Conversion / Testing

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How to Make an Effective Call to Action Button Todd Follansbee WebMarketingResources.net - Aug 19, 2008

A "call to action" is a "request" for your site visitor to do something. It can request a sale, a contact, a subscription, a lead, or whatever meets your objectives. Good calls to action increase the likelihood of the visitor doing whatever you request, which equals a "conversion." It can be a graphic "button" with a message or a hyperlink text message.

Here are the elements that go into a good call to action. Try to incorporate as many elements as you can.

Wording

• Use consistent wording. "Contact us" and "Contact us via e-mail" are two different calls to action. "Add to your order" and "Change your order" should lead to different pages (though likely very similar pages).
• Begin each call to action with an active verb: learn, place, add, submit, get, modify, edit, etc.
• Include a benefit or positive result in the text message, if possible: Get free subscription, Add to your order, etc.

Placement

• Make your call to action the logical conclusion to the content on the page.
• Place the call to action where your eye path ends up as you look at the page.

Call to Action Buttons

• Make a button instantly recognizable as a call to action.
• Place it to be visible at first glance. It should be obvious even if you move far enough away from the screen so you cannot even read the body text of the site (the "5 foot rule").
• Be consistent with your site style guide. Take the elements of color, font, and page theme, and incorporate them in the call to action. When you use the same style for your calls to action throughout the site, people will immediately learn that this format represents a call to action. Each repitition reinforces the learning.
• Make buttons "jump." Done well, graphic calls to action employ 3D effects which make the buttons visually jump off the page and stand out.
• Be tasteful. Webpages which present a clean and professional appearance convey credibility and increase conversions. Garish or cheesy calls to action rarely belong on a business site.

These Amazon.com buttons are good examples of a graphic call to action design.

Hyperlink Calls to Action

Do not ignore text hyperlink calls to actions. Worded clearly and in the right place, they can be as effective as graphic calls to action.

• Keep it clean. Don't overload the surrounding text with too many distracting hyperlinks.
• Use clear, easy-to-read fonts. For example, use Arial, not Times New Roman or Courier. Don't use unusual fonts which stand out solely by their inappropriate look.

Supporting Factors

• Include alt tags for graphics and title attributes for text hyperlinks. Reinforce call to action objectives with similar or identical wording in the tags.
• Use mouseover effects to increase awareness. However, if site vistitors have moved the cursor to your call to action, you have already gained their attention.

Assessing Effectiveness

How do you know you have the best call to action? You don’t.

But if you are regularly trying new things, such as monitoring your traffic, doing direct user testing, and keeping an eye on the sites that lead the industry in user experience testing, you'll do better then your competitors. Try to spend a couple of hours every month exploring different calls to action or page elements by testing with Google Website Optimizer or a similar tool.

Direct user testing will show you how easily people can find your calls to action and how well they understand the ones they see. Traffic reports will show you whether one call to action works better than another. The point is: Never stop testing and gathering user input.

Todd Follansbee is founder of WebMarketingResources.net. He is a usability and persuasion consultant who has been testing user behaviors on web sites for over 10 years. His methodology for improving conversions recently won a top ten award in Entrepreneur Magazine. For a limited time, Todd is offering a special small business one hour site review and consult for only $125. Improve your user experience and your bottom line. For more details visit here. http://www.webmarketingresources.net/reviewoffer.html