Call-To-Action is a button or a link on a website to attract prospective customers.

Think about how many times you have signed up for various things on line for the purpose of your interest.  Whenever you take this activity you are called to fill out a form on a landing page. CTA is a link that provides connection between the regular content which the customer is interested in and a site offering more extensive offer in exchange for something that is usually money or user data.

Call to actions are the leitmotiv of any landing pages. This page is the place where customers are convinced to complete a short form. For example, you are interested in attending a conference advertised on a website. Your attraction may be caught by a highlighted button “Get your ticket now!” which after a simple click will lead you to a page different from the main page and that is designed for a single focused objective: fill in with your personal information. Some example are subscribe to  newsletter or a webinar registration, to mention some of them. All they employ a variety of wording to attract attention such as, “free tria”, “now”, etc.

Hints from good practices

In order to attain most successful results using Call-To-Action, there are certain guidelines to follow.

• Visibility: The link or button should be visible. An eye-catching spot on a webpage may easily cause someone to click an offer. Strong colours are catchier than less intensive ones. For instance, yellow is considered to be psychologically the happiest colour in the colour spectrum. A short, compelling video on purchasing an item may double the chances of selling. This type of CTA can be found on a product page often as a smart way to involve different types of visitors.
• Location: It is important that the button or the link can be easily spotted. User`s scrolling through the main page may harden the CTA activity. It should be put on an easy-to find place for convenience. It can be put at the end of a post, on a sidebar or as a floating banner on either sides of the page. Also, putting social sharing buttons, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn is an effective way to inform visitors about visiting a webpage.
• Size: medium size, not to big to distract attention from the main content, but also big enough to be noticed.
• Concise: Verbosity does not help, staying brief with a few words of explanation is considered the best choice. It should also be clear to understand.
• Action oriented: verbs are the persuaders, therefore words like “register” or “find” are most suitable to start with. Also is a good idea to push the user to do it “now”.

Do you want to read more? Take a look to this post on Hongkiat about call to action buttons.

As mentioned, CTA is used to generate leads and this is why it is placed in a location on a website visited by a large number of visitors like a blog.

Given that, CTA is an ideal way to turn visitors into customers or, for example, to create awareness and tempt visitors to attend an event. Creating a feeling of comfort and determination to get involved is necessary. A potential customer should feel confident to click on a friendly and sales focused CTA on a page advertising a product or service.

The advantage is that the location possibilities on a website are infinite since all different audience types can be addressed.