The main goal for any business website is to convert users into leads, leads into customers and then customers into promoters.

Regardless of what type of website you have – it could be a blog, an e-commerce or a portfolio – the whole point of it is to draw your users in and tell them why they need you.

Luckily, this is where a CTA, or call-to-action, comes in that encourages visitors to take the next steps you want them to take.

Typically, CTAs are a button with a piece of text, image or graphic for them to click on to do something like signing up to a newsletter, registering for an event or making a purchase.

And so, these buttons need to be designed carefully to catch their eye and grab their attention. Otherwise they have no reason to interact and engage with your company and brand.

With that said, CTAs cannot follow a “one-size-fits-all” model; it needs to be unique to your website.

Luckily, there are a number of different types of CTAs that you can use throughout your website specific to each page your visitors are landing on. CTAs are not just important on your homepage, but they should be used on product pages, about us pages, pricing pages etc.

And if crafted properly, your website will be easier to navigate and serve different audiences and their goals to carry them down your marketing funnel.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s take a look at 5 different types of CTAs you should be using throughout your website.

Lead Generation

CTAs are essential if you want to generate leads from your website.

Ultimately, you’ll want to turn new visitors into leads, so these need to be placed in those parts of your website they are looking at the most – your analytics will tell you this.

Generally speaking, the most popular places businesses tend to put this type of CTA is at the end of their blog posts, in the sidebar or even a floating banner in the corner of the page.

To be effective, these CTAs must be eye-catching and clearly communicate the value your visitor will get by clicking on it; they should know exactly what to expect.

Some examples of this type of CTA are “start a free trial”, “download a free ebook” or “request an appointment today”.

On the topic of leads, if you would like to convert more of them into clients, you may find our video useful:

Read/Learn More

At times, your goal might be to pull people deeper into your website because many visitors will not be ready to buy from you straightaway – you need to earn their trust.

And there’s going to be extra information they want and need, questions that need addressing before they’re 100% sure they want to make a purchase.

In particular, let’s take your homepage. If you have multiple products or services on offer, or there are various features to a single thing you’re offering, visitors will not always know what they’re interested in so you can invite them to “learn more”.

This type of CTA is very common and for good reason too: it allows for more content to be featured on the more, but “learn more” or “read more” buttons help make your engaging posts get the attention needed. In addition, these CTAs ensure people click on your site to read posts instead of just scrolling down so the page itself gets credited with its own traffic, great for SEO.

Subscribe to Newsletters

The clue is in the name – this CTA is used to get visitors to subscribe to your newsletter.

However, if your button literally only says “subscribe to our newsletter!”, your visitors are just going to be thinking, “Well, I already receive dozens of newsletters in my emails a day that I don’t read. This is a new website, I don’t even know what they’re about.”

Yes, newsletter CTAs are important on websites but they need to be created properly to be effective. It needs to tell your visitors that it’s worth it, so you could incentivise people by offering them exclusive offers or extra content they wouldn’t get otherwise.

At this point, your visitors are super close to becoming a lead and you don’t want them to fall through the cracks with a poorly designed button. They’ll typically be required to fill out a field (or multiple), like an email address and then click a button to submit their contact information and to make it more actionable, you could put “join the 17,123 users who receive new marketing tips every month”, for example.

Event Promotion

If you’re planning an event, be it online or in-person, you’re going to want people to attend.

And using an event promotion CTA will help spread the word about it and even help drive ticket sales.

What’s great is that you can use this type of CTA anywhere on your website according to the type of audience you’re trying to get to attend. 

For example, if you’re trying to get existing customers to come along, this could be placed on a login page or on the page where you give them an order confirmation. On the other hand, if you’re trying to target leads then this CTA could pop up whilst they’re reading a blog.

Purchase

If you run an e-commerce site, sell software or other service packages, you’ll probably want people to make a purchase directly from your website.

In terms of this type of CTA, the way it’s designed will depend on the type of product or service you’re trying to sell as well as your website itself.

For instance, an e-commerce site would need to allow visitors to have a browse through their products and could include multiple “add to cart” buttons, whereas a website that sells software may have different plan levels that need different CTAs for each one.

Simply, when you’re trying to close a sale the CTA button should make a single offer but where that isn’t possible, try to draw attention to your ideal products/services. 

The Takeaway

As your business grows and your website becomes more complex, you’ll have to change up your CTAs to appeal to each audience. All in all, your goal is to push newcomers through their buying journey as well as keeping those who actively interact with your brand engaged. 

Please get in touch to find out more.

In the meantime, please check our digital marketing services and find out how we can help.