DAY #2: OPTIMIZING YOUR CALL TO ACTIONS
Your call to action is what takes someone from being interested in your offer, to actually taking your offer. A small change to your call to action can boost your conversions by as much as 200%. So, how do you optimize your call to actions?
Spy on Your Competitors’ Call to Actions
A good place to look for information on what call to actions to use is to do a little bit of competitive spying. Specifically, try to find out what call to actions your competitors have used in the past – and what they’re using now. In other words, you want to figure out what they’ve already tested. If they tested it and stopped using it, chances are it didn’t work for them. You can save yourself the time and money and skip that test as well.
Use the Way Back Machine to see older versions of your competitors’ websites. See which call to actions they’ve tested, which ones they’ve discarded and which ones they’ve kept.
Location, Location, Location
Where should you place your call to action?
- If you’re running an information-based websites, such as a blog, you’ll want your call to action in multiple places. For instance, you might have a call to action in the right sidebar, at the bottom of each article and in a hover-over box that appears after 60 seconds.
- If you’re selling a high ticket item, your call to action should only appear after you’ve demonstrated the value of your product. In other words, it should appear later on in the sales process.
- If you’re running an eCommerce website, try to mimic Amazon.com’s placements. Amazon.com “trains” consumers in what to expect from eCommerce sites. Loosely following Amazon’s layouts will generally result in a conversion boost.
- If you’re selling through a salesletter, you can either place multiple calls to actions throughout the page, or save them until the very end. Typically, lower priced “impulse buy” items should have the buy button early on as well as later in the copy. Higher priced or complicated to explain products should have the button lower.
What’s Around the Call to Action
The details that surround your call to action matter. For example, Amazon.com says “FREE Shipping on orders over $35” next to their buy button. Zappos says “Ships Free!” You can bet both of these companies have tested this text extensively.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”5908″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Near buy buttons, reinforcing guarantees or unique selling points (like free shipping) works very well. Near email signup boxes, a reminder that they won’t be spammed or that their information is private works very well.
The Call to Action Itself
Finally, make sure to continually test your actual call to action. That means the button shape, the button color, the button size and the text inside the button. We’ve created a call to action swipe file to help get you started but do check your competition as well.
For ideas on what to test check out WhichTestWon.com to see a few examples of blogs that regularly publish results from call to action split tests. Look for websites that are similar to your own, see what they tested and see if you can apply similar tests to your website.
Your Assignment
- Spy on your competitors with Way Back Machine to see what call to actions they have previous used as well as what they are testing now.
- Add those to the call to action swipe file we provided you.
- Write some new call to actions to test on your own website.
- Determine the optimum location for your call to action links and place them there.
- Review your stats to check if sales or opt-ins increase
What We’ve Covered
Day #1: Examine Your Audience and Your Core Offer
Day #2: Optimizing Your Call to Actions
Coming Up
Day #3: Improve Your Lead Forms and Increase Signups
Day #4: Your Headline – Your Page’s Most Important Sentence
Day #5: Keep Attention With Strong Transitions
Day #6: Web Design Tips for Better Conversions
Day #7: Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment by Improving Your Checkout
Day #8: Boost Conversions by Managing Expectation and Relevance
Day #9: Master the Art of Creating Urgency
Day #10: Use Video to Boost Trust and Conversions
Day #11: Add Social Proof to Your Sales Process
Day #12: Accessibility Makes You Real (and Improves Sales)
Day #13: Tailoring Your Guarantee and Return Policy
Day #14: Getting Started With A/B Split Testing
Day #15: More Ideas for Better Conversions