10 techniques for making a good action call button

Having a effective call to action is a essential part of any website. A call to action isn't just limited to ecommerce sites. Every website should have a objective it wants users to complete whether it are filling in a contacts form, signup for a NE Wsletter or volunteering their time.

A call to Action provides ...

• Focus to your site
• A Way to measure your sites success
• Direction to your users

How then does you create a effective call to action? Here are ten techniques which help achieve just that.

1. Lay the groundwork

Before a user is willing to complete a call to action they have to recognise the need. Infomercials do this very. Before they ask people to respond, they-a identify and problem a product that present that solves.

You are also need to communicate the benefits of responding. What'll the user get out of completing the call to action?

Take For example the VoIP service Skype. Immediately above their call to action (a download button) they have the following text:

Make calls from your computer-free to "people on Skype" and cheap to phones and mobiles of the world.

They clearly explain what the user would get to by downloading Skype.

Skype clearly show the benefits of downloading their application

2. offer a little extra

Sometimes you may have to sweeten the deal to encourage users to complete a call to action.

Incentives could include discounts, entry into a competition or a free gift. This is the approach Barack Obama used in his fund raising website. If you made a donation of $ or more you are got a free t-shirt.

If you donated $ or more to the Barack Obama election campaign your got a free T-shirt

Of course the beauty of this offer is, is, did he pursued to donate and he also turned billboard!

3. Have a small number of distinct actions

It is also important to being focused in your calls to action. Too many and the user becomes overwhelmed. Studies in supermarkets have shown this if the shopper is presented with too many varieties they are less-likely to make a Purchase.

By limiting the number of choices a user has to make we reduce the amount of mental effort. Effectively you guide the user around the site step by step.

The number of appropriate actions would vary from site to site. However, it is isn't so much the number of actions as the distinctiveness of each.

Take for example Pbwiki.com. They have three calls to action:

• Create a Wiki
• View Demo
• Buy Now

Although three is not a unacceptable number, there are not a clear distinction between ' create a wiki ' and ' Buy Now '. What should I do first–buy a wiki or create one? I am confused. A better approach would is to push the ' buy option ' later in the process once the ' user has committed to building a wiki.

The three calls to action on the Pbwiki homepage are not clearly distinguished

4. Use Active Urgent language

A call to action should clearly tell the users what you want them todo. They should include active words such as:

• Call
• Buy
• Register
• Subscribe
• Donate

All of the encourage users to take a action.

To create a sense of the urgency and a need to act now, this words can be used the alongside phrases such as:

• Offer expires March 31st
• For a
• Order now and receive a free gift

Carsonified the approach when selling their workshops. To create a sense of the urgency they offer discounts to those who signup early.

Carsonified create a sense of urgency by offering a discount to those people the WHO sign up early to their workshops

5. Get the position right

Another important factor is the position of your call to action on the page. Ideally it should be placed to the page and in the.

Picsengine.com does this is placing their ' in action ' centrally on the page above the fold.

Picsengine focuses users on their call to action by placing it centrally on the page.

6. Use white space

It isn't just the position of your call to action that matters. It is also the space around it. The more spaces around a call to action the more attention are drawn to it. Clutter up your call to action with surrounding content and it'll be lost in the overall noise of the page.

PLANHQ does an excellent job of focusing users ' their calls to action by surrounding them with a lot of empty.

PLANHQ draws attention to their calls to action by surrounding and them space.

7. Use an alternative colour

Colour is a effective way of drawing attention to elements, especially if the rest of the site has a fairly limited Te.

Things (the GTD application for the "Mac") does this expertly on their website. While the rest of their site are predominately muted blues and grey, their calls to action are orange. This extreme contrast leaves your in no doubt as to the next thing your should do.

The things website draws attention to it calls to action by using a constrasting colour

Of course never rely solely on colour because many users are colour blind and'll not the contrast.

8. Make It Big

As Web designers we often get annoyed with clients whom ask us to make things bigger. It is certainly true to size isn ' t everything. We have already established that position, colour and white spaces are equally.

However It cannot be denied the size does play a large part. The bigger your call to action, the more chance it'll be noticed.

Mozilla have certainly taken this approach to heart on the Firefox homepage where their download link dominates the page.

Mozilla uses size to draw attention to their call to action

9. Have a call-action on every page

A call to action should just is limited to the homepage. Every page of your site should have some form of call to action this leads the user on. If the user reaches a dead-end they would leave without responding to your call.

Your call to action does not need to is the same for each page. Instead can use smaller actions this lead the user towards your ultimate goal.

Signals understand the importance of having a call to action on each page. At the foot of every page of their Basecamp website they clearly display links to their tour and signup pages.

Basecamp has a call-action at the foot of every page

Carry the call through

Finally, consider what happens when a user does the respond to your call to action. The rest of the process needs to is as carefully thought through as the call to action itself.

One particular word of warning–if you require users to provide personal data about themselves, resist the temptation to Collect unnecessary information.

The Marketing people in particular is like the up demographic information. Although I can appreciate the value of this, it brings a danger users would drop out of the process.

WordPress.com is a excellent example to minimise the amount of data collected. They the minimal information required to setup a blog.

Wordpress Miminise The amount of information required to setup a blog.

Conclusions

An effective call to action are the linchpin of a successful site and involves drawing together best practice in usability, Creative visual design and powerful copy writing.

However, if it is doing right it can generate real measurable return on investment and at the current economic climate Are what we all want.