If your website includes a call-to-action (CTA), you're in the minority. According to Entrepreneur.com, some 70 percent of small businesses don't include a CTA at all. But if you're in the business of making money online, your CTA is an integral part of your strategy. Likewise, if you've done any experimentation, you know that not all CTAs are alike. There are thousands of possible calls to action, and while wording, placement and design all matter, it might surprise you to know what it takes to tip past bounce to conversion. Unpacking the Call-to-Action
To start, let's look at maximizing your potential for success. According to MarketingLand, there are three key ingredients in any CTA:
1. Wording
The language of CTAs can be either straightforward, "Buy Now," or enticing, "Psst! I've Got A Secret For You." The possibilities are endless. What matters most is that your CTA speaks to your audience.
2. Design
According to Forbes, the best design practices for CTAs follow Fitt's Law, meaning the buttons are large, distinct and easy to find. This still leaves a plethora of choices: pop-ups or slide-ins? What colors? What about negative space? When it comes to boosting conversion rates, good design is in the eye of your buyer. So it's best practice to test your assumptions before rolling out new layouts.
3. Placement
If your CTA isn't easy for your visitor to find, it doesn't matter how clever or pretty it is; it won't be effective. CTAs can go just about anywhere on your page, and they should. Using CTAs all over your website (but not all at once) will attract more conversions.
That Tipping Point
This is where all the elements above come into play. Like a good story, each component of your web page should work together to build anticipation in the reader's mind. The CTA should be the logical choice for your visitor. A scroll activated pop-up at the end of a blog post could read, "Want More?" If the answer is no, you don't want that person on your email list anyway. But for your customer, the answer will always be yes. It's the job of your site, and your CTA, to get them there.
