Online marketing is filled with enough acronyms, terms, and tools to make your head spin, but don’t worry. I’m here to help. As Emphasize’s first point of contact, it’s my job to explain exactly how what we do will make sure your customers best learn about your business.
Your content and website design attract visitors to the website of your Calgary business, and your marketing tools are key to converting those visitors into customers.
What is a CTA?
One of the most important acronyms you’ll encounter is CTA, which is short-hand for call-to-action.
CTAs come in many forms, but the goal is always to get the reader (or viewer) to take a specific action. It could be anything. “Get a Quote!” “Read More!” “Discover Details!” “Buy Now!” These are all CTAs.
You’ll find CTAs among just about any online or printed content that you encounter. A CTA should always be related to \ the page where it appears, and should tell the reader in obvious terms what will happen when they make the all-important choice to click.
Using Graphics to Highlight Your CTAs
CTAs should always stand out from the rest of the content on the page, and draw the reader’s attention. Using graphics is a great way to make your CTAs stand out, and come with the added bonus of adding a dash of style to the page. There’s plenty of room for customization with graphics…you can choose to include words, numbers, contrasting colours, images, whatever works for the task at hand.
- Ever drive by a car dealership with bright, gaudy signs advertising too-good-to-be-true deals? I recommend avoiding that look with your CTAs.
- Choose colors that contrast well, both within the graphic and in the context of the rest of the page.
- Simple buttons are a solid, low-key way to draw attention to your CTAs. Buttons stand out from text nicely, and they’re such a common feature that most people will feel right at home clicking your CTA.
- Movement is another effective way to draw attention to CTAs, and Hubspot has some excellent examples of unobtrusive but distinctive slide-in CTAs. Slide-in CTAs are most effective when they don’t obscure too much of the page.
Adding CTAs as Linked Text in Content
When creating blog posts or other marketing content, you may decide to go for a more subtle look by including your CTAs as links within the text. This is an ideal tactic when you are taking an informative tone, because they fit nicely within text while still drawing the reader’s attention as they progress through your content.
- Make sure that text-based CTAs stand out from the rest of the text on the page, so that they’re easy to find but won’t cause the reader to click through accidentally.
- You can accomplish this by using bold text for links, or making linked CTAs a different color than the other text on the page.
- Just as with images, links should be descriptive. You always want the reader to know where they’re going next, and why.
- One common, effective tactic is to put linked CTAs at the end of your content. By demonstrating value with your content, you motivate the reader to click.
A/B Testing to Learn What Works Best
A/B testing is a simple, effective comparison tool that well help you make the best decisions with your CTAs and design choices. I’ll show you how it all works.
A/B testing is aptly named, because it allows you to compare different versions of the same CTA to see which works best. Generally, A/B testing works best when there’s a substantial difference between the versions you’re testing, so you can get a real feel for the style that best fits the page in question.
While there are many immediate benefits to comparing your alternatives directly, A/B testing works best when you stick with it over time. A/B testing is a very useful tool for many aspects of web design and digital marketing. We’ve created a resource to help you understand why that’s the case.
Let Us See What Works
Don’t want to worry about the small stuff? No problem. Our team at Emphasize Design of Calgary is happy to handle all of the details, from website maintenance to CTAs.
While CTAs don’t always steal the headlines, there are few online marketing elements more important than the button, graphic, or words you use to motivate readers to action. With the power of A/B testing, you don’t have to guess what will work best. Just follow the data, and enjoy the results.
At Emphasize Design, your online marketing is our passion. Learn more about our attractive, actionable website design options, and get started with a free quote from our Calgary team!
