Among legal websites, perhaps even more than other types of webpages, a strong call to action can be one of the most important elements of successful lead generation. Because of this, a call to action should be used in every single marketing tactic you employ. If you want to ensure your firm’s website is having the desired results, ask yourself what call to action you are implementing in order to drive user’s behavior. Hopefully your web pages are full of great content, exemplary headlines, prime keywords, excellent design and the kind of easy-to-use navigation which makes your users happy. Even if your pages implement all these elements, without a strong call to action your users will be unable to get to the final “goal.” In other words, you need to ensure you have let your users clearly know what you want them to do.
Laying the Groundwork
Before your user can be convinced to complete a call to action they must fully recognize the need. In other words, a problem must have been presented, and the call to action link will presumably solve that problem. Depending on your firm’s specializations and goals, you may have more than one action you want your visitor’s to take. You may want them to request a free consultation, sign up for your newsletters through e-mail and download a particularly informative whitepaper. If this is the case, prioritize your action calls, and give the most important one both a bigger size and more prominent placement. Further distinguish between your action calls by varying the color. Don’t, however, allow yourself to diminish the importance of the call to action by having too many of them—when people are presented too many choices they tend to leave without choosing any of them.
Design of the Call to Action
Strong calls to action should be located below the contact form and should integrate a strongly-colored link or button to ensure they are easily identifiable. As far as the exact color goes, while some marketers believe a red call to action will significantly increase click-through rates, others believe the color should be determined by your context. In other words, although the color should contrast to the colors around it in order to make it stand out, you nonetheless want it to fit in with the overall color scheme and design of your site. Although the link or button should be large enough to spot easily, you shouldn’t determine the size independently of other factors since it is related to the context on your web pages.
Allow some white space around your call to action in order to avoid it appearing overcrowded and ultimately to attract more attention. The most effective placement for your call to action link will depend on what surrounds it, so test various positions to ensure you’ve located the sweet spot. An unconventional shape can attract your reader’s attention plus you may want to avoid the more traditional square corners lest your visitors view your call to action as an ad or banner and avoid it. Experiment with out of the ordinary shapes for your site’s call to action. Some of the best calls to action will give the visitor a sense of direction through an arrow which points to them and while graphics are important, generally speaking those who are looking for information are searching for text.
Language
You need to use specific language when designing your call to action. Active words such as “call,” “register,” “subscribe,” “click here,” “free whitepaper,” “order now,” “sign up today,” “free download” and “more info here,” all work well in calls to action. Once you realize how important your call to action really is, you will begin to put the necessary thought into it.
