There are two main components to online marketing. The first is to drive traffic to your website and the second is to convert this traffic into customers. If you are having difficulty converting traffic then perhaps you need to review your websites call to actions (CTAs). Calls to actions can appear as buttons, links or even images and are most often located on a landing page. These calls to action are designed to motivate your site visitors to take a desired action which could be anything from a newsletter signup, content download or placement of an order, to registering details for an event or to view a video, the list goes on.

Calls to action often form the heart of a website, it’s the marketing end goal after all, so becoming familiar with what works and what doesn’t will go a long way towards getting visitors clicking and boosting conversion rates. The following slide identifies 20 critical dos and don’ts for creating compelling calls to action. A few of our favourites are:

#2 Do place your calls to action above the fold and within the visitors eye path. This supports eye tracking research indicating that users spend 80% of their time viewing information above the page fold, or without having to take further action. So if your CTA is below the fold, it’s likely to be missed completely.

#13 Do use CTAs in everything your do; email campaigns, blog sites, social media and thank you pages. Failing to include CTAs in all your online activity means you are missing further opportunity to convert the viewer.

#14 Do experiment with and A/B test your calls to action. Testing and refining your CTA’s with varying design, copy and placement will help you to discover what works best for your site visitors. Familiarize yourself with the rest of this list and revise your CTAs today.

20 Do's & Don'ts for Clickable Calls-to-Action from HubSpot All-in-one Marketing Software