that moment, you have an opportunity to capture the user’s attention once more and direct them into your sales process with an eye-catching call to action. I recommend having a simple call to action at the bottom of every page on your site.
Keep a call to action visible at all times
It’s important for your users to be able to find a call to action that will allow them to enter your sales process at any moment. You never know where in the site a visitor might decide that they’ve got the information they need and want to talk to a real person about their needs.
Make it easy for them to do this by keeping a call to action visible from every point of the website. You can do this either by repeating your call to action throughout the length of a long page, or by utilizing a sticky element (such as a sticky header or floating contact button).
Transitional vs direct calls to action
Like a direct CTA, a transitional CTA is also direct, clear and easy to understand. However, instead of asking your customer to buy now or take immediate action, you’re inviting them deeper into your website or sales cycle. Customers who may be ready to buy eventually but currently need more information are those who tend to use these buttons.
Transitional CTAs sound like Download the Guide, View Our Work, See Options, Take our Quiz. A transitional CTA will help keep users on your site longer, which will improve your search engine rankings and improve the likelihood of making a sale from each user.
Consistency is key
You should generally have one CTA for each different action you want your user to take. Each of these CTAs should have the same text and overall appearance throughout the website. For example, for a painting contractor’s website, there were two calls to action.
One button said “Book an Estimate,” and the other button said “Contact Us.” Both buttons led to the Estimate page. Both of these buttons were changed to say “Book an Estimate,” and results improved over the following week.
Additionally, there is almost never a reason to have multiple direct CTAs for different desired actions on a single page. Every page should have a single task and purpose.
Your CTAs can make or break a website
Check out your website as it sits right now. Approach it from the frame of mind of a potential customer that has never heard of your business before. Would you decide to work with you based on your website? Do you see a call to action that motivates you to take action and get in touch with your business? If not, work on it right now! A powerful CTA can make the difference between capturing a great client or letting them click away to a competitor, so use these techniques today to improve your website and boost your conversion rate.
If you want to talk about your website’s CTA strategy, click here to schedule a 30 minute Zoom consult with me. I’d be happy to give you some case-specific tips that can help you boost your results.