Can't Get That Click? 5 Simple Strategies for CTAs That Convert [Examples]

By Roger Maftean

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Roger Maftean

Analytics show many visitors on your website. But that sizable traffic isn’t reflected in your conversions.

What could be happening? Could the most important individual element – the call-to-action button – be the culprit?

Perhaps. But you don’t need magic to make your visitors convert. You need to apply basic principles, test your results, and see what works best.

In this post, you’ll learn from four success stories – from the original version through the CTA transformation. You’ll see how these simple strategies can result in nice jumps in conversion rates.

Keep It Simple

Too many choices overwhelm visitors and kill your conversion rate. Choices add distractions. Simplicity is more effective.

Mozilla learned this the hard way. Mozilla wants visitors to download its Firefox web browser. It’s the company’s bread and butter. But here’s what you saw on the landing page:

It’s a bad game of Where’s Waldo, the browser edition. Where is the bread-and-butter CTA? It’s nicked into the upper right corner, mirroring all other elements on the page. But you’re there for the browser, not swanky Mozilla apparel (I didn’t know it was a thing).

The landing page is too complex. The boxes look similar – using the same font and shapes – and worse, the critical call to action is…

…in a smaller font. The solution – simplify. Look what happens when Mozilla opts to focus on its most important call to action:

It’s simple but effective. One choice. You can’t miss it.

To simplify your calls to action on your site:

But clarity requires work on the copy and page layout. Let’s see how this would go.

Stay on Message

Let’s play a game. Look at this landing page.

Stop looking. Now, what was the call to action? What is it for?

If you can recall it, did you…

…guess a safari pack of some sort? Travel? The first time I came across this website, I did. (OK, you can look at it again.)

But the page is about coffee. Can’t you see the coffee bag in the box next to the … trail guide?

It’s not clear, right? Too many things are going on here, and it’s a confusing message.

“Adventure pack” is the centerpiece text on the page. And the CTA button is even worse – “join the adventure.”

The product is coffee – a commodity everyone knows. Why confuse the customer? The company understood its mistake. Here is the latest landing page:

With the words, “Verve X Dripkit” layered over a cup of coffee, the product is clear. The CTA button – shop now – is direct. Verve uses good active language. And it’s on key. No confusing message here.

To clearly indicate what you want visitors to do (i.e., convert):

Personalize Your Words

You’re driving tons of traffic. You’re keeping the landing page…

…simple and you have a clear CTA. That’s what iMPACT did:

Is there more to do to boost conversions?

Absolutely.

The next step is to personalize. Instead of keeping a simple “free download” button, here’s what iMPACT did:

“Show me how to attract more customers” is catchy, right? Well, it worked. After one month of A/B testing, iMPACT saw a 78.5% increase in conversions. How did…

…such a minor text change bring about such an increase?

It’s meaningful. iMPACT thought about its target client. The team thought about the value the download provided the audience.

To personalize the CTA:

Splash Some Color

Before you convince visitors to convert, you must catch their attention. How can you tell the audience, “Hey, eyes over here!”?

A visually powerful CTA.

The number of color combinations, gradients, shadows, fonts, kerning, and other options is infinite. There is no one answer to the best color choice to make. But you shouldn’t go with a muted color, black, white, or gray. Here’s what that looks like:

Tableau’s CTA contains several mistakes:

Plus, the use of color in this landing page…

…captures attention but steers the visitors’ eyes away from the CTA.

Look at what happens when Tableau follows the “do” checklist:

You can see the difference. This color increases the visibility of the CTA. Conversions should increase with this simple tweak.

Put It to the Test

Now that you know what to change and what difference it can make, you can make changes to increase your conversion rates. Take one step at a time with your new CTAs and run A/B tests to see what works. You likely can find that minor tweaks yield great results.

Roger Maftean is a career writer at Zety who focuses on the intersection between marketing, tech and the workplace. Even though he has a Ph.D. in political theory, he’s known for his infamous tacos. Follow him on Twitter @memeftean.