How to Create Killer E-Commerce CTAs for Better Conversions
Call To Action (CTA) buttons are one of the most important factors that contribute to better conversions for an e-commerce website. Naturally, designers and e-commerce stores area always follow hyped CTA rules that don’t work well. As a business owner or a designer, you need to remember that there is no perfect formula for designing the best CTAs. It all depends on your business, the kind of products you sell, and the type of audience your website has.
Before we discuss how to design great CTAs, let us first see the importance of call-to-action buttons or elements.
Why CTAs Are Important?
- It gives a webpage, a website, and any business a purpose
- It guides visitors on what to do next
- It correlates directly with revenue
- It adds an element of attractiveness to a website
- It plays a key role in user or customer experience
Here are a few things you need to keep in mind while creating new CTAs for your e-commerce website or optimizing existing ones.
1. Position Is Very Important
The CTA should be visible above anything else on the page. It should have the most convenient position. Traditionally, it is placed at the center.
For a desktop, users are accustomed to a center-aligned CTA button. However, if you look at your heatmap that marks the movement of a visitor’s mouse, you will notice that a visitor’s mouse hovers mostly in the right section of the screen (or left, for left-handed people). So, now, some designers choose to place the CTA on the right side of the screen.
Coming to mobile screen optimization, the CTAs are ideally placed at the center of the screen. Considering the size of the screen, it is usually pointless to align it otherwise. In this case, a comparatively big-sized CTA is used which spreads throughout the breadth of the screen even when it is aligned at the center.
Another important factor in positioning your CTA is to make sure that you place it before the fold. This implies that the CTA should be visible to the visitor without needing to scroll.
2. Choose CTA Colors Wisely
The CTA should be the loudest factor on the webpage. Naturally, the color of the CTA button should stand out from the rest of the content on the page. Say, the color scheme of your website is centered around blue. You can color the CTA in yellow or red. Another wise idea is to design such that the CTA button changes color when the mouse hovers over it. It attracts more attention.
Typically, every CTA has two components – a box or a button and a text. Now, the contrast color factor applies to the box section of the CTA. The text color should be such that it is clearly readable within the box clearly.
3. Pay Attention to Size and Shape
The size of the CTA text should definitely be strongly visible. But the exact size cannot be defined generally. For a page with only one CTA, it is ideally written in the biggest font.
The typical shape of a CTA is rectangular. Recently, the edges of the rectangle are softened or round. This appeals to the psychology of a user to focus on what’s inside the shape, as opposed to pointy edges which direct the user’s attention outward.
Round CTAs are not used in the norm. A round CTA button is used to invoke a sense of surprise. It can be used for offering the user some offline or downloadable content.
4. Be Very Picky With Text
The most important aspect of CTA is the voice of the text. It should be crisp and clear. It must include a verb that suggests a clear course of action. For most common CTAs like ‘Buy Now’, ‘Download’, ‘Subscribe’ etc. simplicity is the key. It wouldn’t yield much with creative tags. Creativity is worthy as long as the message is consistent. This means that all the CTAs that redirect to a single page should have consistent text. You do not need to create ‘attractive’ texts for CTAs that perform the same function.
Coming to CTAs which are not the most common ones, a little bit of creativity can go a long way. The CTA text can aim at a certain emotion or enthusiasm (e.g. an image). You may try incentivizing the text with tags like ‘Order Now To Get 10% Discount’. These kinds of CTAs create a sense of urgency as well. This factor may work in your favor.
Another point of consideration is including an icon with CTA. There is a psychological factor influencing visitors positively when there is an icon along with the text. A survey says that, when an icon accompanies a CTA text, they expect to get ‘more’ by clicking on it.
5. Frequency Plays a Vital Role
In basic terms, if you focus on only one CTA, you can include the button 2-3 times on the page. The first position, as mentioned before should be in the first fold. Similarly, the last CTA has to be included in the last fold. In between, ideally, you need not keep more than one CTA.
While there is no technical limit to how many CTAs you can include, if you think from a user’s point of view, too many CTAs will distract them from the actual content. This kind of design can appear to be too much ‘profit-focused’. Best, limit the CTAs to just two or three.
6. Handle Multiple CTAs Carefully
If your page has multiple CTAs, the style of design alters a bit. While the chief CTA will still have the aforementioned features, the other CTAs will be softer versions of the same based on their importance. The color will be less loud, and the text size and content would be smaller. The other features, however, remain the same.
7. Don’t Forget to A/B Test
As we mentioned before, there is no black-and-white formula for building the best call-to-action. What works best for one site may not be good enough for another. While the above-mentioned factors are some general rules of thumb, no one can guarantee what design will influence your customers the Best. So, it is always wise to do some A/B Testing using your best ideas. Note their performances and choose the one that your visitors prefer!