It doesn’t matter how awesome your landing page is, how compelling the copy, or how attractive the offer; if you don’t have a strong call to action, you won’t convert nearly as many customers as you could (or rather: should).
In fact, just one small mistake and you could be haemorrhaging potential money for your business…
Fortunately, we’ve gone to the trouble of compiling these common mistakes into a list, for your convenience.
1. Non-responsive Design
Well over 50% of web traffic comes from mobile devices and if your landing pages have not been optimised accordingly with a responsive design, you’ll be turning a lot of prospective customers off!
People like to say “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but they do (yourself included).
Trying to navigate a non-responsive landing page on a mobile phone is not ideal. Make sure yours is on point.
2. A Vague Button Or No Text
Simply having a button that says “CLICK HERE” is not enough to compel your readers to take action. The same applies with having a nice big button with no text at all.
If you want to encourage your prospects to take action, you need to be crystal-clear about what action they are going to take – and indeed what they’ll get out of it.
3. Poor Placement
Where your CTA is positioned on your landing page will have a huge impact on the number of people who click through and convert.
If you are going to have multiple CTAs on one page (which is not uncommon), then you must ensure that the most important CTA of all takes the prominent position.
In fact, if you ensure that your CTA is placed in a very prominent position on your page, you can increase conversions by up to 62%! That’s a whopping statistic.
4. Too Many CTAs
Whilst on the subject of having multiple CTAs, there is such a thing as including too many on a landing page.
And that’s not just having two or more of the same CTA, but having different CTAs as well (for example, “BUY NOW” and “CLAIM YOUR FREE EBOOK”).
Keep it simple. One CTA to one landing page – with multiple positions if necessary.
5. The CTA Is Not Aligned With The Page Itself
You also need to make sure that the messaging on your landing page matches that of your emails and ads – and indeed the aesthetics.
For example, if someone clicks on a bright and vibrant advert with witty copy, and then they come to a landing page with a totally different style of language and colour scheme, it’s going to cause unnecessary confusion.
Everything should be synced up and on-brand if you wish to deliver a consistent message. Meet your prospect’s expectations and demonstrate that you can be relied upon.
6. The CTA Blends In
A CTA should be designed to capture attention immediately! If it’s either too small, bland, or poorly positioned, many of your prospects are going to skip right past it.
Similarly, if they like what they read on your landing page and wish to take the next steps, if they have trouble finding a CTA, you’ll invariably lose them.
Create the path of least resistance and ensure that your CTAs jump out from the page!
7. Wrong Wording
Another very important consideration is your language choice when creating your CTA.
Remember, you want to make this as appealing to your prospects as possible, which means doing away with “friction words” and using compelling language that suggests an effortless next step instead.
Here are some examples of friction words:
- Submit
- Buy
- Sign up
- Download
While they might seem accurate enough, these words imply that effort is required to proceed. Instead, consider using language like:
- Earn
- Reveal
- Check out
- Get
Furthermore, using third-person words such as “My” rather than “Yours” can boost conversions by upwards of 24%!
8. Unnecessarily Long Contact Forms
Earlier we mentioned creating “the path of least resistance”. This is critical in digital marketing.
The modern consumer is very time-sensitive and would prefer not to have to sit and fill out an unnecessarily long and complicated contact form.
The shorter the form: the higher the conversions.
Yes, you understandably want to qualify your leads as thoroughly as possible, however, if that means losing out on a number of potentially golden prospects, then it is an expensive qualification process.
Gather the basics and fill in the gaps later. Sure, you may end up jumping on a Zoom call with a few time wasters now and again, however, so long as you get your messaging right and have geared it towards your ideal customer, you shouldn’t be attracting too many irrelevant prospects.
Keep it simple.
9. No Mention Of The Benefits
Far too many business owners fail to mention the benefits when writing their CTAs. It’s not just about what action you want them to take – but what they get out of it!
This agency offer digital marketing services and they have an awesome CTA at the bottom of their landing page: “Let’s increase your sales!”
Simple and attractive. Who doesn’t want more sales, right?
Ditch the usual “eye-roll-worthy” CTAs that we encounter every day and go for something a little different. Something benefit-focused.
10. You Are Trying To Guilt Trip Them
People like offers, discounts, and benefits. They want to be made to feel positive about the future and what might be gained from working with you.
The guilt trips though? That’s a sure-fire way to put your hot prospects off immediately.
It’s a dated sales strategy that has very little success when used on the modern consumer. Our advice? Avoid it entirely!
Remember, you are giving them an opportunity – not making them feel obligated with negative language.
Your prospects owe you nothing. All they ask from you is honesty, transparency, and a positive / exciting CTA!
Keep it light and your conversions will reflect that.
Final Thoughts
Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the immense value that a well optimised call to action can bring your business.
Every single conversion counts and when such subtle changes can increase the chance of converting your traffic by so much, it is worth laboring over them.
Let’s have a quick recap of what we’ve learned:
- Make sure your landing page is mobile-responsive.
- Write clear and concise CTA text.
- Get your placement/s right!
- Don’t include too many CTAs. Find the balance.
- Ensure that your landing page is aligned with your emails and adverts. Keep the language, tone, and design consistent with your branding.
- Make your CTA pop!
- Use the appropriate language (non-friction words that imply very little effort).
- Keep your sign-up forms short and simple. “Path of least resistance.”
- Highlight the benefits that can be yielded by taking action (e.g., “Let’s increase your sales!”).
- Don’t try and guilt-trip them; keep your call to action light-hearted and positive.
And there we have it! If you can implement these x 10 key points into your CTAs, we are certain that you will notice a huge difference in the number of people converting into customers.
If you aren’t quite convinced on one or two of these points, why not try split-testing your landing pages, make the appropriate changes, and see what works best for you?
In any case, we hope that you have found this article insightful and that you’ve gained some handy tips to take your CTA game to even greater heights!