What you need to know about Calls to Action and the Buying Process
When conducting website audits, I’ve noticed some confusion around the use of calls to action. Specifically, when and how to use them.
In this post, we'll discuss what a call to action is, talk about some best practices and look at ways to better match your CTAs to your visitors’ buying process for maximum effect.
What is a Call to Action (CTA)
A call to action is a short active statement to encourage visitors to take a desired action. The action should be related to your website goals.
For example, if the goal of your homepage is to generate more sales by increasing leads, your CTA might be ‘Schedule a Free Consultation’, ‘Book a Demo’ or ‘Request a Quote’.
Best Practise: Focus on CTA per page and make sure it relates to your key goal for that page.
Unfortunately, this advice is often ignored by big and small companies alike and what you see is a page full of bright buttons saying ‘Buy Now’, ‘Learn More’, ‘Sign Up Today’, ‘Try for Free’, ‘Download Brochure’, ‘Order Samples’.
There are two issues with this.
First: Too many CTAs make people feel overwhelmed and not sure what to do so they do nothing and leave.
Secondly: Important visual clues about what is important, what actions are required and where to go next are lost when all the buttons look the same and nothing is prioritised.
Yes, there may be multiple actions you’d like visitors to consider (read more, download X) especially if they are not ready to commit but there should be only one primary call to action.
All other activities and directives should be designed to support the visitor’s decision-making process and help them get to ‘Yes’ quicker.
To make it easier for your visitor to understand what you want them to do, consider using a solid button for your primary CTA, a ghost button for a secondary CTA and links to take them to another page (e.g. Read More, Learn More).
Examples of Primary CTA, Secondary CTA and a Link
By mixing it up you’re signalling to your visitors that there are different priorities, helping them make sense of the information and keeping them engaged until they’re ready to purchase.
Best Practise: Use buttons for actions and links for navigating to another page.
Be a guide, not a drill sergeant.
You may think your website is about you and your business but it’s not. A good strategic website is all about your visitor and what they want and need to say yes to your product or service.
Your role is to gently and effortlessly guide them through the process, not command them to BUY NOW! It’s all about persuading your visitors to take the next step.
You do this by providing enough information about the benefits of your product/service and alleviating any qualms visitors might have about committing to your product/service.
Adding some social proof is also important - things like customer reviews, case studies, logos of companies you work with etc.
A persuasive call to action speaks to the person directly, is relevant and easy to understand and taps into emotional (join an elite club of marketers) and/or reward triggers (e.g. save time).
The Lift Model™ by Widerfunnel provides a good visual representation of six key factors that can help or hinder how well your CTA takes off.
Start with a strong value proposition that is relevant and clear.
Add a sense of urgency to act now.
Remove any inhibitors that might frustrate lift-off . These might include worries (anxieties) about committing and general visual distractions (too many CTAs, not enough white space around the CTA) that get in the way.
Source: The Lift Model™ by Widerfunnel
Where to place CTAs.
In terms of the placement, the more familiar your product/service is to the visitor and the lower the commitment required the higher the CTA is on the page.
Whereas, more complex product/services that require a visitor to take in a lot of information and build a certain level of trust before committing, will have CTAs lower down the page.
The general rule is that the higher the level of commitment an action requires, the more compelling your argument needs to be and the more information and support you’ll need to provide before a call to action.
If you have a complex product and you really want your CTA above the fold to capture the immediate attention of your visitor then a third option is to provide a secondary CTA to keep those not yet ready to buy engaged. Make sure your secondary CTA doesn’t compete with your primary one - there should be a clear hierarchy.
For all CTAs, regardless of the location, you want to:
Be specific about benefits. Adding “free” to your copy is not enough… you need to explain what the visitor will receive and how it will meaningfully improve their situation i.e. why they should care.
Speak to pain points. Understand what problems or issues your ideal client struggles with and tell them how you're going to solve these problems.
Provide Support. Testimonials, press reviews, research. Provide evidence that what you say is true. If you can quantify it even better - everyone loves a number.
The Sales Process - how to turn a visitor into a buyer.
Sales is a process and your job is to understand where the visitor is in this process. Visitors will come to your site at different stages in the buying process (sometimes referred to as the sales funnel). Some website visitors may be at the beginning of the purchase cycle and others ready to buy.
You need to understand where your visitors are in this process and think about how to use CTAs and other targeted actions to move them along the process - from visitors to strong prospects and prospects to buyers.
The simplified sales process includes three stages, awareness, evaluation and decision. At each stage, your visitor will be looking for different types of information and support. Your job is to provide this information and tailor your page CTAs to support conversion each stage.
Source: Hubspot
Stage One: Awareness - this is the beginning of the buying process, people become aware that they have a problem and are looking for information to help understand and define the problem better.
Example: Emily wakes up every morning with back pain. She googles ‘Why does my back hurt in the morning’ and finds a number of reasons from degenerative disc disease to pregnancy and poor mattress support. She rules out the first two with her GP and realises her 10 year old IKEA mattress might be the issue.
At this early stage, you need to provide Emily with education and answers. Long-form blogs are a great way to do this. Other ideas include eBooks, White Papers, reports and infographics.
All actions should help demonstrate to Emily that you understand her problem and are a trusted expert in the field.
Your main CTA might encourage Emily to download your free eBook about improving sleep habits.
Stage Two: Evaluation - the buyer is able to define the problem and starts evaluating possible solutions to their problem to find the best fit.
Example: Emily now is on the search for a better mattress. She googles “Best mattress for back pain” and finds a range of products from very expensive to more affordable. She reads about each mattress type, watches videos of how they are made and reviews industry reports.
According to digital marketer extraordinaire Neil Patel your goal at this stage is to continue to educate while also positioning your solutions as the ideal choice.
Your CTA should be more focused on building a personalised relationship with the prospect so you can better target your offering to their specific needs. Examples might include a watch a free webinar, a newsletter sign-up to receive the latest news and offers.
Stage Three: Decision - the buyer has completed their research and decided on a solution. Now they just need to decide on the right supplier/provider to deliver that solution.
Example: Emily has decided on a memory foam mattress with by the best for her back. She has narrowed her search to include three different suppliers all within a similar price range At this point Emily is checking customer reviews, delivery time and return policies to decide on the best supplier.
Your calls to action in this stage are all about making the purchase decision easier and less risky. So staying with the mattress example your CTA might be a ‘100 night trial - love it or return’.
For maximum effect - match page CTAs to a visitors’ buying stage.
It is relatively easy to figure out where someone is in the sales cycle based on what pages they visit. Overlaying any analytics you have about page traffic, time spent per page and actions taken can deepen your visitor understanding.
For example - if someone is reading your ‘About Us’ page - they are probably in the awareness stage, getting to know your business and learning what your company stands for.
Pages with case studies or testimonials are likely to attract people in the evaluation stage whereas product pages are more likely to attract people further along the Evaluation stage or in the final Decision stage.
Your page CTA should help nudge visitors along the sales process, providing the right information at the right time with the right CTA.
Getting ready to say Yes…. some final thoughts…
Make it easy - once they click on that button don’t make them do too much work. For example, if you ask a visitor to book a free consultation and then ask them to complete 20 different form fields you’ve probably lost them.
Provide alternative options to stay engaged - for the undecided at the bottom of your site - ask visitors to subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media
Give it one last shot - try an exit pop-up to convert visitors on their way out with a little incentive. It’s like the PS in an old school direct mail letter. To learn more about expiring Exit Pop-ups see this article from Elementor
Conclusion:
A strong call to action is always supported by the text above that answers the question of why should I act by highlighting the benefits in clear, concise and simple language.
Additionally, it should emphasis the low risk involved in taking the desired action - for example by stating they can cancel any time or highlighting your offer 28-day no quibble refund policy.
Finally, it’s always a good idea to test different call to action and create a champion-challenger situation where you are constantly trying to improve your response rate.
