Tips to Make Your CTA Button Work 10X Harder

CTAs are among the top 3 most essential elements of a landing page. Of course, after the headline and subheading.

Find out how to optimize your call to action to get more customers.

A visitor cannot convert online by clicking the CTA.

After putting in all the work to overcome objections and anxieties, highlighting the value of your solution brings it down to that single action of clicking the CTA by your visitor.

A call to action represents your page and your visitor's entire goal.

Most SaaS founders don't focus on optimizing CTA or vaguely understand the concept of optimizing it. After all, it is just a tiny button. 

However, if not actively converting, CTA can get in the way of conversion if you are making some mistakes. 

Before you can solve these mistakes, you must know what they are. Some of them are

• They don't suggest or speak to the value of taking action.
• They don't reflect the visitor's motivation or goal.
• They imply work without giving reasons why the result is worth it.
• Not using contrasting colors with the landing page.
• Having too many buttons or putting the CTA with other buttons 

The principles of writing a good CTA 

Before we jump into the tips and tricks of writing a solid CTA, here are some rules. Keeping them in mind while writing your CTA will significantly help craft a compelling CTA. 

1. Lead with a known, familiar verb.
2. Use prepositions (for, to) or articles (a the) to avoid sounding like a robot. 
3. Don't be generic, be specific with your word choice.
4. Speak to the desire of your prospect.
5. Consider the heading of the page you are driving them to 
6. Place the CTA under important places 
7. Giving instant gratification

CTA is about simplicity, context and personalization.

What makes a good CTA

You have used the principles of writing a CTA. Now, you will have a button that invites and amplifies the reasons for moving forward. 

Let's understand this perspective.

When writing a CTA, most of us amplify the ACT, but when you position it as VALUE.

It becomes something positive to the visitors and gives more reasons to proceed. 

Make your CTAs speak to the value of moving forward.

Your visitors face anxiety when clicking any button. 

There are a lot of weird and scammy websites out there, and your visitors are well aware of them. 

The senses are already ingrained in them if they will give your site the trust and the time by putting up their information and converting. 

On top of that, people are very skeptical about new startups. They are unsure if they will get what the site claims to give, if not better, which is why the perception of the value of their offer needs to overcome all the anxieties of every visitor they have. 

It is impossible to go through all the anxieties, and they differ for different industries, but there are the important ones that I listed down. 

• How long has the company been around?
• Why should I listen to them? 
• If I install this free download, am I installing a virus or spyware?
• If I give my email, are they going to spam me?
• How secure will my account be? 
• Why do I need to create an account at all?
• When I sign up using my Facebook account, how much data am I transferring to this company?

How to reduce anxiety

Since we talk about anxieties, we must discuss how to remove them. The most obvious way to do this is by researching your audience and your competitor's site. 

Competitor research will help you pinpoint the similar anxieties you will try to overcome. Be aware of the offers that they have near their CTA. 

I use this technique a lot, and I have found some standard practices that brands use.

Use these near your CTA to overcome anxieties instantly

1. Testimonials 
2. Auntorittity credibility 
3. Message personalization 
4. Money back guarantee 
5. Credible logos
6. Using company information
7. Multiple sign-in options 
8. Address what's included in the free trial. 
9. Social proof 
10. Click triggers 

Click triggers require a bit of definition. 

A click trigger is any message positioned near a critical call to action to compel people to click the button. 

Optimize also for your Lizard brain. 

We are all part of the animal kingdom. As much as we are evolved, we still have a part of our brain that has animal instincts. 

The instinct comes from a part of our brain called the lizard brain. 

Your lizard brain doesn't read or reason. It reacts to stimulation (color, noise) for survival. 

Our lizard brain kicks in naturally, even when interacting with a website. As copywriters, we must hack the copy for the lizard brain too.

The best way to optimize the lizard brain is to make the action frictionless. 

Here are some ways to optimize it for the lizard brain. 

1. Use the contrasting button. Contrast is what the lizard brain craves. 
2. Tell your visitors explicitly what they need to do or go. 
3. Keep the number of options small (3-4)
4. Outline the CTA. 

You must understand that you can't use all the techniques I have discussed. Use them smartly by figuring out what your visitors need within the context of your brand. However, even if you could use one of these, you will have a CTA that is very highly converting.

The basis of all these is not to make the visitors think and to make the conversion effortless.