When clients come to us for web design assistance, one thing that is notably lacking is the amount of CTAs on their site. A CTA, also known as a call-to-action, is an essential part of any site. Why? Because CTAs are telling your visitors what you want them to do. “CLICK HERE” is a very basic web design CTA that may seem simple enough, but even the most simple CTA can exponentially increase your lead conversions.

A lot of businesses know that they need CTAs, but the thing that really seems to get them is where to place the CTAs. Where are they most effective? How can you make the most out of them? Here’s where you start:

Create a “Sales Offer” Map

As we mention in our free download “Website Redesign 101”, before you start anything else, you’ll want to audit your site and make a list of all of the marketing offers that you have on your list. Create a spreadsheet that shows all of your offers in one column, and then all of the corresponding landing pages in the next column.

Next, identify the different stages of your selling cycle, which are generally broken down into three different parts:

  • Awareness: Visitors have become aware of your product/service, or they are now aware that they have a problem or need that requires solving or fulfillment
  • Evaluation: Visitors now know that what your company offers can help them, and they’re trying to figure out if you’re a good fit for them
  • Purchase: Leads are ready to buy and become customers

Identifying these stages is important. For example, not every offer that you come up with on your list will be appropriate for someone who’s at the first stage of the sales cycle.

Create a Website Map For Each Sales Cycle Stage

The next thing you’ll want to do is take your list and then determine where each offer listed fits into each of the above sales cycle stages listed above. This is important, as knowing which pages will appeal to which visitors in various stages of the sales cycle will help you determine which CTAs to use and for which offers on which pages.

So how do you do this? Through analytical data, and through common sense. HubSpot offers some great marketing software that you can try out for free that can help provide you with some insight on where to place those CTAs. If you do use the HubSpot software, definitely check out their “Conversion assists” tool. This tool will help you track and view which pages were viewed before a lead converted into a customer, or which pages were viewed before a visitor converted into a lead.

Identify your Best Offers

The next step in the process is identifying which offers work best and at which stage of the sales cycle. The best way to do this is to use your landing page analytical information such as conversion rates to help pinpoint which offers are top performers.

TIP: If you have too many CTAs, this process will help you shortlist your top performers. If you have too few CTAs, you’ll need to spend a bit of time coming up with a few more new ones so that you aren’t using the exact same CTA on every single page.

Design and Analyze

Once you know where you want to place your CTAs, it’s time to start designing them! You can hire on a web design company to create them, or you can create them Inbound Marketing Agency - Expert Web Design Tips for Selecting the Right Call-to-Actionyourself. Here are some quick web design tips when creating CTAs:

  • Make sure that your CTAs stand out. This is as simple as making the typeface bold and making the text larger than the other text on your page
  • Your CTA needs to be click-able
  • Keep the CTA as simple as possible – less is more in this case
  • Pay attention to the colors you use. They do play an important role

You’ll want to test things such as:

  • Which pages did certain CTAs perform well on? Which pages did a CTA perform poorly on?
  • Are any colors or images performing better than others?
  • Is the placement of the CTA affecting the click-thru ratio (i.e. is a CTA at the top of the page performing better than one on the right hand of the page)?

Key Takeaways:

Having successful CTAs on your site is all about mapping your offers and web pages, having an understanding of web design, testing and measuring analytical data regularly, and throwing in a dash of common sense. It may take a few weeks before you get any conclusive data showing which CTAs work better than others, but stick with it and it will definitely pay off in the end.

Need Help?

If you’re interested in developing a more powerful, lead generating website, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis.