10 tips to create a winning call-to-action (CTA)

3. Make sure your CTAs include a value proposition

Every time you include a CTA on your website it’s because you want something from your website visitor – a purchase, an email sign-up, filling out a contact form etc. However, that’s a very one-sided relationship and you have to consider what is in it for the customer. Why should they give you their contact details, attention or money?

This is where value comes into a CTA. Your CTA should offer your reader something they want and you should make this value explicit in your CTA. Consider a CTA for a newsletter; ‘Subscribe to our newsletter’ tells the reader what you want, but offers them nothing in return. However, ‘Subscribe to our newsletter for monthly offers and insights’, indicates a benefit to the reader from the action.

4. Make your CTA a button

Making your CTA a clickable button is a great way of prompting action from your website visitors. A study by Leighton Interactive found that button CTAs performed better than any other type of CTA, with an average click-through rate (CTR) of 5.31%, compared to an average CTR of 4.23% across all types of CTA. 

5. Don’t rely on a single CTA

If your website only contains a single CTA at the bottom of the page there’s a good chance that the majority of your website visitors won’t even see it. You should use CTAs throughout your web page, with a primary CTA above the fold (in or near your hero image) and repeater CTAs at key intervals. This will mean that casual browsers will always have a CTA near the section of your website they are looking at.

6. Use colour creatively and carefully!

We’ve written previously about the psychology of colour and its role in website design and branding. You may be surprised to learn that the colour of your CTAs can make a huge difference. Performable.com experienced a 21% increase in conversions by changing their call to action button colour from green to red. When RIPT clothing company switched their CTAs from green to yellow they secured a 6.3% increase in sales. 

The exact colour combination that will work best for you is likely to be influenced by your overall brand identity colours and web page design. However, Neil Patel reports that in testing environments bright primary and secondary colours rank best for conversions. Red, orange and yellow are therefore much better at securing a conversion than darker blacks, greys, browns or purples.

7. Engage your reader

ClickMeeting report that writing calls-to-action in the first person can increase conversions. They recommend using terms like “Start My Free Trial” rather than “Start Your Free Trial” to make the CTA more relatable.

You should also make sure that your CTA language matches your brand and style. Consider this playful CTA by Innocent drinks for their social media channels:

Give us a follow

We write a lot of nonsense on social media. Some of it's even about our drinks.

Give us a follow and there’s a 32% chance you won’t regret it.

The language is humorous and whimsical and perfectly matches their brand.

8. Focus on the whole webpage

There’s no point in having a great CTA if the page it’s on isn’t making a great impression. Research outlined in the Journal of Behaviour and Information Technology indicates that users take about 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) to form an opinion on a website. What’s more, HubSpot reports that 38% of website users will stop engaging if faced with unattractive content.

To get people to engage with your CTA it’s vital, therefore, that your homepage or landing page delivers. Use bold visuals and an engaging headline and make text easy to scan with headings, subheadings and clear paragraphs.

For more on this, check out our blog post on 7 web design and copywriting tips to create the perfect homepage.

9. Personalise your calls to action

Website personalisation tools allow businesses to provide a tailored browsing experience. With personalisation, you can display different content to different customers based on their location, demographics, purchase history or when they visit your website. 

In a study of 330,000 CTAs, HubSpot reported that personalised calls to action performed 202% better than a basic CTA. A personalised CTA is more appealing because it uses data like location or shopping history to engage with the user more directly, giving the feeling of a tailored experience.

We are big believers in the power of website personalisation. To learn more, check out our website personalisation page or our blog post on using website personalisation to increase conversions.

10. Test, test test!

Creating the perfect CTA isn’t easy and what works for one business may not work for another. Our single biggest piece of advice is that whatever you’re trying, make sure you test it! Experimenting with different CTA styles, language, colours, designs and formats will help you to discover what works best for your customers.

Get help with your CTAs!



Our web design and copywriting team can come to the rescue if you’re struggling with your CTAs. We can create effective CTAs that draw the reader in with their design and wording. To find out more, contact us in Exeter today.