How A Call To Action (CTA) Can Foster More Leads Conversion

Usually, a landing page is designed with a single focused objective – known as a Call To Action (CTA) button. This simplicity is what makes landing pages the best option for increasing conversion rates. Particularly, in your Google AdWords campaigns and lowering your cost of acquiring a lead or sale. The topic of conversion optimization often revolves around the call to action button.

With recommendations for improving conversions pointing to various variations. This includes various elements such as in shape, size, color, placement on the page, copy, etc. That said, one factor that’s often neglected – with sometimes dire consequences – is the relevance of the CTAs to the stage of the sales funnel. Or at whatever point your audience is at in the buyer’s journey.

A user’s action can be a lot of things! For example, a request to download an eBook, opt-in to an email list, sign up for a webinar, register for an event, purchase a product, take a live demo/product tour, read another article, share, comment, etc. Often, when your Call To Action (CTA) Button Design doesn’t match the intent of your target audience, you’re going to see a sharp decline.

Or rather, a limited lift in conversions for a given piece of content or landing page. Most business marketers will agree that the key to website success is lead conversions: More people clicking on your “Subscribe” or your “Buy Now” buttons equals more leads and sales. But, when it comes to choosing a color for your buttons, well, that’s a highly debated topic (we’ll learn more later on).

What A Call To Action (CTA) Entails And Its Benefits

Simply put, the Call To Action is an instruction you give to your audience to provoke an immediate response and get them to take action. Whatever the reason, leaving CTAs out of your marketing materials can mean losing prospects and money. A creative and responsive call-to-action design is essential in directing a prospect to the next step of the sales funnel or process.

In general, a Call To Action (CTA) is a website or application-based button tool used at the end, or sometimes throughout a sales pitch (e.g., a sales letter). Whilst, letting potential clients or even customers know what to do next if at all they’re interested in what your business has to offer them. This is because it lets people know the next step to take while doing business with you.

Technically, your Call to Action (CTA) is the chance to motivate your audience to take real steps toward becoming a customer or client. Keeping in mind, that it can be the determining factor between a lead and a conversion. Many argue that the CTA is the most important part of your website layout or ad campaign. So, skipping it is a grave mistake that won’t bode well for you.

To put it simply, a Call To Action (in short CTA) is a statement designed to get an immediate response from the person reading or hearing it. For instance, it’s used in business as part of a marketing strategy to get your target market to respond by taking action. But, the truth is that many new business owners don’t have calls to action (CTA) in their marketing and sales pitches.

This is usually for one of these two reasons:

A belief that the prospect already knows what to do if they’re interested in buying or learning more,
Concerns that call to action are obnoxious and will annoy the potential client/customer.

If you have been working to improve response rates to your landing page and were wondering if the color of the CTA button made a difference, this guide is for you. Are you finding that your leads and prospects aren’t taking the next step in your sales process? Whether that’s buying or simply requesting more information, the problem could be a faulty or non-existent Call to Action.

There is a reason the CTA button has become such a staple on-site content and in the ad copy. Below are the key reasons.

1. It boosts the success of digital marketing

When it comes to online marketing, it’s all about generating hype about your product or service. While at the same time, grabbing the attention of consumers, and encouraging them to seal the deal. Therefore, the CTA is the missing puzzle piece that emphasizes the power of the ad copy. Meaning, that without the CTA, your copy messaging will fall flat.

It won’t have the final hook that inspires customers to take the next step. CTAs are especially important in Pay-Per-Click (in short PPC Marketing) or PPC advertising. So, adding a Call to Action to your PPC campaign will help you convey the intent of the campaign to your audience. In short, emphasize the importance of strong, inspiring CTAs on your marketing team during ads creation.

By making the CTA a focal point of your ad creative. Otherwise, you run the risk of your campaign falling on deaf ears. Assumably, for most companies, this isn’t a risk they can afford. Instead of making your audience guess and wonder about how to proceed, give them the answer in an eye-catching, brightly colored button.

2. A Call to Action motivates your funnels of sales

For your information, CTAs and sales funnels go hand in hand. Whereby, the Calls to Action serve as transitions between the phases of the buyer’s journey. By instructing the user on what to do next, prompting them to take immediate action. Of course, you want your user to visit your blog, give you their contact information, download an eBook, subscribe to an email list, and more.

You must provoke such actions. In that case, with a well-placed CTA in the sales funnel. Use CTA best practices such as wording the copy on your button in a way that highlights the benefits. For example, use “Get More Tips” instead of “Subscribe!” The easier you make it to take the next step, the more people will do so. Since your CTA creates a better user experience.

3. A guiding route to your leads and target audience

By guiding your buyers to the next phase of the buying process, you give them the easiest route to the next step. In this case, eliminating the need to solve a problem. After all, buyers are conditioned to seek out and use the CTAs. Therefore, facilitates a smooth buying process by giving people what they want. More often, you have just one chance to make a good user impression.

With PPC ads and other forms of digital advertising, there is no time to waste. For one thing, even the smallest missed opportunity can lead customers to pass over your brand in favor of the competition. In some cases, marketers will utilize multiple calls to action; however, best practices state that it’s best to only use one call to action to eliminate the paradox of choice.

4. A Call to Action is part of what your customers want

Always remember, that CTAs aren’t just important for business – customers want and expect them. Many people depend upon the CTA at the end of the page to take the next step. When they read your ad copy, they are interested in engaging with your brand. And thereby, they always look for the CTA button to learn what to do next. Focus the audience on that single action to take.

Another important point is that omitting the CTA can confuse readers and hurt your chances of sealing the conversion. Simply, because they make it easy for customers to do what you want them to do. And that’s good for them and your business. In short, the right CTA at the perfect moment can push users in the right direction, sealing the conversion, and ideally creating a loyal customer.

It can be a subtle or blunt way to tell your customers that they should ‘take action now’ for more. The best way to understand which CTAs are delivering your objectives is to test them. Know if your lead has read or at least scanned your content, and be in one way towards the next step. Once you know which ones are working you can use them going forward to meet your goals.

5. Your business becomes more predictable and intuitive

Generally speaking, there are some circumstances when you want your brand to be predictable. And notably, predictability makes your company trustworthy and easy to engage with. The CTA is one area where it pays to be as predictable/intuitive. Your website visitors always look for your “Call Now!,” “Sign Up!,” “Register!,” “Donate!,” or other CTA buttons.

And they often feel confused and disappointed when they don’t find it. Having strong calls to action elsewhere is an expected part of the campaign plan too. Such as on social media, websites, the end of videos, copy messaging, digital advertising, etc. Good CTA is the finishing touch on any type of content. Making it the cherry on top that every user (consciously or subconsciously) wants.

The Simple Steps For An Effective Call To Action (CTA) Button

Whether you use your CTA to create a sense of urgency or to gently steer your users toward the checkout line, the important thing is that you use it. Ignoring the CTA is a rookie mistake that could make your numbers drop drastically. Next time you’re creating site content or ad copy, let your call to action shine. And, thereafter, the ultimate call-to-action conversion results will follow.

Remember, a Call To Action (CTA) button can be placed virtually anywhere in and around your content, but your call to action can’t just be placed haphazardly in your sales funnel. For instance, you can check out some generic CTAs turned better by focusing on the key CTA benefits that the visitors get. Your ultimate goal is to ensure your target users click on the CTA and take action.

It’s important to realize, that not all CTAs are created equal; it’s not enough to just slap a brightly colored “click here” button throughout your funnel. Not only are various elements crucial to the effectiveness of a call to action, but the performance of your CTAs will vary based on their placement throughout the buyer’s journey.

Creating an effective call to action starts with the little details. It’s easy to create a call to action, but it’s far harder to create a call to action that converts well. Below are some of the most common components that play a part in getting a conversion lift during Call To Action (CTA) creation and A/B testing. On a website, a Call-To-Action element is normally displayed such as follows:

Text Hyperlink

Auctionable Button

Plain Context

In other words, a Call To Action Button is part of your website that encourages target customers and potential visitors to do something such as “sign up” or “buy now”. CTA buttons drive many possibilities depending on your goals but are mainly used to help drive conversion for your business. As a result, a compelling CTA will bring you one step closer to your website objectives.

When writing or creating a Call To Action (CTA) button, you need to know your objective. The top of the funnel when driving awareness could be something like “Learn More” or Consult Us button elements. Still, the bottom of the funnel when looking to convert could be “Buy Now” placed on the website store pages, banners, or inside the content. Below are the best design steps:

Step #1: An interactive button design and message

Of course, Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons predate the internet and have been included on flyers and brochures for years. For example, we use the Call To Action (CTA) button for direct mobile communication (+254-724-944-456) enticing our target customers to get more information from our support team. For someone to click on a call to action, they first need to see it.

Remember, CTAs are rendered differently on different form factors, so care should be taken so that they don’t show up incorrectly on mobile. Without the proper button design and copy message, the user will find your call to action confusing as he/she does not know where to click or tap. Eye-catching designs are helpful, and this is one point where it’s OK to step outside of your brand’s style guide.

You want colors that contrast with the rest of your content and that are large enough to stand out over everything else. Also, you can’t just tell someone to “click” or “submit.” Your copy should use powerful words and actionable verbs, often personalized (“you”, “your”, “my”) to have the most impact. Consider using words such as Buy Now, Get Started, Download Free, Visit Blog, etc.

Step #2: An outstanding thematic color pallet

When a person reaches your webpage, they are first attracted by the colors, then the content, and finally the call-to-action. But you could say that the button plays a very important role on the page. It instructs them to take action, and in the process, move down your sales funnel. So, it’s obvious you want to place it as prominently as possible, where it’s easily accessible and most visible.

In addition to this, you want to use the right colors to help make the reader click it. About what the right color is, well, it’s a topic that’s been debated for a long time. It’s because there is no steadfast rule that you have to stick to using one particular color for your page. However, the most common options people tend to use are green and red.

Choose a color that stands out on your page. A contrasting color will work best to draw the visitor’s eye to the CTA. If you are not sure which color to use, then a/b testing can help here. Utilize a clear contrasting color, and adequate elements spacing format, making it easy for the visitor to accept or continue browsing as the call-to-action is taking up the right amount of real estate.

Step #3: Focus on actionable proposition value

On the one hand, your button placement is very important as your CTA needs to align with the rest of your messaging and be relevant. Ensure your audience knows exactly what they’re getting when they click. You must remember that you are taking the visitor on a journey and it is the conclusion of that journey. A call-to-action should not make it hard for the user to do anything else.

Furthermore, if the CTA is a modal window and does not go away when the user clicks outside it, then the result will be dead clicks and a poor experience. On the other hand, your call to action should be explicitly clear about what comes next, or about what they’re getting in exchange for taking an action. A Call To Action (CTA) is most effective when it’s wholly relevant to the content.

It should also rhyme with the text it’s placed in, by focusing on the user intent for optimal lead conversion. As such, it’s best if it delivers the user to a dedicated landing page relevant to the stage of the buyer’s journey, rather than a random website page. For example, a CTA to a Contact Us page won’t be as effective in gathering leads as a CTA that drives the reader to a free download page.

Step #4: Foster the CTA Stages of the sales funnel

While most funnels will come in three stages, no two funnels are the same. The buyer’s journey changes depending on your audience, the product or service, the industry, etc. For example, some B2C online retailer sales funnels are very short while others are much longer. In this case, for example, an enterprise-level SaaS like Salesforce (like Freshdesk) isn’t a quick purchase.

There’s often a much longer period of awareness and evaluation before a purchase is made. At the same time, not optimizing a CTA button can cause dead clicks and frustration as the visitor cannot bypass the CTA unless they complete an action. Some websites can also make it harder to dismiss the call to action button, whereby the user is forced to click on “I Will Pay Full Price!”

On that note, when designing a CTA button, make it clear that the user understands what will be the result of downloading the application. Also, ensure that it isn’t intrusive to the target customer’s web browsing experience and can be easily accepted or dismissed. To simplify, the key stages of the sales funnel to consider are the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel.

4.1. Top of the Funnel

The top of the funnel is the awareness stage. You’re not here to push or promote any specific product or service. Instead, you’re offering a broad range of knowledge intended to educate your audience. They’re looking for answers – sometimes specific, sometimes not so specific. Your job is to create content at this stage that captures their attention.

As well as content that provides them with the answers they seek. At this early evaluation stage, marketers typically use long-form blog content to grab referral and organic traffic and introduce a brand to the audience. Other types include eBooks and white papers, reports, Infographics, resource guides, etc.

4.2. Middle of the Funnel

The middle of your sales funnel is also known as the evaluation phase. At this point, your audience is aware of your knowledge and offerings. They’re committed to finding a solution, but they don’t quite know what that is yet. For now, they’re simply researching and trying to understand all of the options that are available for solving their problem.

Your goal here is to continue to educate them while also positioning your solutions as the ideal choice. At this stage, it’s not uncommon to use email marketing, segmented by audience and intent, to build a relationship with the audience. Other types include white paper comparisons, expert guides, live interactions including webinars, etc.

4.3. Bottom of the Funnel

Just because you’ve moved your audience to the bottom of the funnel into the purchase phase doesn’t mean you’re going to close the lead. They’re certainly ready to buy, and you want to ensure that they buy from you – but it’s far from guaranteed. Hopefully, at this point, you’ve mapped content and CTAs to effectively guide your audience through the lead nurturing process.

According to HubSpot, nurtured leads produce on average a 20% lift in sales vs non-nurtured leads. Further research from Forrester has shown that companies that excel at lead nurturing can generate up to 50% more sales leads at a 33% lower cost. At this phase, you want to leverage content that persuades your audience to make a purchase.

This can include trial downloads, demos, infographics, product literature or buyer guides, further case studies, etc. That aside, can certain colors increase your conversion rate? Well, let’s look at what the research says is the best Call To Action (CTA) button color. So, that you can add a few ideas to your design list.

Step #5: Empower your CTA buttons with some incentives

Give the reader an incentive to complete your CTA by giving them an offer such as a discount or gift with purchase. Using a tool such as Microsoft Clarity, you can utilize the session recordings feature so you can see which CTA is working and where there might be errors. Be clear with what you would want the user to do. For instance, create a CTA with a ‘Click This Button’ message.

Moreover, with the help of data metrics from the Clarity tool, you will be able to optimize your CTAs to improve your metrics and get the results you want! Ensure your CTA button is clear to the website visitor. Notwithstanding, by clicking on the ‘Discover More’ button, you can ensure that they will get more information about the product.

Why Your Strategic CTA Button Design Color Contrast Matters

As mentioned, a great way to test your CTAs is by using a tool such as Microsoft Clarity to track and analyze your user behavior. With the help of such a User Behaviour Analytics Tool, you will be able to get actionable data insight. Equally important, you’ll also see other auctionables: How far visitors are scrolling – Can your CTA be seen? Where are visitors clicking – Is the CTA working?

To design a CTA button, psychologically, there’s no doubt that color can have a profound effect on people. For instance, the color of a room can affect your mood. Red has been shown to raise blood pressure, increase the speed of respiration, and quicken heart rate. Blue, on the other hand, has the opposite effect. It reduces blood pressure/heart rate, slows down respiration, etc.

Related Resource: How Visual Data Reports Can Help Track Market Performance

In one study by researchers at the University of British Columbia, blue was shown to improve creativity, whereas red was shown to increase memory and attention to detail. Due to these findings, it seems that marketers should be able to use the “psychology of color” to create more persuasive logos and branding materials. And many marketers have attempted this.

You may have heard a lot of conflicting advice surrounding conversion optimization, especially when it comes to color. Sure, we all know that urgency, social proof, clear design, and the right lead magnet can all help conversions. But color? That’s a tricky one. You might have come across practitioners who claim that they have found the “secret” to optimizing effectively.

Generally, you’ll see these people belonging to one of these three camps:

The Generalizers: This type of conversion rate optimizer will religiously commit to following general, broad best practices. However, they won’t dig deep into the psychology of their customers to fine-tune their campaigns.
The Pigeonholers: This second type swears by very specific strategies. They will tell you that there are certain “secrets” that are guaranteed to increase your conversion rate. They’ll tell you that a certain color, font, or layout is the way to guarantee your success.
The Perpetual Testers: The third type won’t commit to any strategy. These optimizers have experimented enough to know that some strategies don’t necessarily work for everyone. Instead, they’ll tell you to test out different things, almost at random, until you find something that works.

According to Optinmonster, for the best Call To Action (CTA) button color, each camp will have a different user…

Consider the following:

First, the Generalizers will tell you that there are some general truths about color. Some colors work well for certain industries, and there are some colors that you should never use.
Secondly, the Pigeonholers will swear by one color that converts better than any of the others.
Thirdly, the Perpetual Testers will say that color might make a difference, but not in any consistent or predictable way.

Clearly, they can’t all be right. Perhaps color doesn’t play a significant role in conversions as we thought. Or perhaps there is something more subtle going on here? In fact, you’ve probably seen at least one infographic like the following somewhere before. Specifically, it illustrates a few Colour Emotion Guides in regard to how various web-based users base their colors:

The above infographic from The Logo Company attempts to show a clear-cut relationship between color and the psychological impact that color has on how we perceive a brand. For example, most restaurants have tried to use the color red in an attempt to stimulate feelings of hunger. However, many psychological reports on the influence of color have mixed results…

For instance, does the color red stimulate appetite? The actual studies suggest that red inhibits appetite in humans, and it tends to inhibit behavior in general, kind of like a “stop” sign. Red does, however, stimulate feeding in fish.

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Similarly, in another athlete’s performance study, Olympic wrestlers were randomly assigned blue or red uniforms. The wrestlers in red uniforms significantly outperformed their blue-suited counterparts, indicating that red may make you more aggressive or more competitive. But, in academic environment studies, the color red inhibits performance.

All of these results suggest that red can either make you a “winner” or a “loser” (or “hungry” or “not hungry”). In particular, depending on the context (and depending on whether you are a human or a fish). That context only gets more complicated when you look at the cultural meanings associated with color… There is a relationship between the color and the context.

Using The Right Colour Combination For A Call To Action (CTA)

Ultimately, it may seem theoretically possible to choose a “perfect” color: one that’s culturally and demographically appropriate for your buyer persona, and contextually appropriate for your personalized brand or business. The problem is, that there’s no clear way to prove this. Say you change the color of your call-to-action from blue to red, and you see an increase in conversions.

Does this mean that red converts better than blue? Not necessarily! You see, there is more at play here than just the color of the button itself. The variables include not only your brand and your audience but also the surrounding design. This means, that it’s nearly impossible to isolate all of the variables and definitively prove which color converts best.

To put it another way, let’s first try and understand the way your buyer persona reacts to color. And then, developing a color-based conversion strategy around that would be impractical at best. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to nail down. You’d spend less effort and see similar results if you simply tried different colors, one at a time until you find one that fits all.

But, that’s not what we are suggesting that you do. There is a much better way to approach this color issue, without having to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. If you’re feeling confused about how to use color on your website, don’t worry – you’re not alone. Marketers have been trying to crack the “color code” for decades.

A. Your Call To Action (CTA) Button Color Needs To Pop

We know that a more prominent, eye-catching call-to-action results in more conversions. Therefore, any color change that increases the visibility of your call-to-action should increase your conversions. If, for example, your button color is low-contrast against your background color, visibility will be poor. Don’t focus on the unknown but on the known…

But, increase the contrast between the button color and the background color, and boom! Your conversions will go up. On the contrary, no understanding of context or psychological underpinnings is necessary.

In one test, HubSpot found that red buttons worked better than green buttons. Quite possibly, there’s a reason why red converted better than green. And, that’s because green was the dominant color on the page, thus, it created more contrast:

The other factor to consider is the overall color scheme of your page. If one color dominates your page, and that color is also being used for your call-to-action, it won’t stand out. To make your call-to-action really pop, again choose a contrasting color. If you can’t decide if your ‘brand’ would best be supported by a blue, red, or green button, you can try to go with the best.

B. Your Colors Need To Be On-Brand

We also know from studies that people perceive colors differently depending on how well those colors “match” your brand. Whether or not your brand personality is on point for your customers. And whether your colors are helping or hurting your brand’s perceived personality, actually affects purchase decisions and impacts the consumer view on the product.

For instance, let’s say your brand is tough, rugged, and masculine… like Harley Davidson. Now imagine if they used pink call-to-action buttons instead of a big orange button. It wouldn’t quite work, would it? The complete answer, of course, is that it depends on your target audience. It’s pretty much impossible to prove that any one color is better than any other color.

More so, in terms of persuading any given audience. There are just too many variables and too much conflicting evidence to come to any universal conclusion. So, instead of trying to find the “perfect” color, go for the color that increases the visibility of your call-to-action. With this simple and proven approach, you can virtually guarantee an increase in conversions.

C. Your Colors Need To Be Consistent

The other thing marketers know about colors is that we can control the meaning that our users associate with them. Remember those studies we mentioned earlier? How can the color red have a completely different impact depending on the context? The logical reason is because of the association that is created from that context.

For instance, blue is the most commonly used color for hyperlinks. Therefore, most people associate the color blue with hyperlinks. They know that if the text on a page is blue, you can probably click on it. The same is true for call-to-action buttons. You don’t have to choose the color blue, but be aware that whatever color you assign to a button is equal to the action.

Use this to your advantage by consistently using that color for all the calls to action on your site. In other words, don’t confuse your users by using the same color for non-action items. Such as headings that aren’t clickable. Similarly, don’t confuse your users by using a lot of different call-to-action colors on the same page.

With that in mind, as you create your Call To Action (CTA) button, always remember, that consistency creates a good website User Experience (UX), which is critical for conversion rate optimization in general.

D. Use Color Choices Plus Text Accessibility Tools

As an example, you can use Coolers to find great color choices that go together. You can use the generator and just click the space bar to get more color choices. Additionally, you can also lock certain colors on the generator if you like them. Then, hit the space bar again to get more colors that work with the colors you locked! There’s also an “explore” section to consider.

Whereby, you can browse and search thousands of color combos. You can search for specific colors or enter a keyword like “winter” and see color combos that match that search. We haven’t been super well-informed about accessibility in the past, but there have been a lot of conversations happening. That said, there are a few other online resources you can use.

Consider using:

The above tools, among many others, are all empowering designers with beautiful and accessible color palettes based on WCAG Guidelines of text and background contrast ratios. Colorzilla is an excellent tool for extracting the color value from any page element. Additionally, WAVE can analyze contrast ratios for all page text elements at once.

NB: On one hand, WCAG 2.0 level AA requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. On the other hand, WCAG 2.1 requires a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 for graphics. And user interface components (such as form input borders). While WCAG Level AAA requires a contrast ratio of at least 7:1 for normal text and 4.5:1 for large text.

Generally, large text is defined as 14 points (typically 18.66px) and bold or larger, or 18 points (typically 24px) or larger. The best thing is to use a tool to check out your color choices and text for accessibility first. Then, unleash the power of utilizing Optinmonster (get started now) if you want to get more subscribers and customers on your website today!

Takeaway:

In general, creating an effective Call To Action (CTA) goes beyond design and copy. It has everything to do with aligning your offer and CTA with your sales funnel to ensure it’s relevant to the audience’s intent. Don’t stop once your CTAs are mapped appropriately, though. Set up follow-up content that moves the target back to the middle of the funnel with an appropriate CTA.

In particular, such a design setup helps keep potential readers engaged. In addition, maintain the marriage with the customer and turn them into a lead-generating brand ambassador, using CTAs to inspire them to spread the word. So, Do you make CTA placement and creation part of your documented content marketing strategy? Feel free to share your approach to CTAs with us.