'Forget Calls-to-Action, Focus on Obvious Next Steps.

As much as I wish that were true, here’s the reality as I’ve learned…Focusing on the the “call-to-action” is usually a waste of time, and can even result in lower conversion rates.

By taking a slightly different approach, you can actually multiply your user or customer acquisition rates instead of wasting time playing with button colors.

The Problem With Calls-to-Action

You can follow all the best practices for CTA buttons and still see no improvement in conversion rates. That’s because all those best practices talk about an ideal button — its color, text size, phrasing, etc — and rarely say anything about the button’s surroundings. And yet, the surroundings of a CTA make all the difference.

A Solution: Ridiculously Obvious Next Step

My proposed solution is to forget about the “CTA” entirely and instead focus on giving the visitor a ridiculously obvious next step.

At every point along your conversion process — whether it’s a multi-step sign-up form, or a checkout, or a product onboarding — make the next step ridiculously obvious to your visitors. Why “ridiculously”? Because what’s obvious to you may not be obvious to your visitors, so make it ridiculously obvious to be sure.

How to make the next step a ridiculously obvious one:

• Make it prominent. Whichever element the next step involves — such as a checkout button or a contact form — make it ridiculously more prominent than anything else on the page. If you can’t spot your checkout button from across the room at 25% zoom, then it’s not prominent enough.
• Limit the alternatives. Submitting an order from the checkout page isn’t a ridiculouslyobvious next step until you remove the site navigation. On the homepage, remove every non-essential link such as press releases or event calendars.
• Match it to the users’ intention. It’s easy to make someone take the next step when it’s what they came to do. For example, if a visitor is on your trial sign-up page, make signing up for the trial an obvious next step by removing everything but the sign-up form and some benefits about the trial. (If you’re thinking this is silly, go check the exit rate of your sign-up page right now.)
• Avoid ambiguity. Be clear about what the next step involves. Avoid non-specific buttons such as “Sign Up.” “Submit,” or “Continue.”

When in doubt, go for drastic changes and A/B test against the original!

How to Use This Information

• When discussing or starting a conversion optimization project, think about providing a ridiculously obvious next step instead of focusing on the CTA alone.
• The easiest place to start is on a page where the next step should be obvious, such as sign up forms and checkout pages. Follow the above examples to come up with a version of the page with a ridiculously obvious next step, and run an A/B test to measure the effect.
• Don’t be timid. If checking out from a checkout page wasn’t obvious before, it’ll take more than a touch-up to make it a ridiculously obvious. Start with drastic variations, and optimize the small details later.
• Share this post with your colleagues. Not only to improve their conversion rates — although they’ll still thank you for that — but also so we can stop thinking of conversion optimization as playing with button colors and other nonsense.'-Grigoriy Kogan

https://www.gkogan.co/blog/ridiculously-obvious-next-step/?utm_content=buffer5ed7c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Take the ridiculously obvious next step.-Mike Friend

Mike Friend is a Digital Marketing Consultant and the National Sales Director for "TOM." TOM is a top ranked, results-based digital marketing firm whose client list includes Fortune 500 and Nasdaq companies and growth oriented small businesses. Mike can be reached on Linked-in and through two TOM websites:

www.tomorrowsonlinemarketing.com

https://ppc-management-pros.com/