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Let’s face it – the only reason that business owners bother spending time building their websites is to make more money right? After all, if the internet is where our customers are going to find solutions to their problems, then that’s where we need to develop a presence.

But consider this..

What’s the point of putting all that effort into building a great website and developing your social media presence if NO ONE EVER TAKES ACTION AND BUYS FROM YOU?!

In this post, I’m going to give you 3 simple ways to instantly improve your calls to action – today.

1. Make your call to action big, bold, and clear

I’m sure it comes as no surprise to learn that we’re all attracted by big, colourful objects. Eye tracking studies regularly demonstrate that we can’t help but look at things that are bold and unique in form. Futhermore, we’re so conditioned to clicking on things, that we’ve become programmed to scan for and react to button-like objects.

How compelling is this GO button from Dominos Pizza?

Top tips for improving your call to action button:

• The bigger, the better. If in doubt, my recommendation is to make it as large as your logo.
• Provide timely assistance. If the user should complete some other task before clicking on your action button, then make this clear.
• Go for maximum contrast. To attract attention, make sure your button will stand out amongst its neighbouring content.

2. De-risk the action you are asking people to take

How often do you get right to the brink of taking action online, but then back away and visit another site? If you’re like me, then your answer is ‘all the time!’ Ever considered why that is? For most people, it’s because the website either hasn’t answered all of your questions, or built up enough trust before making their call to action.

An example of this, is when the website offers you something in return for your contact details. Most people are reluctant to give away their details because of what you might do with them.

You can build trust into your call to action by reminding people that you understand their concerns and will protect their privacy.

Top tips for building trust into your calls to action:

• Be aware of privacy. Include privacy statements or a link to a privacy page within your registration, signup, or optin boxes
• Borrow trust from others. Payment icons like PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard all convey a sense of security which people are familiar with. Position relevant icons prominently to show people that the transaction will be safe and secure.
• Restate your guarantee. If you offer a guarantee, then placing a reminder near to your call to action will often be enough to get the ‘button hoverers’ to click.

3. Use regular text links as calls to action as well

A call to action doesn’t always have to be ‘add to cart’, or ‘contact us’. Sometimes, you might just want to encourage people to move forward through the information funnel. This might mean getting people to view a specific page, or watching a specific video. Either way, regular use of text based links are a subtle way of promoting such actions.

What action do you think this author is trying to encourage?

Top tips for creating subtle text-based calls to action:

• Make them look like links. People tend to scan webpages visually swinging from headings, to lists, and to links. Text based links which stand out from the rest of the text and are underlined will become visual markers that attract your visitor’s attention.
• Make them natural. If people are reading your text, it’s because they find it interesting. Don’t sacrifice good writing in favour of throwing in as many call to action links as you can. Instead, make your links flow naturally as a normal part of the story you are telling.
• Make your links informative. People want to know what they’re about to click on. A simple ‘click here’ conveys nothing of the destination page and the content it might contain. Your links will perform much better as calls to action if they describe the value that the user will receive by clicking on them.

What you should do now

Hopefully this post has given you a few ideas that you can now use to improve your calls to action and the number of new leads they bring in. Having said that, things will only get better if you actually do something!