Great calls-to-actions (CTAs) are successful at encouraging your website visitors to engage with your brand and take a particular action, whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, filling in a form, or purchasing a product. To put things in perspective, without any effective CTAs on your website, your visitors will simply remain visitors—with no potential to convert into paying customers.
But crafting a compelling CTA demands more than just good copywriting on the part of the website’s owners or chosen web copywriters. An effective CTA also requires a good eye for design. While the wording of the CTA matters, its size, placement, and color contribute a lot towards making it visually appealing and intuitive for a customer to respond to. Knowing just how difficult CTA design is to get right, many business owners actually invest in professional web design services to ensure that their website sports effective CTAs and is geared towards making the most conversions.
Thanks to its compelling visual design, a CTA can grab visitors’ attention and draw their eyes toward it, which in turn makes them more likely to complete a desired action. The little details matter a lot. For instance, a CTA that blends in with the rest of the page is more likely to be overlooked by visitors, while a CTA with bold typography and contrasting colors can stand out and be a proper tool for conversion.
Below are some of the best practices for creating an effective CTA for your website, with a focus on design tips that can help increase engagement and conversions. These design approaches can be expertly implemented by seasoned web designers, like those at SearchWorks.PH.
General CTA Tips
Before diving into the nitty-gritty of CTA design, here are some general tips that you and your design partner should observe:
Inspire Action
By their very definition, CTAs are supposed to urge visitors to take action. That means that you should use actionable language or verbs as much as possible. For instance, straightforward CTAs like “Download the eBook,” “Join Our Network,” and “Schedule an Appointment” are succinct and clearly convey the next step to your visitors. Clarity and simplicity are key here.
Create Urgency
The best CTAs sound urgent, and as such, you should consider using time-sensitive language to encourage visitors to take action. Great examples include “Sale Ends in 2 Days,” “Only 6 Items Left,” and “Get 20% Off Today Only.”
Incite Curiosity
Next, encourage action by feeding your visitors’ curiosity and letting them know that valuable information or awesome deals await them on the other side. Build anticipation with CTAs like “Click for Details,” “Discover Today’s Deal,” and “Find Answers Here.”
CTA Design Tips from the Pros
Now that you know the general tips for CTAs, below are visual design tips that will allow your CTA to go the extra mile:
Use Contrast
Select a color for your CTA that contrasts with your website’s background color to make the former visible and easier to find. You can use a color wheel to find complementary or opposite colors in relation to your primary color scheme. For instance, if your website has a neutral color palette which relies on colors like black and white, select a bold and vibrant color for your CTA to make it pop.
Pay Attention to Sizing
Size is another essential factor for a well-designed CTA. You’ll want your CTA to be big enough to be noticed, but not so big as to overwhelm the rest of your page design. A good rule of thumb is to make your CTA button at least 44 x 44 pixels in size. The exact size can vary depending on the design of your website.
You should also consider that your CTA button size should be proportional to the other visual elements surrounding it, such as the size of your images and the font you’re using. If your website has a minimalist design, a large CTA button can work well to draw visitors’ attention.
Utilize White Space
White space is the negative space around your CTA that is left blank. By using white space around your CTA button, you can make it pop out even more to your visitors. Use white space judiciously to make your CTA look less cluttered and more visually appealing. Try distancing the CTA button from other design elements and text, therefore making it easier to find.
Ensure Cohesive Design
When designing your CTA button, ensure that it matches the rest of your website’s design, including its color scheme, font, and overall aesthetics. Consistent design helps create a sense of cohesion throughout your website, making it easier to navigate and enhancing its sense of authority and professionalism.
If your website uses a serif font, consider using the same font for your CTA button. For a website that sports a modern design with vibrant colors and geometric shapes, create CTA buttons that match the look.
Ensure Clickability
A poorly-sized CTA button is difficult to click on and can negatively impact conversions. Knowing that, ensure that your CTA button is responsive and clickable on both desktop and mobile devices. To do this, be diligent about testing out how the button translates on different devices and screen sizes.
You can also consider adding hover effects or animation to make your CTA button both more clickable and more noticeable. The button can change colors when someone hovers over it or expand slightly when clicked.
Well-designed CTAs are the driving force behind successful conversions, but they are not a one-size-fits-all kind of solution. The best CTAs are thoroughly planned and tested to determine what works best for a client’s audience. For web design that truly works to your advantage and inspires action among your customers, consider partnering up with the people at SearchWorks.
