A strong call to action is one of the most important aspects when it comes to increasing conversions on your Shopify store. But the difference between a good call to action and a great one isn't just rephrasing wording on a button -- it comes down to the content leading up to the call to action, matching your brand's tone, using attention grabbing graphics & colors, along with the language and offer that is presented.
First, we need to understand what a call to action is. A call to action is a prompt that encourages the reader or viewer to take a specific action. This could be anything from signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or simply clicking a button to learn more. CTAs are essential for guiding your audience towards the next step in their journey with your brand.
Take a quick look at our tips for creating effective call to actions on your Shopify store:
1. Create engaging content before & after the call to action
A call to action without providing any context to your offer is meaningless. It's extremely important that by the time your call to action comes around, your customers know exactly what they're signing up for.
This last month, we launched a brand for a client that sells a high-ticket item; an item that most people will not purchase without a good amount of research. Unlike an impulse buy (something under $30 that most people are able to purchase without it effecting them financially), this product required text-heavy FAQs, videos & more to fully bring people on board with the vision & understand the product before placing an order.
If we had just thrown up a simple picture of the product along with a generic call to action button, absolutely no one would have clicked it. There wouldn't have been enough context for customers to understand the product, let alone determine if it was the right product for them.
Now, there's a balance to this. Being too content heavy before the call to action will almost always lead to someone not getting through the content and therefore never seeing your call to action.
2. Use action-oriented language that matches your brand's tone
People want to click something that excites them. A button that simply says "Buy this" is never going to be as engaging as something like "Ready for liftoff? Initiate launch sequence!"
This is where you can get creative with your language and call to action buttons & links. Make sure your button language is action oriented and precise. "Shop" isn't as demanding as "Get it today" - the latter creates urgency!
Here's a list of phrases you could use INSTEAD of "Shop Now"
- Let's Get Shopping!
- Time to Splurge!
- Dive into Retail Fun!
- Hit the Retail Trail!
- Let's Go on a Shopping Spree!
- Get Ready to Retail!
- Retail Therapy Time!
- Let's Shop 'til We Drop!
- Let's Retail Roll!
- Ready, Set, Shop!
Of course, make sure that whatever language you are using reflects your brand's tone.
3. Use attention grabbing graphics & contrasting colors to draw attention
This may be obvious, but using eye-catching graphics & contrasting colors will grab your customers' attention and bring them closer to the call to action. Rather than displaying your information in a paragraph or even a bullet list, consider displaying it around an image of your product. Look at the difference between these two different call to action sections:
Which one would you click?
Make sure your product add to cart buttons are using your brand colors and that the button stands out.
We recently launched our online store selling pre-built Shopify sections. For a limited time, we're giving away our CTA Button section for absolutely free, allowing you to add a beautiful button anywhere to your Shopify website. This button can be customized from a to z, featuring gradients, hover effects, border radius options & much more. Get this section for free here.
Note: The example above is using this exact section to add the gradient effect to their call to action button!
Download this section for your Shopify store for free >
4. Add your call to action in multiple places
There's no reason to limit your call to action to a single place. Typically, you'll want to quickly & effectively get some info out there and then add a call to action above the fold (this means that customers can see this call to action before they ever start scrolling - if a customer needs to scroll to see your call to action, it's too low).
You can then provide another chunk of info, such as testimonials or an FAQ, along with yet another call to action. End the page with yet another call to action. This structure allows people to go at their own pace. Maybe their not quite ready to click after the initial call to action is presented, but as they get more comfortable with the info they're given throughout the page, they'll be ready to click by the end.
At the bottom of your product page, we recommend you insert a button that takes customers back to the top of the page in order to purchase the product you're promoting. Watch the following video to see how to achieve this using the "Custom Liquid" section built into all Shopify 2.0 websites.
5. Shameless plug for "Click Me! ATC Button" from Convertify.
We recently released an app on the Shopify app store called "Click Me! ATC Button" - this app draws your customers' attention to product pages by animating your add to cart button with subtle animations like bouncing, pulsing & more. Granted, this is only for product pages and this app will not animate any other buttons, but your product pages is likely where you're trying to increase conversion anyways! If it's within your budget, we'd recommend checking out this app or other similar apps.
Take a look at the video below for a walk-through of the available options.
Install this app today on your Shopify store >
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Ultimately, it's important to remember that your Shopify website is never really done. Keep making adjustments and tweaks until you, and more importantly, your customers are happy. Tweak the language, play with different colors & focus on engaging content until you are satisfied.
The #1 mistake I see when people create their offers is panicking when they don't immediately start making sales. It takes some time to gather data, so if you make a change and you don't see an immediate uptick, remember that these things take time. Don't revert back or tweak too fast.
Good luck creating effective and meaningful call to actions on your Shopify website. I can't wait to see what you create!
