If there is a saying that has never become more relevant today, it is “he who does it himself does for three”.
It enjoys a certain fame especially in companies that decide to offer themselves on the internet with prefabricated portal, without wondering what this entails for their business.
Many times we talk about template-based services (such as Wix for example) that are used to create “professional” sites, offering a selection of available designs.
More often than you might think, companies resort to these services, which are easy to update (just insert new texts, a few more images, change the colors, the logo, the font, etc.).
By doing this, you probably don’t notice the errors in the design of these templates and what these entail in terms of lost sales, especially with regard to ecommerce .
Among these are the Call To Action ( CTA ) which sometimes do not appear or are completely neglected. CTAs are invitations to perform an action, such as banners or buttons with incisive text that induces the user to click on it, generating conversions.
By remedying this problem, conversions can be increased, thereby increasing turnover.
Here are 5 tips that can make your calls to action effective for driving sales .
1. Test user friendliness
There will be a reason why the user experience is very important in the field of design.
It is important that the perspective adopted by the company, towards its site, is the same as the user who will visit it. This includes the concepts of responsive and adaptive , so ecommerce must be usable from mobile, tablet and PC and the commands and forms must be easy to find and use.
A technique used to do this is to put yourself in the shoes of the user who is consulting your site in search of information. When a person visits your portal, what information will they be looking for? If we think of an ecommerce, the customer will be more interested in looking for a specific product, so it is important that the search command and the menu with the available categories are clearly visible and easy to use.
Will the customer want to compare products before purchasing? Definitely yes, so foresee this possibility by inserting a comparison tool, also easy to use. The calls you will use must accompany the user in every phase of his “shoping experience”: Do you like it? Buy now !, Compare it with other products !, Not convinced? Look for more !, Are you interested? Add it to your cart, etc …
2. Provide instructions
There is a reason portals like Amazon use verbs in their call to action. Verbs correspond to the action: “add to cart”, “add to wish list”, “subscribe”, lead the visitor to do something.
Remember that your CTAs must always be in their usual place on every page. Don’t put them first on the top right, then on the bottom left, central or small and hidden. This destabilizes the user immediately annoying him, so the next action will be the closure of the site.
Always think about telling the customer what to do . Lead it, don’t be afraid to be impertinent, be explicit.
3. Use contrasts
. Colors and position are fundamental in design because they guide the eye to certain elements.
CTAs work best if highlighted with white space around them, so not in the middle of text, but more possibly “isolated”. If the call to action is on a button, it should be in an attention-grabbing color.
Professional designers often use contrast to create visually appealing designs.
The contrast is given by the juxtaposition of dramatically different elements (light vs dark, small vs large) in order to draw attention to a particular point.
The CTA must be designed to draw the eye to that specific part of the page.
4. Avoid clutter
A site can fall into the mistake of loading as much content as possible on its pages. Avoid information overcrowding because it can lead to a confusing design that alienates the visitor rather than attracts them. Cleanliness and simplicity are essential and should not negatively affect the style of the ecommerce.
Even worse if the confusion is created by multiple calls to action that alternate on the same page.
Always trying to put yourself in the user’s shoes, look at all the CTAs present, which one attracts attention first? And the one that most desires to draw attention? Based on the answers, act accordingly.
For any business site, CTAs are essential. Using the tools available today, you can determine if your design supports them or if it interferes with them.
In addition to website analysis, don’t forget to ask your loyal customers directly if they find the site easy to navigate. Never neglect their feedback, perhaps by inserting a specific form on each page that reports: “Did you find what you were looking for?”
No matter how you get there, the goal is to create calls to action that quickly and smoothly get the user where they want to go.
5. Choose a good web master and rely on a good provider
The last point is almost obvious, yet repeating it is always useful.
For your site to be a real investment that can pay off over time, relying on chance or the first solution is not the best of ideas.
The basics are very important and determine the success or failure of your project.
Always make sure that the hosting plan you choose is compatible with your needs and actually reliable.
There is a difference between a web hosting and a server and even if in the latter case the investment can be greater, remember that you will gain from it in terms of revenue as your portal expands in terms of visits.
The calls to action are used a lot to focus attention on promotions that are then conveyed through email marketing or social campaigns. If the structure on which your site rests was not designed to host a high number of visits, all your efforts will be in vain.
For this it is useful to be supported by a trained and competent web master or designer, who knows how to direct you to the best, thus avoiding the do-it-yourself and the famous logic of “doing it on its own is for three”.
