how to create a landing page part 3

CTAs That Work: Building an Effective Landing Page (Part 3)

Here’s the situation: You’ve designed a stellar landing page, your copy is on point, and all that’s left is creating that little button on your landing page for your visitors to click — your call-to-action.

Now, you may be tempted to keep it super simple and design a button that just says, “Click Here,” “Submit,” or “Register.”

And we totally understand why you’d go that route. You’ve already made excellent points on your page and have encouraged your readers to sign up for your product, service, newsletter, etc., in the body copy … 

… which means that little button shouldn’t have too much impact on your conversion rate, right?

Wrong! That little CTA button can have a massive impact on your click-through rate, and we can guarantee that you won’t see as much traffic if you make your button’s text vague and uninviting.

In fact, a recent study performed at HubSpot found that personalized CTAs perform 202% better than ordinary, generic buttons. No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you: That number is a whopping 202%!

So what can you do to make a focused CTA that gets your visitors clicking?

We’re glad you asked. Stick around to learn more about compelling call-to-action phrases, how to make a CTA button that people want to click, and see some call-to-action examples that boost landing page performance!

How to Get People Clicking on Your CTA Buttons

They may seem like a simple thing that goes unnoticed, but a call-to-action can make or break your landing page.

Everything from the words you choose to the color and shape of your CTA buttons affects how your visitor perceives your landing pages. Your potential clients may bounce if your call-to-action comes across as pushy or overbearing, but a CTA with no sense of urgency can kill enthusiasm and cause your visitors to leave.

You need to find that “Just Right” feeling when you make a call-to-action to get your guests clicking, and these are the top 5 things we at C&C suggest to increase your conversion rate.

#1: Use Easy to Understand Phrases That Inspire Action

A landing page with a bad CTA is like a movie with a lousy ending. You watch the entire movie only to be let down at the finish because nothing happens — the hero doesn’t save the day, nothing is resolved, and you’re left wondering why you bought a movie ticket in the first place.

To keep this from happening to your guests, you need to use phrases that make people want to click. That means you need to use action verbs that tell your visitor what you want them to do. Here are some great phrases we like to use that incite action in your readers:

  • Download Your Free Copy
  • Reserve Your Spot
  • Join Our Email List

Take another look at those phrases again before we move on to our next tip. Do you see the personal pronouns we squeezed in there? When you can add ownership to your CTA buttons, you’ll pack an even bigger punch. 

That’s because it is much easier to sell something when people already feel like it’s theirs. Instead of thinking, Why would I want YOUR product? They think, Why yes, I would like MY free sample. 

#2: Stay on Topic and Stick With One CTA Button

This tip goes hand-in-hand with our first point — you need to make sure your call-to-action coincides with what you are selling to your target audience.

It’s easy to go out of control with a call-to-action and give your landing page visitors “Decision Overload.” To prevent that from happening, stay consistent with the point you’re making in the body copy and limit your button count to one.

Let’s say that you want your prospect to sign up to receive emails from your brand. Your call-to-action should reflect that by saying something like, “Join Our Mailing List.” 

Now, it may be tempting to sign them up for emails and direct them to a sale on your website simultaneously, but that will cause problems. Your visitors may be more than capable of doing two things at once, but we can guarantee that they will most likely choose to either sign up for your mailing list or visit your sale listings.

If you want to accomplish both goals, get them to sign up for the email list first. Then use your email marketing strategy to direct them toward special offers and move them further down the sales funnel.

#3: Make Your Color Choices Count

Have you ever landed on a page with a blue background, slightly lighter blue text, and a slightly darker blue hiding somewhere within that cerulean sea? 

Our guess is probably not, and here’s why you wouldn’t be able to find anything on the screen. Your button needs to contrast with its background, so it really pops when the reader sees it. Some great contrasting hues include: 

  • Blues and Oranges
  • Greens and Browns
  • Black and White

If colors aren’t your thing, and you’re stumped on how to make a successful color scheme, don’t worry! There are great free tools like Colormind that can help you identify great color combinations for your landing pages.

The psychology behind colors can make a difference as well. We like to make green buttons at C&C when the opportunity presents itself because green means “go” and makes people want to drive up your conversion rate. 

#4: Choose an Eye-Catching Shape and Supporting Graphics

Yes, you can roll with a basic rectangular button, but getting a little fancy with your button design isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it can boost your conversion rate when you set it up correctly.

Your copy doesn’t need to be the only thing that directs your reader’s attention toward the CTA button; your landing page graphics can direct visitors toward your call-to-action as well. As long as it isn’t cluttering your page, a cleverly placed arrow or two can direct your reader’s point of view toward your button.

When it comes to button shape, rounded corners make a massive difference in your click-through rate — that’s because people actually view rounded buttons as safer. Sharp corners on your buttons are viewed just like sharp objects in the physical world, but people see CTA buttons with rounded corners as more friendly and inviting.

Who knew that the simple shape of your button could make such a difference?

#5: Keep Your Button Above the Fold

For those who aren’t super familiar with the term, “Above the Fold” means the part of a webpage you see before scrolling. There’s a heated debate on whether your CTA should go above or below, but we’re firm believers that above the fold is a good call.

We all have incredibly short attention spans these days, and we spend a lot of time scrolling. So when it comes to getting a rapid response to your call-to-action — the quicker, the better. 

Partnering your CTA button with strong copy above the fold is the best way to drive interest in your offerings without the need for them to dig. Landing pages are all about the clicks, and the faster you can get your prospect to click, the more effective your landing page will be.

Don’t Forget About Your Forms

There are many instances where your CTA will include a form that you want prospects to fill out.

If you’re not careful, your visitors may see a form as a hassle. Even with the magic of autofill, a form with too many fields can look like a headache, but you can counteract that overwhelm by making your forms more friendly.

We suggest doing a couple of things to make those forms feel less intrusive.

Keep Your Forms Short

You don’t need your prospect’s name, email, favorite color, first pet’s name, and mother’s maiden name to sign them up for your mailing list, so keep the information request to a minimum when you make your forms.

We suggest sticking to the essentials when attaching forms to your CTAs — you can always request more information as you develop a relationship with your prospect.

A first name, last name, and email address should be plenty to get your potential customers signed up for an email list or giveaways. And if you’re planning on getting into the text marketing game, we’d suggest slipping a phone number field in there too.

Limit the Number of Required Fields

Sometimes the essentials aren’t enough to gain the insights you’d like from your landing page — we understand completely.

Maybe you’re looking for a more specific demographic of the people clicking your CTA button, or perhaps you are offering a demo of your products. 

In these cases, you’ll need to expand your form size, but that doesn’t mean you need to know everything about them. If your form gets particularly long, keep the essential information and add one or two more required fields like “Company” or “Current Position,” and leave other, less-critical demographic information optional.

Your visitors often fill out the entire form regardless of what is required — especially if they’re using tools like autofill — but you won’t scare off the people who want to do the bare minimum during the form-filling process.

We Can Help You Build Better Landing Pages at Carter & Custer

Constructing compelling CTA buttons may be challenging at first, but you can master them with enough time and effort. If you remember to build calls to action that utilize active words, stay on topic, and have friendly buttons, you’ll be boosting that click-through rate in no time! 

However, your CTA isn’t the only aspect of a landing page that turns a prospect into a converted customer. You also need a clean design and outstanding copy to keep your marketing funnel full. Thankfully, we’ve got the answers to your design and copy questions in the other two articles in the series: Design That Attracts: Building an Effective Landing Page and Copy That Converts: Building an Effective Landing Page

At Carter and Custer, we know you’ve got plenty of balls in the air as you juggle the responsibilities of growing your brand. If you don’t have room to take a DIY approach to content marketing, don’t worry — we’ve got you covered.

Our team of marketing mages, design diviners, and word wizards has the right ingredients to draught a potion for success that makes an impact. We’ve seen massive success with our methods and are continuously innovating new ways to help our clients amplify their growth through copywriting, video production, website development, and much more! 

Check out what we did for our client Ed Mylett, a #1 ranked iTunes business podcaster. In just 4 months, we increased his site traffic by 30% by repurposing his podcast episodes into long-form, SEO-rich articles.

And we can do the same for you! Let’s get in touch.