20 Call To Action Examples To Increase Leads and Sales

Effective Call to Action Examples That Convert

Got an awesome product your audience is going to love? Check

Attracting enough traffic for good lead potentials? Yup

Making more money than you ever thought you would… not yet.

So what’s wrong? All the stats say that you should be raking in the profits, but your prospects just aren’t converting.

If you’ve spent the time to properly optimise your sales copy and traffic flow I’d put money on your call to actions being the problem. Sure they might be small, but their importance isn’t to be underestimated.

In some ways, that tiny little button or single line of text can be one of the most important elements of your sales page. When well optimised it’s the final push, convincing an undecided prospect to click through, sign up or purchase.

Your call to actions deserve a lot of attention. If you’ve ignored your call to actions and used the generic, default ‘submit’ text I’ve got a good idea why your conversions aren’t as high as you’d like.

Take the time to properly optimise your call to actions for the best conversions. If you’re not sure where to start, we’ve got a list of 10 best practise and 20 call to action examples as a starting point.

1 – Curiosity

It might have killed the cat but it’s incredibly effective in driving conversions. People are curious, if you give them half a story they want to know how it ends, pose a question and people want the answer.

The generic ‘submit’ button’s not going to whip your audience into a frenzy. Find out what questions your audience has and utilise them in your call to actions.

This call to action example for a rehab centre is beautifully simple. It poses the question nearly all of their prospects will be asking themselves. Having the question they want answered is a sure fire way to secure that click.

 

Ever seen one of the above type ads? The above bridges the curiosity gap of providing enough info to be interesting without giving away the whole story. You’ll notice these kind of adverts everywhere which is proof enough of their efficacy.

2 – Contrasting Colours

You could have the smartest, most convincing call to action that hits all the right marks and see zero results if no one is able to find it. Your call to actions need to stand out from their surroundings. If they don’t, no one is going to notice them. Use contrasting (yet complimentary) colours to draw the eye to your CTA and watch your conversion rates soar.

The above is one of my favourite call to action examples as it nails a number of CTA best practices. In regards to colour, the actual advertisement is in stark contrast to the white webpage so it immediately draws the eye. The actual CTA button is another contrasting colour leaving no doubt on where you have to click.

Amazon, the kings of conversion (seriously, if you ever want to find good call to action examples, check Amazon). There is absolutely no doubt on where you have to click on this page. Straight away the key CTA that Amazon wants you to click is highlighted above all else on the page.

3 – Click Value > Cost

Why should your prospect click? What are they going to get out of it?

You’ve got to remember that your prospect probably doesn’t care about you. If you’ve got to earn x amount to make rent this month, that’s not their problem. They’re thinking about how this product or service is going to help them, not about what it’s going to do for you.

Make your CTAs scream value. Highlight the value of licking or purchasing and be sure that it outweighs the cost of supplying an email address or handing over some money. Remove any chance of causing last minute resistance.

Once again I’m going to use Crazy Egg for our next call to action example . Here the value clearly outweighs the cost.

Cost = Supply your email

Value = Free heatmap

A heat map might not sound like much but for the CRO nuts who frequent the site this is a hugely useful tool.

Once again the actual button demonstrates the value of clicking. The risk of clicking is negated above the CTA whilst the CTA itself focuses on the benefit of knowledge and better landing pages. Value beats cost once more.

4 – Urgency

There are two ways you can introduce urgency into your CTAs, the first plays on the ever diminishing attention spans of web browsers.

The above call to action example goes with the very simple, ‘Get started’. doesn’t seem like much, but it gives the feeling that we’re ready to go right now. You’re not going to have to wait or jump through multiple hoops to get going. Perfect for the busy consumer who doesn’t have time to waste.

The second urgent call to action is something I like to call the countdown CTA. The button itself is of little importance, but there are plenty of other visual cues that force prospects into action. These could be a time countdown until it’s no longer available or a countdown of stock left until selling out.

The potential to miss out is a great motivator for many prospects.

5 – Specificity

If there’s one thing I hate it’s overly generic CTAs. The type that haven’t been customised at all but instead have been left with the generic ‘submit’ button.

A generic approach to your marketing isn’t going to convince anyone. On top of that, the word submit has a negative connotation.

KISSmetrics know good online marketing and you can see it in all of their call to actions. The one I’ve included above could have used the simple ‘submit’ button but instead went with specific language of the benefit which is likely to bring higher conversions.

This call to action example from Firefox almost seems too simple. Click here, get free download. It’s perfect. It describes exactly what you’re getting and doesn’t try to be clever or witty. Sometimes simple is better!

6 – Segmentation

Offering segmentation options on your CTA won’t necessarily increase clicks but will definitely help when it comes to future marketing to your list. Splitting the age group, gender, interests and/or type of business of your list makes it far easier to target your marketing right now, or further down the line.

I can appreciate a great dress or a killer skirt and heels combo as much as the next guy. Doesn’t mean I want to buy them though. Clothes stores segment their audiences as soon as they can allowing for better targeted marketing.

Here’s an example of segmenting your audience by business needs so that you can properly market the appropriate service. It’s important to know what your customers needs are otherwise you’ll waste valuable time marketing services that they don’t need.

7 – Video

Video is fast becoming one of the best mediums for online communication. Video is great at holding the attention of your prospects which makes it an ideal addition to a sales page. When it comes to your call to actions, you’ve got two choices when pairing with videos.

The first choice is to include a clickable annotation actually in the video itself and in the description below if hosting the video on Youtube. If you’re embedding the video on your site the clickable annotations should still work.

The second option is to embed a video on a specific landing page and keep a text CTA within view at all times. As soon as your prospect is sold, they’ll have the CTA there ready for them.

8 – Anxiety Busters

Whether marketing your service to a large corporation or individual consumers, there’s always a shared concern. Price. Your prospects want to make sure they’re not getting ripped off, it’s up to you allay their fears and destroy any anxiety they might have.

One of the easiest ways to do the is to offer a free handout or trial of the product to remove any worry.

Netflix is the most recognised online streaming service. With a reputation like there’s you’d think there’d be no need to offer a free service. Despite their reputation everyone is offered one free month which is obviously working well for them as it’s raised them to the top of their industry.

Amazon Prime is another subscription service which offers the first month for free. The try-before-you-buy scheme is obviously a hugely popular method if two of the world’s most popular services are using it. The Amazon example is particularly good as it also outlines the various benefits included in membership.

9 – One Product – One CTA

There’s a common belief that if you pepper your site with call to actions you’re more likely to get a new subscriber or purchase. Unfortunately it’s just not true. If you clutter your website with numerous CTAs your prospects aren’t going to know where to look and which offer is the best for them.

Keep your sales pages simple and only offer one CTA for each  product you offer.

Whilst not a real web page, this call to action example from Content Gems displays exactly what not to do. Too many CTAs causes confusion and will likely result in your prospect leaving before clicking anything.

There’s a world of difference when comparing to this landing page from Unbounce. There’s no question of the offer on sale or what you have to do to get it. It works because it’s simple.

10 – Tiered options

When you’re offering a product sometimes you’ll have different levels or tiers available. A lot of marketers tend to focus on only the highest or lowest price as they think that’s what will best appeal to their market.

However, your prospects aren’t likely to just buy the first product they see. They’ll shop around and do their research. They’ll be doing their own research so help them understand exactly what’s on offer. They’ll be grateful for the help and you might convince one or two to jump up o the next level.

Once again Unbounce does a great job of clearly outlining what you’ll get in every level. There’s no confusion and you’ll be able to easily pick which level is right for you. They’ve even taken the step of recommending and highlighting the ‘pro’ level which immediately draws the eye away from the lower (and higher) priced options.

Leadpages have taken a similar approach but have instead chosen to use a checklist of sorts. This makes it even simpler to compare the three levels and find exactly which one is best for you. It’s a great example of making the selection as easy as possible for your prospect.

So there we go. 10 tips with 20 call to action examples. Is there anything we’ve missed, or have you seen some awesome results after introducing one of the above methods?