The call to action is one of the most important elements of your website design and definitely should not be overlooked. This week in the “Dissecting Your Website” series, we’ll be talking about some best practices for call to action items on your website. If you want to start from the beginning, be sure to also check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 first!
A call to action item is a link or button on your website that encourages your viewers to become leads by filling out a form online. The most effective buttons should:
- Start with a verb, be action-oriented
- Be short and to the point
- Make it clear what will happen when clicked
- Draw your eye without distracting from the main message of the page
For our Essential Attorneys, great call to action options would be something like “Request a Consultation”, “Contact Our Office”, or “Register for a Workshop”. These all start with an action, are brief, and clearly explain what you are about to do. Your viewers will also feel like they are getting something of value (a consultation, information, personal interaction) in exchange for giving you their contact info.
The way the call to action buttons are designed is also very important. They should stand out, but still coordinate and not detract from or cheapen your brand message. Flashing buttons and marquees are not what we are going for! Through careful placement, layout, font choice, size and color, the design team at IMS will make sure that your audience knows what you want them to do next. It is also a good idea to have your top-priority call to action item located in the hero section on the website. It can often be a good compliment to your tagline and we want to make sure it can be seen it right away. Stick to just one primary call to action item – the more you add, the more diluted and ineffective they become.
But what if you really want to feature more than one area of your practice or call to action item? The best solution in this situation is to still pick just one as your primary call to action item to focus on. Then feature the rest in a section just below the hero section. I also like to design this second set a little differently so that the primary item still stands out the most.
For an example of these principles in action, take a look at IMS President Kyle Krull’s new website. Here, “Request a Consultation” is the primary call to action. It is action-oriented, very clear and to the point, and is designed a little differently than the three buttons below.
Next week: In our next stop in this series, we’ll talk about something a little more personal – the welcome message! Why is the welcome message so important, anyway?