Have you ever visited a website and immediately clicked the back button after reading the content?
Most of us have done this at least once, but it is frustrating for businesses who are trying to sell their products or services through their website. The call-to-action is an important element on any page with content because it encourages your reader to continue engaging with your website. Fortunately, there are several simple strategies that you can use to create call-to-actions that will improve the performance of your website.
1) Use Your Existing Brand Style Guide
A call-to-action should look similar to every other element on the same webpage. To make sure that all of your calls-to-action match, utilize your current brand style guide. A call-to-action is a marketing technique, so it\’s important to use design guidelines that are consistent with your brand image. Your call-to-action should reflect the same fonts, colors, images and messaging that you utilize across all of your existing marketing materials. If you don\’t have a style guide yet, consider hiring a web designer to create one for you.
2) Create Powerful Headlines
The call-to-action headline will determine whether or not your readers will complete the call to action. The language in your call-to-action headlines must be direct enough to keep their attention while also encouraging them to act on it right away. Some tips for writing effective call-to-action headlines include using power words, avoiding industry jargon and creating a call-to-action for every offer on your website.
3) Add Value
You call-to-action is only as effective as how it adds value to the reader\’s life. Before writing your call to action, consider exactly why you are making this call in the first place. If you want customers to sign up for an email list, then you have already decided that subscribing will have some sort of benefit for them. Your call to action should be written around what additional value you can provide for your readers based on their new subscription status.
4) Utilize Bullet Points or Numbered Lists
If there are several benefits within your call-to-action headline, consider using either bullet points or a numbered list to keep things organized.
If you want to call attention to a special offer , you could write \”Receive 5 newsletter e-mails every Tuesday! Learn about exclusive sales, coupons and more.\” A call-to-action headline with bullet points will be easier for the reader to digest, so use them whenever possible.
5) Include an Image of Your Product
Every call-to-action should include an image of your product if it\’s applicable. This is particularly effective because images are processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text . If there is no call for action within the image itself, draw readers\’ eyes towards it by writing about what they receive once they complete their call -to-action. For example, \”Get your free makeup sample now!\” will call attention to the image of a free lipstick below it.
6) Offer Social Media Connections
All call-to-actions should include social media connections like Facebook and Twitter . Including social media buttons automatically encourages readers to share your call-to-action with their friends. This helps spread awareness of your business without any additional effort on the part of your website visitors. To ensure that these social shares can go through, make sure that you have already connected to both sites on every page where you want to offer them as well as throughout the rest of your website.
7) Make Your Calls-To Action Distinctive
There are hundreds of call -to-actions that go through web browsers on a daily basis. To make sure that your call-to-action stands out from the rest, utilize distinctive call to action techniques like color and size . Using bright colors will catch readers\’ eyes as they scan down the page. Shrinking letters down into an extremely small font is another effective method for making your call-to-action stand out from everything else on the webpage.
8) Include Contact Information
A call to action is useless if you cannot back it up with additional support. If a call-to-action asks visitors to subscribe to your email list, include a link where they can easily send their name and email address . This ensures that there is no sales pressure involved in the call-to-action and that visitors can do it when they are ready.
9) Keep Your Language Simple
Your call-to-action should be written in a conversational tone for your website visitors to understand immediately. If your call-to-action includes industry jargon, simply explain the meaning of every word within parentheses underneath it so that you don\’t lose any readers along the way.
10) Include an \”Act Now\” Button
Although calls to actions should be included on every page of your website, some call -to-actions will be more time sensitive than others. If there is a limited amount of items available at a discounted price or if there is only one call -to-action available per customer, include an \”Act Now\” button next to it. This call-to-action design will encourage visitors to make an immediate decision, ensuring that you make the most of every call to action opportunity.
See how easy this is? You can create call-to-actions like a pro within minutes! Just remember to call your readers towards whatever goal you want them to complete for you and use these ten tips in order to get their attention immediately.