How Much Could Poor CTAs Be Costing Your ECommerce Business?
There was a time when if you had a product or a service that was worth selling, you’d had to spend a fortune on overheads, setting up your own physical store or practice, or sell your products on to a store chain who would offer you a pittance compared to what they would make on your product. In the digital age, however, would-be entrepreneurs are more empowered than ever. They can build their own enterprises from scratch from home and sell directly to the consumer, ensuring that their profits are their own and that they’re able to grow their own loyal following on the merit of their ideas, their presence and their personality.
Yet, while our online presence can lead us to sustained and ongoing success, it’s a rich tapestry encompassing your website, your mobile apps and your social media. Many younger entrepreneurs may argue that we’re in the post website age while we may agonize over what to post or not post on our Instagram feed, who to follow on Twitter or what warrants sharing on Facebook, we mustn’t forget the fundamentals of website design. Here we’re going to look at one of the most understated yet important aspects of User Experience (UX), which is essential in driving conversion rates. We’re going to look at the humble CTA or Call To Action.
What is a Call To Action, and why does it make such a difference?
Your Call To Action is something that guides users through your website and subtly leads them to the action you want them to take. They take many forms. For example an anchor text link is an example of a CTA. The “Click Here” on a button is an example of a CTA. The great thing about a CTA is that it can go anywhere; in your landing page, in a blog post, on your Facebook page or wherever you want to influence user behavior in a particular way. Of course not all CTAs are created equal but here are some encouraging statistics that speak to their efficacy;
- The presence of a CTA on an opt-in email increases clicks by 371% and sales by 1617%.
- Adding a CTA to your Facebook page can increase click-through rate by up to 285%.
- More than 90% of visitors who read your headline will also read your CTA copy.
What’s the difference between a good CTA and a bad CTA?
So while CTAs are a great tool in facilitating conversions and lowering bounce rates, they are not all equally effective. The size, shape, color and positioning of a CTA are very important, but often the difference between a good CTA and a bad CTA is merely a matter of wording. Look at this example. In promoting a free e-book to users, two subtly different CTAs were used; Version A “Get It Now” and Version B “Grab Yours Today”. As you can see version B offers a far greater sense of immediacy and implies limited availability although neither is actually true; an e-book can be replicated an infinite number of times and can stay available for as long as you want it to.
In the above example, Version B had a conversion rate 5% higher than Version A. With that in mind, how much could poor CTAs be costing your business?