Most common reasons your call to action does not work

by Izabela Wisniewska, Guest Contributor

So, you’ve created the most beautiful website you’ve ever seen. It’s a work of art both in terms of the imagery and user experience. Those that have tested it fell in love immediately and have told you to expect a wave of new enquiries when it goes live.

You’ve even got the copywriting spot on. It’s engaging, draws the reader in and extols the virtues of your business and its products perfectly.

Time for a big pat on the back!

Only, there’s a problem.

Why aren’t you getting any enquiries? Why are bounce rates so high? What have you done wrong?

If this sounds familiar, the chances are you’ve slipped on a very common banana skin: a poor - or absent - call to action (CTA).

The best website on the planet will be next to useless if it doesn’t ask visitors to do something. That ‘something’ may be an enquiry, product purchase or newsletter sign-up, but whatever it is, it needs to be prominent and follow every guideline available when it comes to placement and design.

Don’t worry, because we’ve put together the most common reasons your CTA probably isn’t working.

You’re using the word ‘submit’
Don’t. Submit what, exactly? It all sounds a bit clinical. ‘Send me a brochure’, ‘contact me today’ and ‘download free eBook’ are examples of CTA button text that will elicit clicks.

Your CTA is below the fold
‘Above the fold’ is a newspaper term which refers to the viewable content of a page when the paper is folded in two. The stuff present in that section is always deemed to be the most important by the publisher because it’s most likely to be read first.

That’s where your CTA needs to be. If it’s below the fold, it’ll likely mean people have to scroll to find it. And they probably won’t.

You have seconds to grab someone’s attention online, so don’t make them hunt around for your CTA.

Your CTA doesn’t stand out
Where is it? Oh - there it is, nestled among the rest of the text and nondescript design in the page header.

Just as important as the placement of your CTA is its design. If you don’t use bold, vibrant, high-contrast colours and large, capitalised text, who’s going to notice it?

 You’re not giving a good enough reason to click
Just as the word ‘submit’ is unlikely to win you many new enquiries, the content that precedes a call to action needs to give the visitor a good enough reason to go ahead and click it. What burning question do you intend to answer for them? What are they going to receive? What’s in it for them?

It isn’t optimised for mobile
We’re now at the stage where most people who visit your website are likely to do so on a mobile device. Therefore, if your CTAs aren’t optimised for mobile, they stand zero chance of being interacted with.

Mobile-ready buttons need to be big and avoid the use of complex code (or, worse, Flash) in order to be displayed. Keep it ultra simple and irresistible to touch.

That’s it - the five most common reasons your call to action button simply isn’t producing the desired results. You may be suffering from one or more of the above, but the good news is they’re incredibly easy to fix.

So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to polish up that CTA!