Improve Your Website's Conversion Rate

So you have your website all set up. The pages are perfectly organized, the navigation is functional and easy-to-use, the design is attractive and the content is engaging. Everything is great and you're good to go, right? Wrong.

There are many websites that look great and offer engaging content, but are lacking the most critical aspect of any site - a strong call-to-action. The web is a task-focused place, and when people go online, they're searching for something specific - an answer to their question or a solution to their problem. The quicker you offer that solution, the better your chances of converting visitors to leads.

People don't have time to click through links and scan pages to figure out what you can do for them. Internet users have extremely short attention spans, and you only have seconds to grab their attention, convey your message and drive them to take an action, before they move on.

Creating an effective call-to-action requires experimentation and should be a regular part of your website evaluation process. However, there are a few proven guidelines you should follow to create more compelling calls-to-action that stand out to visitors.

A call-to-action should have 5 characteristics:

1.) Engaging - Your call-to-action should engage visitors immediately and clearly address their concerns. The message should be concise yet persuasive and use compelling language to communicate your message and its value to the reader. You may have to tweak and test this message several times before you get it right. Creating an effective call-to-action is similar to fishing. To catch the ideal fish, you need the ideal lure. Certain shapes and types of bait are more attractive to different types of fish, so it helps to know the fish you are going after and what appeals and looks good to them. The same goes for your target audience. Know what they're looking for, and adjust your message accordingly.

2.) Incentives - The benefit the user will receive by taking the action should be evident. An additional incentive can make your call-to-action hard to refuse. For example, offering the reader something extra for their purchase such as free shipping or a discount for buying now is an easy way to increase conversions.

3.) Urgency - Create a sense of urgency with declarative action statements such as "Limited time Offer!" or "Act Fast!". Making your call-to-action time sensitive can snap people out of dawdling passivity and impel them to take action in that moment. This can be achieved by telling customers that prices will go up after a certain time period, informing them that there is a limited supply available or offering a limited time discount, gift or free trial.

4.) Design - Much like the fish & the lure. Your call to action should be aesthetically attractive as well as attention grabbing. It should be complementary with your site's colors, but still use contrasting colors to stand out from the rest of the content. It should be large enough so that it stands out on top of everything else on the page. Buttons should be large and instantly identifiable as clickable. Using a unique (yet complimentary) font from the rest of the content is another way to call attention to this area.

5.) Inspire Action - You want to make it as easy as possible for the user to take the desired action. Therefore, collect only the required information that you need and keep the process as short as possible. People are much less likely to fill out a form that's going to require more of their time, and people hate giving away personal information like their phone number.

The above tips are helpful guidelines, not an exact recipe. You will likely need to experiment with different lures and baits to find what works best. Google Analytics is a great way to obtain useful data on click throughs on your site. For email campaigns, many programs, like Constant Contact for example, will provide you with similar data and analytics. Review this data frequently and adjust the message, placement, color, etc.. and keep testing!