Here in Dubai and all around the UAE almost every SME, large enterprises and businesses have their corporate website. Regardless of the industry or business model, the website and online presence have great influence on your targeted audience customer base. There was a time when the websites were merely an online brochure, containing basic company bio, contact details a brief detail of what they do, etc. But things have changed drastically in past decade. The websites have transitioned from an online brochure to one of the most powerful marketing tool in the modern business ecosystem. The corporate website have become an integral part of the modern day businesses. The internet penetration in UAE is 99% and similar number of people uses smartphones too. The social media, smartphone apps, online searches and digital experience has become very crucial for customer happiness and satisfaction. In present day majority of the prospects will visit your website before making a purchase decision. That is what makes website more important than ever before.
The business website also helps improving brand image in online world. A good website add value to the credibility and reputation of the business. People tend to think that the websites that appear in first few results of the Google search are mot reputed and credible businesses. The websites are not only useful for portraying a better brand image but businesses utilize them to offer several services and instant access to information. Furthermore the social media and other digital marketing efforts also eventually take your prospect to your business website. Which is why having an excellent business website is absolutely crucial for a business. Above all a business website is a best tool to generate online leads and conversions. The digital marketing, social media and SEO (search engine optimization) can be very helpful to reach out to wider audiences. This mean the website can be a great source to generate additional revenue and sales for the business. A website comprises of several elements, one of the most important is the CTA or call to action. In this blog will discuss how to create an effective call to action (CTA) and how it could impact the overall performance of your business website.
What is a Call to Action (CTA)?
The call to action or CTA is one of the most important element of a web design. The CTA is basically a button or hyperlink which ask your website visitors to take a specific and very valuable action. And if that action is performed, that is what we call a conversion. The customer journey at a website is very simple, yet complicated. It is simple for the users/customers but complicated from the web design prospective. The call to action (CTA) acts like a signpost in the customer journey, they tell customers what they should do next to reach to their goal or to fulfill their needs. The call to action is usually a button which is prominent at the web design or it can be hyperlink highlighted as per the design theme of the web page. The commonly found buttons such as ‘Purchase Now’, ‘Download’, ‘Signup for Free’, ‘Subscribe’, ‘Click Here to Read More’, etc. are the most common examples of the CTAs. The call to action (CTA) is usually placed at multiple different places in a web design such as inserting in the body or main text, sticky button/menu, side-pane, end of the page or footer area, etc.
Why CTA is so Important?
The purpose of any digital marketing campaign is to generate more revenue, or increase brand awareness or build up subscriptions and follows, etc. No matter which digital marketing campaign you starting, the CTA remains the center point of all. Whether it is Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram Ads, or any other PPC/CPC campaign the campaign results will totally dependent on the clicks it will have, and the clicks are completely dependent on your CTA or call to action. It doesn’t matter if your CTA is a link or a button, the message you are communicating through your CTA text will determine how many people click it. Similarly for the websites the CTA is the most important and impactful component of the web design. Most of the times businesses invest a lot in their digital campaigns, they generate handsome amount of CTR (click through rate) as well, but still the results doesn’t reflects on sales and revenue. There could be other problems too, but most common problem is the CTA (call to action). Most of the time businesses doesn’t pay much attention to the CTA. The CTA is so sensitive that even a small change in it could have huge impact on the results.
Studies have shown that a slight color change in the CTA could have up to 40% more sales for eCommerce websites. Obviously for different businesses the impact would be different, but one thing is sure that the impact of the CTA on campaign results in significantly huge. If your CTA is not attractive or leading, then your visitor got confused, they might start wondering here and there on your website or most of the time they will leave without converting. No matter whatever your objectives of the campaign are the end goals is revenue and growth. For example the newsletters are a great way to collect database which can be later used to build relationship with the audience and help businesses generate more sales and revenue. But if the CTA is not clear at your landing page or website, your subscription will be less and vice versa. Another important role of a CTA is to facilitate the customer journey. When customers reach to your website or web page, the first thing they will notice will be your web design, then they will absorb the content and then they will look up to the next step.
Remember your visitors are in search of something that can fulfil their needs, so they might be desperate, anxious, or already stressed, if your web design and content will lead them to closed street they might immediately leave. That is why it is crucial to place your CTA at an appropriate place in the web design. The web design should be designed in a way to take the users through the customer journey without any confusion or distraction. When you think the user might be ready to convert, then give them the directions via an attractive and highly-visible call to action (CTA) button. Hence the user don’t have to search for the next step. For example, if it is a product page, the web design provide product info/details and then at the end a ‘Purchase Now’ button. If not how would user know what to do next? That is why the CTA is extremely important. It is not the placement alone, the text/message of the CTA is also extremely crucial. Hence the CTA is one of the most important part of the web design.
How to create an effective and attractive CTA (call to action)?
Now that we clearly understood the importance of the CTA. It is also important to understand how to create an effective and attractive CTA or call to action. First thing that you should understand is that the CTA have limited space, you don’t have enough space to write an attractive sentence. So whatever you want the customers to do next, tell them clearly in a short phrase or with a word or two. The best practice for writing a CTA is to say exactly what the button does or where the link will take the users. It is important to understand the CTA from users’ point of view. For example, who is your audience? The CTAs are always designed for the high-value audience groups, who are most likely to convert. So you write the message of the CTA with the aim to align it to the targeted audience and make sure it is easily understandable for them. Furthermore the web design is also very important, if the web design is failed to keep the users on customer journey, then it doesn’t matter how good your CTA is. That is why the CTA and the web design along with the content of the web page work in perfect harmony to maximize the conversion and revenue of the campaign.
Here are a few tips while creating a call to action (CTA):
- Customized for the Platform:Whether you are creating a call to action (CTA) for the website, social media, search adverts, emails or any other platform. It is important that you customized the CTA for each platform to maximize the click through rate of the CTA.
- Tell Users What to Expect:The users who will reach to your CTA are most likely of the highest potential to convert. These are valuable leads, it is extremely important to tell them what they will get by clicking your CTA else you will lose a conversion and people will go elsewhere.
- Curiosity – The Cherry on Top:The curiosity is a very best way to attract more users to your CTA. A small tagline or phrase can be used to further attract the users’ attentions. When the customers are curious they tend to click more often.
- Include Trigger Words: The trigger words are which indicate how this can benefit the users. For example, if you are selling a book about improving online sales, then the CTA can say ‘Get More Sales’ or ‘Download to Get More Sales’.
- Placement & Visibility:The placement and visibility is the most important part of creating a CTA. The colors, fonts, background, placement at the page matters a lot. The CTA should be at appropriate place at the point where the lead is ready to convert and it should be highly visible.
It is easier to follow the first four points, but the last one is a bit tricky. The web design is a complex structure, especially in the modern age, when the responsive web designs dominates the market, it is very difficult to build responsive UIs. The businesses need to be very careful with the web design. If the CTA is a hyperlink, then the hyperlink can be highlighted with the colors, font style and even putting an underline under it. It is important that the hyperlink text looks different and prominent from rest of the text and the contrast between the text color and the background should be maximum. If the CTA is a button in that case too it is crucial to maintain maximum contrast ratio between the background/backdrop and the CTA color and then the contrast should also be present in the CTA color and the text on it. Hence the CTA button should be highly visible and looks prominent among other design elements. It is better to consider the color scheme of the web design and then chose appropriate colors to make it highly visible.
Conclusion
The CTA or Call to Action is one of the most important component of a web design or any digital marketing campaign. The CTA will determine how many lead will convert, that is why it has to be created with great care. There are several studies which showed that a slight change in CTA could have huge impact on the online sales and conversions. The modern web designs are very complex, it is important for a businesses to carefully place the CTA at the appropriate stage of the customer journey. The people who are visiting your web page must be needing a solution to their problem, it could be a product, service or just information. It is extremely important to direct them at each stage of customer journey. If the CTA is not as that visible, or is not descriptive enough the user might lose interest or get confused and leave without converting. The inappropriate CTA is also one of the major cause of the loss in online conversions. In this blog we have briefly discussed what a CTA is, why it is important and how to create it. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you with your CTA or web design please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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