The most important element of your website for conversion is your call to action (CTA) button. The CTA button is what your visitors need to click on it in order to be your subscriber or customer.

A perfect CTA button plays a vital role to convert the web visitors into subscribers or customers. On the other hand, a small mistake in your CTA button could lose you a potential lead in seconds.

Most of the people think that crafting a CTA button is super easy. All they need to do is just telling the visitors to sign up, purchase or download. Simple!

Actually, there’s a lot more to do creating a winning CTA button.People don’t spend enough time to create a call to action button for their websites and making the silly mistakes that are seriously hurting their CTA button click-through rates.

In this article, I will explain nine reasons why your call to action button isn’t performing well,and you’re not getting the results you want.

Let’s get started!

#1. Your CTA button is hard to find

Your call to action button sometimes doesn’t perform well because users can’t find it easily.Your call to action is probably either too small, buried in text or graphics, or text link instead of a prominent button.

Let me show you an example here:

Just take a look at the above screenshot and this website has no prominent call to action button.There is a weak one with the text “click here to book online”. You can’t really recognize it as a call to action unless you read the text, and that can easily be overlooked by the visitors.

If you have other elements within the page compete with your CTA button for visitor’s attention,your CTA will get lost in the crowd. So, make your call to action big, bold and visually appealing.

#2. Having multiple CTAs

Don’t put the visitor’s in a situation where they have to choose among many CTA buttons.

When you have too many CTA buttons on your website, your visitors become paralyzed by the options and leave your website without taking any action.

In a study done by Sheena S. Iyengar (Columbia University) and Mark R. Lepper (Stanford University) found that, people purchased more when there were less options available.

In the study, researchers set up a jam-tasting table at a supermarket. In one part of the study,they offered six varieties of jam, and at others 24 varieties. Of the customers who offered 24 varieties flavors, only 3% purchased, but of the customers who offered 6 varieties flavors, 30% did the same.



Source: glowhorn

So, be clear about what action you want your visitors to take and build your design around that. Don’t make your visitors confused about what they’re supposed to do next.

#3. Putting the CTA button in the wrong place

The website owners often make the mistake of placing the call to action button at below the fold. If your visitors need to spend their valuable time to find your CTA button, they’re likely going to leave your page before taking your desired action.

When you visit the most popular websites in the word, you will notice that they have their CTA button in above the fold area. Because, many of the web visitors don’t scroll down of the page and if you include the call to action at the bottom of the page, they won’t see the CTA button.

The standard place for a CTA button is on the right-hand side of the page above the fold for maximum conversions.It has actually been proven that,call to actions on the right side get more clicks than left side.

#4. Using vague button text

One of the common mistakes people make with the call to action button is using the vague text into their button.

The text of your CTA button should be action-oriented and striking as it has a direct impact on someone’s willingness to click and move forward.

Your CTA button text should answer why people would click on it and what will happen after clicking. Please avoid the boring words like submit, enter, go, etc. as a CTA button text.

The button text should start with an action verb and has to be self-explanatory.

For example:

Get My Custom Report

Download My Free eBook

Open My Account

Get My Free Quote

Crazyegg has a perfect text into their CTA button which clearly explains what will happen after clicking.

#5. You’re not using the right color

Color matters a lot in call to action button. But, there is no particular color that gets more clicks.

Now the question is what color should you use in your CTA button?

Generally speaking, orange and blue buttons are reported to perform well. Ultimately, you need to choose a color for your CTA based on your website background color. The color of your CTA button must be contrasting with the background color.

For example, if your website has a blue background,choosing dark blue as a CTA button color is a big mistake. Because, the contrast is too close and most of your visitors will have a hard time finding your CTA.

Let me show an example of poor contrast:

But, if you use blue color for CTA button on a white background, then the button will stand out from the rest of page. Buffer has this perfect combination.

#6. You’re not creating any urgency

When you are taking any decision, do you ever hesitate?

Of course you do, and everyone does!

Your audience think at least few times before clicking on your CTA button. If you create sense of urgency on your CTA button that can improve your click through rate. Because, that make people to think whatever is going on is really important, and if they don’t click on your CTA, they will miss a great opportunity.

For example, you may use something like ‘Sign Up today and get 30% off!’as a button text to create sense of urgency.

#7. Your CTA button isn’t mobile friendly

Nowadays, many people are accessing the web and interacting with the websites via mobile phone.

“The number of people using mobile devices outstripped people on desktop computers in 2014.” – Jim Edwards, Business Insider , April 2014

If your website and CTA button aren’t optimized for mobile devices, you’re creating an awful experience for your visitors. Because, people will find your website broken when they will try to access from mobile device.

Let’s take a look at a comparison example of a mobile friendly vs. non-mobile friendly CTA button:

See the difference?

Therefore, make sure your website is mobile friendly and the CTA button is clearly visible into the visitor’s screen irrespective of the devices they use.

#8. No social proof around your CTA button

One of the easiest ways to get someone to take action on your site is by adding the social proof.

People are no longer just go to a website and click the call to action. Instead, they research and want to see other are happily using it.

Basecamp is using ‘just last week, 8,326 companies got started with Basecamp 3!’as a social around their CTA button.

It clearly indicates that, more than eight thousands companies won’t subscribe in a week unless the product is exceptionally good. This message will surely encourage others to subscribe with them.

#9. You’re not testing your CTA button

You can make your CTA button appealing, classy and persuasive. But, how would you know that your CTA button is doing its job if you are not consistently testing it?

At least once a month, you should test your CTA button by changing its text, color, font, and location to find the best combination.

This way, you can get to know how people want to see your CTA button.

Final Thoughts,

I hope you’re now well-educated with exactly why a CTA button doesn’t perform well. By avoiding the above-mentioned mistakes and by following the effective tips to craft a CTA button will lead your CTA to be the real hero of your website.

Please feel free to share what other mistakes should marketers avoid when creating CTA button?