Effective Calls to Action (CTAs) in Web Design: Best Practices and Examples

Benefits of Creating CTAs with Effective Design

CTAs are designed to persuade your target audience to take some kind of action, which has several benefits for your business. Some of the biggest advantages of crafting your CTA effectively include:

✔ Boost Conversion Rates

✔ Grow Your Audience

✔ Motivate the Sales Funnel

✔ Enhance Digital Advertising

7 CTA Design Best Practices

When creating call-to-action buttons, you want to incorporate design strategies that persuade a visitor to take action. Consider the following best practices for designing the best calls to action for your goals.

1. Consider the Purpose of Your CTA Copy

CTAs can be used on your homepage or throughout landing pages, which are standalone web pages created for a specific campaign. Both aim to get website visitors to perform an action, but the goals of each CTA are often unique. Before doing anything, you need to clearly define the purpose of your CTA, which means understanding the different types available.

2. Differentiate Between Types of CTAs

There are several forms of CTAs to use depending on the type of response you want from your web users. The most common types of CTAs include:

Form Submission — these encourage users to submit a form for more information, sign up for a newsletter, or to express interest in products and services.

Lead Generation — this CTA makes it easy to build your database of potential customers, as it prompts individuals to provide their contact details.

Lead Nurturing — you can also create a CTA to help nurture first-touch customers and guide them through the sales funnel.

“Read More” Buttons — invite your visitors to explore additional content related to the page they’re on.

Free Trials — persuade your visitors to try out a product or service for a limited time with no costs or commitment.

Social Sharing — encourage individuals to share your content on their social media platforms.

Event Registration — placing CTAs on your site or a landing page during an event promotion can help increase registration.

Regardless of the type, a CTA usually comes in the form of clickable buttons. However, some less important CTAs may be a hyperlink within text.

2. Understand How to Write a Good CTA

The next step is crafting compelling copy that gets users to click on the button or hyperlink. Ideally, you’ll want to add text on a button as this makes it more visible on your page. This means the copy needs to be short, sweet, and to the point.

Use the Right Language — your CTA button copy should use action words that make it easy to understand what you want the visitor to do.

Evoke Emotion — persuasive copy can help elicit emotions like excitement or eagerness, which can when crafting a strong call to action.

Create a Sense of Urgency — you want the user to take action immediately, so try to use FOMO tactics and limited offers to help create urgency.

Decrease Confusion — each CTA should only prompt individuals to take a specific action. Too much CTA text can cause confusion and decrease effectiveness.

3. Choose the Right Color of the CTA

The button color also plays a role in effectiveness. When crafting the perfect CTA button, it’s important to consider the psychology of color. For example:

Green is seen as a motivating color

Red produces a sense of urgency and easily stands out on any website

Orange depicts warmth and attraction

CTAs are typically red, but the important thing is they stand out. Make sure the button is a bright color and the text is easy to read by using contrasting colors. Avoid using black and white, as these don’t usually pop as much.

4. Be Strategic About CTA Button Design

CTAs require visitors to click on a button, but what shape and size should it be? Button size can vary depending on the business of the landing page, but it shouldn’t blend in with other important design elements. The CTA could be huge, or reasonably sized, as long as the call to action stands out and is easy to find, the design is up to you. The font size should also be large enough to see clearly.

6. Choose Effective CTA Placement

Some websites put the CTA at the bottom of the pages, but that’s not always the best choice. Adding strategic buttons on your website before the fold can help capture your audience’s attention before they lose interest. Without a CTA visible, people may leave your site or landing page and move on to your competitors.

7. Test Results and Make Adjustments

Finally, it’s important to test your CTA with the current web design trends you’re using. Whether you have an e-commerce website or are opening a restaurant with online bookings, creating a call to action that actually works is essential. Measure the conversion rate of your focus or primary CTA to see how many times it was clicked versus how many times a visitor actually went through with the action. If the conversions are low, you may want to choose a different command or action phrase. Repeat until you have a conversion rate you’re happy with.

7 Examples of Good CTA Design

CTAs help companies grow their customer base and get more from their website. However, even with all of the best practices, it’s helpful to see some CTA examples that have been perfectly implemented. Here are a few of the best call-to-action examples to help you design the perfect button.

1. Heyday

2. Hulu

3. Dropbox

4. Square

5. The Budgetnista

6. QuickSprout

7. OKCupid

If you need help creating CTAs that convert, partner with a professional web designer at Operation Technology. We can help incorporate good design elements on your website that help persuade visitors to take immediate action. To learn more about our affordable web design services, contact us today.