Having an irresistible call to action (CTA) is an important and necessary step toward generating quality leads for your business.

When a visitor reaches your landing page, you’re pretty much asking them to complete some sort of action, usually filling out a form in order to access a content offer or purchase a product. Not only does your offer have to be compelling enough for them to provide their contact details in exchange for it, your CTA needs to be persuasive enough to entice those visitors to click on it.

The same goes for email marketing and any other function that encourages a next action. That harmless looking button or CTA phrase that you use can have the power to either drive conversions or increase your bounce rate. Needless to say, finding the right balance between design and copy is critical to an effective CTA button, and it’s not a stretch to claim that the right one could potentially result in attracting valuable business prospects.

Tips to Creating an Awesome CTA

Make Your CTA Button Stand out on the Page

Standing out simply means that your CTA button should be easy to spot as soon as a prospect is ready to take the next course of action.

Optimize your landing page by using contrasting colors to ensure that your button can be easily found against the rest of the page. Use common sense when deciding on what combinations to employ.

For example, if your page is predominantly blue, it might be better to use a contrasting color like orange or yellow so that your CTA button stands out from the rest of the page.

Use the old fashioned “squint test” to see if it’s easy to spot or not. Solicit help from others and get their opinion. You can even go a step further by doing an A/B test to find out what works.

Sweeten the Deal on Your CTA

Who can resist an added extra to sweeten the deal? Throw in incentives such as discounts, a gift, or free shipping.

Offering a little extra might just be the little push a prospect needs to get them to buy your product or service. It doesn’t have to be over-the-top, just enough to convince visitors to click the “buy” button, fill out the content offer form or sign up for your newsletter.

Make Use of Actionable, Urgent Copy

Don’t beat around the bush when it comes to a CTA copy. Use verbs and phrases that will clearly communicate the message you want to deliver.

The words you’re going to use should encourage the reader to take action, compelling them to do what you want them to do. Action terms such as “register,” “donate,” or “subscribe” explicitly tell a prospect what they’ll be doing with the push of a button.

Furthermore, it’s not enough to be actionable and transparent; you should also add an element of urgency to your copy. Put a deadline on your offer by adding an expiration date, or use phrases such as “offer is available for a limited time only.”

You can opt to include discounts for those who sign up or try your product early. This conveys the idea that the clock is ticking and not acting on your offer this instant will result in a missed opportunity. Words like “now,” “today,” and “immediately” make it clear that your offer will not last long.

Take Note of Where You Position Your CTA

The ideal placement of your CTA button should be high on the page and in the middle column, where it can be seen in the center area above the fold. This is where most eyeballs go when they visit your landing page, making it harder to miss.

Having said that, different strategies work under different circumstances. Once again, you should constantly be testing what positioning performs best for your brand.

Bigger is Usually Better

When it comes to CTA, size does matter. Along with the right position, color, and white space, using a larger call to action has a higher chance of being noticed versus smaller alternatives.

Some websites even go so far as to make the CTA button dominate the landing page, leaving the guesswork totally out of the question for visitors.

Include a Call to Action on Every Page

Doing so leads a visitor toward acting on your CTA. Don’t limit the CTA to your landing page or homepage. Having it available on each page that prospect visit (like your blog) increases the chances of them responding to your call. Essentially, any page on your website can trigger a desire to take the next action.

It doesn’t have to look the same, either. There can be smaller CTAs with variations in copy that will lead visitors towards the main objective. In certain scenarios, you can add the signup form as a footer so as not to intrude on the overall user experience.

Final Thoughts

As you can see from these tips, there is no one cookie cutter CTA formula that is guaranteed to work across all business types or industries. The key to success is continuous monitoring and tweaking.

Always conduct A/B tests on your CTA design and copy. Continue to scrutinize the response, analyze the results, and introduce improvements based on the data you’ve uncovered. A/B testing on a regular basis is the best way to figure out which combination of tactics will work in your case.

Remember that utilizing an irresistible CTA is a simple way to significantly improve your customer acquisition capabilities and conversion rates by up to 62%, so don’t leave it to chance. Test, test, test, and test again!

Find out how to optimize the rest of your landing page with our FREE checklist!