Does your Website’s Call to Action Encourage Customers to ‘Act’?

4. Make your call to action stand out.

Discretion is not a virtue here; your call to action should be bold. There are a variety of ways to achieve this, whether it’s by using a standout color, bigger text, or strategic placement. My company Onepager is a website builder for small businesses, so we’ve seen all kinds of calls to action. Depending on your mission, it can range from a bright red “Donate Now” button to a band’s YouTube video in the right sidebar.

Another way to make sure your call to action stands out is to provide only one. Multiple options give people a chance to deliberate, which could risk them not choosing any. One call to action is usually all you need, but if you find you need more, make sure they’re easily distinguishable. Onepager once made the mistake of providing two competing options. When we changed it back to one, we saw a rise in new accounts. There’s more to gain by focusing on one clear call to action, than by confusing potential customers with too many.

5. Keep your call to action simple.

If online visitors are reading your call to action, you’re almost there! Make it easy. Once they’ve completed the call to action, you’ll have more opportunities to engage with them, but for now your objective is to make sure they’re on board.

For example, let’s say you want visitors to sign up for a free newsletter. You’ll need their name and email address. Try to keep it simple. Don’t add too many questions. Remember, this is all about making it easy for your customers to get on board.

Finally, once you’ve implemented your call to action, track and measure its success.

• Has your user base grown?
• Are more people shopping at your store?
• Is your mailing list reaching more inboxes?

Hopefully you’ll notice an improvement, but don’t be afraid to tweak your call to action if your conversion rate isn’t optimal. Perhaps visitors will respond better to different placement, color, or language. The beauty of a website is that it’s built for exactly this kind of flexibility.

As someone whose job it is to help small businesses build their websites, I’d be happy to help you with your own. So here’s my call to action: Email me and I’ll review your call to action to make sure it’s working as hard as it can for your company!

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Eric Tarn is the co-founder of New York-based Onepager, a simple website builder that has been used by more than 25,000 small businesses all over the world.