Calling to action! How to improve your conversion rates

An important aspect to any website whose importance is often overlooked is the call-to-action (CTA) button(s). Whether the aim of your website is to have people buy a product,  sign up for newsletters or downloading a product, the CTA button is vital for your conversion rate. All your hard work of getting visitors to your website and getting them interested in your product will have gone to waste if it is not followed up with an action by the visitors.

When you think about how easy it is to improve the CTA buttons on your website, and how big a difference it could make to your conversions, it is surprising how little attention it gets. There is plenty of focus on SEO and content (which granted are very important aspects too!), but if you want to see a vast improvement of conversions with little effort put in it, follow these 5 simple tips on how to improve your conversion rates by optimizing your CTA buttons.

Effective usage of negative space

In order to really have your CTA button stand out from the rest of your content and grab the attention of your visitors, you need to make use of negative space around the buttons. There is no exact measurement of how much blank space is needed for a certain size of button, but it is worth having principles like the Rule of Thirds of the Golden Ratio in mind when deciding the ratio.

Size and Color

You wouldn’t automatically suspect the two to be related, but in fact they are. When speaking about the size of the button, size definitely matters! If your button is too small it won’t get noticed enough, however, if your button is too big it may overpower everything around it. Somewhere in between will catch the attention of the visitors without overwhelming them.

The color can work as to balance the size of the button. For big buttons you don’t need a very dominant color but instead a color which flows with the design of the page while still standing out (as an example see VIP Affiliates’ CTA button). If you opt to go with a relatively smaller button you should consider using a much more impactful color to really catch the eyes of your visitors.


Language

The words you choose for you CTA button can make it or break it in terms of whether the visitor ends up clicking on it or not. The wording should be straight-forward and simple, but still with an urgency. Like for example: “Buy now!” or “Download now!”. The wording is simple yet with a clear message which is impossible to misunderstand.



Provide extra information

When needed, provide extra information to the CTA button. The extra information can be anything from the price if it’s a call for purchasing (preferably with an ‘only’ in front), the size of the file if it’s a call for downloading, or the length of time for a free trial. What these kinds of information have in common is that they add to the user experience. That being said, it’s important that the extra information text is not nearly as prominent as the text appealing to the visitor to act.

Click Triggers

Sometimes the call, even with the extra information, isn’t enough to get a conversion. Click triggers are basically extra boost you put close to the button to convince people to click it.
Examples of click triggers are:
- Guarantees
- Ratings
- Payment option
- Reviews
- Security message

Try out a few at the time and see what trigger works best for the CTA button on your website.


With a few adjustments there is no doubt that more visitor will take action on your website, and all the hard work you have put into bringing them in the first place will not have gone to waste!