We talked sometimes about the importance of creating a “Call to Action” button (CTA.) It is one of the most important elements in your website and its design cannot be relegated to chance. Thus today we will see some tips to design your call to action button.
So let’s start! 🙂
You know what a Call to Action button is?
I am sure you are used to see them in most of webs and blogs. Whatever they are, we find these buttons. It is the button we use to define an action on the user of the web. We may be selling a product or service or recommending subscribe to our blog. There are many actions we can do in a web and the button that the user uses to make that, it’s our “Call to Action” button.
Actually, all actions that visitors can do on your website come produced by a button. Think about the amount of websites you visit every day and the buttons that go unnoticed by you. In fact, the importance of the good design of this button is linked directly to the sales of your website.
As you see, it is one of the most important elements of the web so that their design and location must be fully defined. Looking for some tips? Just ask, and they will come true!
Tips for getting your “Call to Action” button run
1. Before designing… Think
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Focus your audience
Not all webs are designed for the same public and with the same goal. Like we have to bear in mind public when designing our website, we also have to determine it when designing the elements of it.
If we have our target audience, we can define a consistent design, obviously with the styles on our website but also with our audience. For example, for young people are attractive different things than for adults, so the button has to adapt to these differences between segments.
Furthermore, once the segment defined, you have to know what type of user is the one in your web: client or visitor, and depending on this defining the button on one way or another.
To visitors…
We want to keep them, we want them to read us often and become subscribers. Perhaps they do not know well our business, but we want them gradually to become our fans.
To clients…
We want them to buy our products or services. They know us well and has already reached the second step, so we can find an offer that is payable.
On your website you can have calls to action for the two kinds of users, so you must clearly define them.
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Be clear about what you’re going to put
There is no doubt that the design must be defined for a segment, so we must go a step further and the words you write must also be consistent with this. Think that the exterior design it is as important as the interior, since the whole of this will make that the visitors do not go ahead without using it.
Good advice can be to use any number. They are clear and can determine more concisely what the visitor will get, especially when we present an offer or discount.
Also, remember that when we talked on tips for our website, we said that the text of the CTA must be clearly defined without leading to error. It is not random, you have to be clear with the action you want them to do, so do not let the intuition see what will happen next.
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Choose the perfect location for the CTA
The eye tends to read from left to right and from the top, so the important things must be in these places. If we let our button in the end, possibly we will have lost much of our audience. Not everyone reaches the end of the page!
There are some positions that without being unique can help us to define the place that our CTA should occupy, so we will talk about that extending it a little more.
2. Positions for my Call To Action
Something to keep in mind is that even if they must be present on the web, they cannot be converted into invasive elements that do not let us read correctly. The Call to Action should be carefully designed and of course fulfill its function, but without downplaying the web.
In this way, we will analyze some of the places that should be included CTA, but this does not mean that they should be in all these places on your website. It will help you to define which of these places meet in a more efficient way function.
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In a prominent place in the header
It is one of the best places to place a CTA since it is the first thing the visitor sees in a website. This can be fixed on every page of the website or only on the principal, but overall it is a very good option, particularly to sell a product or service.
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In the sidebar, thus appearing in all pages that have it
If we have a sidebar, it can be a good option to include a call to action there. Thus while surfing the web, it will be present all the time. It is a place to show up, so if a user searches it, this will be the first place to look for.
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Pop-up
Personally it is not my favorite way to show CTA, as they may become too intrusive and annoying. Sometimes we are reading something carefully and when the pop-up appears we get angry and we close the page. Either way, it is a good choice because you know that it is going to be shown to all visitors.
However, it can be a good choice to launch a campaign or a discount, so that it is appealing to your users.
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Appearing at the end of the articles or pages
It may be good to include your CTA at the end of the articles, as if the visitor has reached there, he will usually be interested in your content and more likely, he will click the button.
It may not have to appear at the end of all your pages or articles, but only in those that have more readings.
3. Let’s talk about design
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Size matters
This does not mean that the CTA have to fill the unused portion of the screen, it just have to be visible without being Spam and terrify the visitors. The button should be shown perfectly because if we have a “lentil size” button, it will go unnoticed for most of our audience. Thus if it is larger we can include more text without losing readability.
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Use the White colour
We have spoken about that on numerous occasions. White is not bad, do not be afraid. If we want our call to action to highlight, we cannot put it in a cluttered space where there are several elements which attract attention. It must be clear and ordered in the space we devote to it, but it has to “goes” with the other elements of the web.
Otherwise, do not include more than one CTA at a time. If we include three, we will not know which one to choose. This is not a game in which one is right and the other wrong, each CTA must have an outstanding and unique place.
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Design according to the style guide
As we were talking, the design has to be consistent with the style guide on our website, but still being characteristic and drawing attention, so it can be good to do something different.
This does not mean that it has to break with the design, but it has to include something that makes it highlight, using a colour that is only used for this, for example, or including a font that matches the rest but with different air…
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Arrange the items you want to include in your CTA
Once you know what elements you want to include in your CTA, you must rank them and sort them according to that hierarchy. Not all have the same importance so not everything can appear in the same way.
Play with the range of colours and fonts to draw attention and highlight some elements from the others.
Surely if you follow these simple tips, you will increase the conversion of your CTA. It is a very important element, and if you work “a while” about it, you will see all the advantages!
