It’s not enough these days to slap up a link that says “click here” or “buy now.” Creating an effective call to action requires some serious thought. You will need to consider things like placement, size, colour, headlines, and more. And in order to get it right, you’ll also need to have a good understanding of your audience’s needs, your own needs, and how they fit together.

Here’s a list of the components of a good call to action.

• Knowing Why
  One of the biggest things you need to know when you create your call to action is why you’re creating it. What do you want your audience to do and why? When you can understand why in terms that your audience understands and relates to, you’ll be able to get higher conversions on all of your CTAs.
• Size
  It’s important to ensure that you pick the right size for your call to action. You don’t want it too small so that it doesn’t show up to your audience, but you don’t want it to look too big either. You need to ensure that the sizing is right based on the other things on your website.
• Image Quality
  It’s imperative that the authenticity of the images you use show through to your audience. This happens by understanding your brand and your voice as a business and choosing the right type of images to represent that to your audience.
• Color
  You also want to make sure that you use the right colors for your site so that the call to action stands out. Look at it and ask yourself whether it stands out or clashes? Does it look professional and command attention?
• Form
  You can create your call to action in many forms. For example, should you use a button or another type of image? Should you put a sign-up form under each blog post? What about a CTA to connect on social media? These are all forms of CTAs that have the potential to convert well.
• An Action-oriented Headline
  Your call to action should include an effective headline that tells your audience what to do. For example, buy now, download now, sign up now, and so forth are all action verbs that won’t confuse your audience as to what they’re clicking on and what they’re agreeing to do.
• Text
  When you create a CTA, should you put text on the button that gets attention? Should you give an example to your audience on what to write inside the boxes they need to fill out to sign up for something? It depends on your audience, but these actions have been proven to improve conversions.
• Placement
  The other thing you must know about CTAs is where you should place them. Placing them in multiple places is usually the best answer to make sure that you give your audience every opportunity to decide to answer it.

Crafting a good call to action takes some thought and consideration to ensure it works. You’ll need to place and test them to make them better. Using A/B split-testing on the different types of CTAs that you can have and where you place them will ensure you are getting the results you desire.

This is part 2 of a 10-part series on creating effective calls to action.

*Note: This post includes affiliate links, for which I will receive a small commission should you make a purchase.