Calls to action. You know your site needs them (learn more about what a call to action is here), but do you know what types your site needs?
Since they are tied to the sales cycle, calls to action need to be at the right place at the right time. Where are your customers in their decision-making process? If your calls to action aren’t appropriately designed and placed to capture the maximum leads and sales, they aren’t going to be as effective as you’d like.
So, think about the types of calls to action that will inspire, well, action. Using a good mix of CTAs offers the opportunity to examine how well each one is doing so that you can make adjustments as necessary. Consider the following 4 types of calls to action:
1. Ready to Buy. Is your visitor at the purchase stage? The ever-popular “Buy It Now”, or “Add To Cart” call to action button makes it clear how and what they need to do. Combine it with an icon such as a shopping cart or bag and a clean, simple design to make it easy.
2. Download this. Everyone loves something for (practically) nothing. If your visitors aren’t quite sure if they trust you and want to buy from you yet, they will want to see for themselves if you know what you’re doing and have what they need. Offer a free trial or download to entice them. You can ask for an email address in exchange for an offer or information.
3. Learn More. Want to draw them further into your site? Offer an article that leads to the opportunity to learn more. Make your content interesting and your visitors will be all too happy to click on this call to action.
4. Sign Up. This can be done in two ways: to lead to a sign-up form or to lead to a purchase of a service or account with the company. Again, this call to action is the place to coax uncertain visitors to learn more and/or sign up for a no-obligation service that helps them make their purchasing decision.
Of course, once you have all of these awesome calls to action sprinkled throughout your site, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind:
- Analyzing for best-performing CTAs gives you insight into which are converting. A good example is the landing page lead conversion rate. These CTAs should be optimized by design and placement on the page.
- Consider upcoming events. Calls to action should be updated to reflect current events and specials. Did you just release a new ebook? Are you offering discount registration to your next conference? Make CTAs for these events and offering that specific to them.
- Look at previous behavior. How did your visitors behave in the past? What do they respond to? Knowing this information helps you to create effective CTAs that engage with consumers based on past history, rather than guess what they might be interested in.
Use these tips to create compelling calls to action that convert leads, drive consumer interest, and turn your site into the powerhouse sales machine that it was meant to be!
