Adding calls to action to your website and blog will certainly help visitors to find your conversion pages more easily. But are your calls to action (CTAs) powerful enough to capture people’s attention?
The truth is you won’t know until you begin testing. So here are 9 tests that you can run on your website to improve your click-through rates.
1. Test your call-to-action button colours
If your call-to-action (CTA) buttons blend in too much with the rest of your website this might be a problem. To find out for sure, test your CTA buttons using bolder colours that contrast with your regular styling. Colours such as bright green, red, yellow and blue. Don’t be afraid to go off-brand with your CTA colour schemes as this may work to effectively attract people’s attention.
2. Test text and image CTAs
The next step is to test if your website visitors respond better to text or image CTAs. To do this, set up two CTAs, one that looks like plain text with an image call to action button and another that looks as though the text is a part of the blog or webpage and see how each performs.
3. Test CTA placement
It’s best practice for websites to have CTAs positioned above the fold (near the top of the page) and never at the bottom of the page, so that visitors don’t have to scroll down. But it’s common for blogs to have their CTA positioned at the end of each post.
Most readers only get through about 50% of an article according to slate.com as seen below.
Image Source: Chartbeat
In this case, you may want to test different CTA placements on your blog.
4. Test static versus moving CTAs
People are used to seeing moving ads on websites these days, so understandably, their eyes tend to glaze over when they come across a static image that just stays in one place.
Bearing this in mind, it might be a good idea to test CTAs that bounce or slide across the page when a visitor scrolls to a certain point on your webpage or blog post. When doing this, compare the moving CTA to the static CTA to see if it makes any difference with clickthrough rates.
5. Test different versions of copy
When testing CTAs, try using copy variations. For example:
Download your ebook now
Get your ebook now
Receive your ebook now
Collect your ebook now
Buy your ebook now
There are so many different ways to instruct your readers to take action. And you’ll be surprised, even the smallest copy changes can make a big difference.
6. Test your button size
If your buttons are too small on your website, you run the risk of them going unnoticed, and even worse, users being unable to press them when using a mobile phone.
As a general rule of thumb, your buttons should be a minimum of 10mm x 10mm due to the average size of fingertips. Larger buttons that have a touch target of at least 36px by 36px are even better because they are easy to spot and easy to use.
Image Source: makeitclear.com
If you are unsure of what size button would work best for your website, test different sizes until you find the best one. You won’t know what works best for your industry and audience until you test for yourself.
7. Test urgency
To test if people respond to urgency, add words like “now” or “today” to your CTA buttons and see if they make any difference. Reminding people to do something now or today could increase the chances that they actually do it.
8. Try using first, second, and third person language
Test first, second, and third person language in your CTAs to see if any make a difference. For example “get my ticket” for first person and “get your ticket” for second person.
9. Personalise your CTAs
Lastly, and most importantly, personalise your CTAs. It’s been proven that CTAs perform much better when personalised to your audience. So much so that, according to Hubspot, personalised or smart CTAs convert 202% better than basic or normal CTAs!
By leveraging a tool like Hubspot or OptinMonster, you can use custom targeting in order to show the right message to the right audience at the most opportune time. Not only that, but you can tailor your CTAs to anonymous, first-time website visitors based on their location, device, referral source or preferred language.
