December 09th, 2009

What are 'Call to Action' buttons?

Wow, your search engine ranking is high and your website is on the number one page in Google. You are getting lots of visitors to your website, but hey, why are they not doing what you want them to do and why are they not converting into leads?

Well this is why all of your pages within your website should have a clear and easy to find 'Call-to-action' button. Call to action buttons are links within web pages which result in an action from the user. The most popular of these are buttons which, when clicked on, perform an action (e.g. "Free Download!") or take the user to a web page containing additional information (e.g. "Sign up now") These buttons are asking the user to take action.

Successful Call to Action Buttons
For call to actions to work successfully they need to be planned well and should be part of your information architecture process.

Draw attention with size
Within web pages the size of a visual effect dictates its level of importance. Once you have decided how important a certain action is, you can decide on the size of your button. Compare the size of call to action buttons with business logos. If you want to grab the user's attention, the call to action button should be approximately 20% wider than the logo. Although the logo might be situated higher up on the web page, the eye is drawn to the action button due to its size in comparison with the surrounding elements. To indicate the relative importance of a call to action compared to other actions, you can vary their sizes.

Placement on the web page
To draw attention to a call to action button it is always preferable to place them higher up on your web page. This is because visitors to your page will be more inclined to see the button and therefore subsequently to take action. Putting a call to action button on a distinguished area is one way of making it stand out in a web layout. Another effective alternative is to place a call to action button prominently in the middle of a web page. Ensure your call to action buttons stand out from surrounding text by clever use of whitespace. The more whitespace there is in between a call to action button and a surrounding element, the less connected they are but conversely, if you have other elements that can help convince users to take action, reducing the whitespace between those and your call to action button could be the way to go.

Use strong colours
The use of bold contrasting colours in your call to action buttons will draw attention to them compared to their surrounding elements and displaying the not so important actions below the primary actions makes perfect sense.

Convey a sense of urgency
By using persuasive words such as NOW and IMMEDIATELY it is possible to change the user's thinking and convince them that by procrastinating they might miss out. Explain what users can expect and tell them that taking action is not as difficult as they might at first think. Eliminate any concerns users may have by anticipating the questions which might hold them back before clicking on a button - you can answer them in advance, thereby building trust and increasing click conversions.

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By Onika Staas | Posted in: Web Design Tips | 0 Comments