CTA Best Practices: Placement
Content marketing isn’t usually a light task. With so much focus on generating traffic from various sources, it can be easy to overlook optimizing your calls to action (CTAs)—or even remembering to include them altogether. Here are some of the most successful CTA-optimization tactics I’ve seen:
1. Use a CTA in the Header of Your Template
Of course, ideal CTA placement varies from site to site, but this tip has yet to fail me: Use a header CTA to guide your readers to the action you desire. Header CTAs include the following attributes:
- A header CTA stretches the entire width of the content of the page (or close to it).
- A header CTA is positioned toward the very top of the page, usually below or above the navigation bar.
Here is an example of a page that looks attractive, but could benefit from the addition of a header CTA (and sidebar CTA, for that matter)
This page looks good but doesn’t make it easy for consumers to buy from Udi’s. For example, let’s pretend this post featured gluten-free bread, a product that Udi’s sells. I could do a search for “gluten-free bread,” land on this post and see nothing satisfying my immediate desire. If I were really determined, I may try the “products” link in the navigation bar but it’s more likely I would give up and try another site. There is no visible call to action.
2. Stop Coming Up with Excuses
If you’re thinking, “Lee, putting a CTA in the sidebar and/or the header is way too salesy. We don’t want to come across as too salesy on our blog,” then:
- You are part of a super-small segment of online businesses whose visitors would actually find an offer from the company whose site they are visiting “offensive.”
- Your past CTAs have been terrible, and you need to figure out something you can offer your visitors that is mutually beneficial. (How about signing people up to receive your e-newsletter?)
- You are one of those touchy-feely people who make decisions based solely on feelings, and you need to realize that in your quest to not offend your online visitors, you are actually making life worse for them.
When is the last time you walked into the grocery store and felt offended that they were selling groceries just inside the door? How many service companies have you blacklisted because they offered to send you a monthly e-newsletter when you stopped by asking for advice on a project? The idea is absurd.
Flip the scenario around. What if you walked into a hardware store, and they hid all of the merchandise behind a tiny door in the back that you had to crawl through? How frustrating would that be? Don’t make this mistake in your online storefront. Even if you aren’t B2C, you likely have some information you can offer your visitors that will be valuable to them. For example, if your sales cycle involves heavy research for your prospects, offer downloadable guides, white papers, e-books, videos, etc. Create content that meets your customers’ and prospects’ needs, and then offer it to them on all of your main Web pages via highly visible CTAs.
3. Here Is What Proven Success Looks Like
Several of my clients have more than doubled their CTA click-through rate by adding a CTA to the header of their template. These clients saw strong results with the simple addition of a well-placed CTA. How could a strategically positioned CTA improve responses on your site?
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