Call-to-Action Examples that Really Work

source: HubSpot

Think about all the times you\’ve signed up for things in your life. Did you once download Evernote? Dropbox? Spotify? Maybe you\’ve even taken a class on General Assembly. Each one of these signups is likely a result of an effective call-to-action (CTA). It\’s really important to guide your visitors through the buying journey using strategic CTAs.

Think about it: If you hadn\’t been drawn in by the copy or design of the CTA, or been guided so eloquently through your sign-up process, you would probably use a lot fewer apps and websites than you do now.

Here are a few different actions an audience can get called to carry out:

Sign up.
In this type of CTA, the audience might be invited to sign up for a free trial, an online course, a future event, or even a software product. It all depends on the CTAs context on an ad or website.

Subscribe.
This CTA doesn\’t commit a person to a purchase. Rather, it invites them to receive updates from the company. \”Subscribe\” CTAs are common to company blogs, for which the business wants to develop a readership.

Try for free.
Nearly every company website has a free trial offer today. Each of them are CTAs of this variety, and they allow people to demo a product before deciding if it\’s worth the cost to them.

Get started.
This CTA can drive a variety of behaviors for a company, from a free trial to virtual reality experience.

Learn more.
Sometimes, all you want is to give your potential customers a little more information so they\’re prepared to buy something. That\’s what this CTA is for.

Join us.
Do you manage an online community. Is your product built on collaboration between users? You might find yourself placing \”join us\” CTA somewhere on your website.

The above types of CTA all serve a designated purpose, but keep in mind the language they use can vary. And today, marketers everywhere have put some creative spins on their calls to action to generate the leads their businesses depend on.

These call-to-action examples are broken out into three categories:

• Simple and effective CTAs
• CTAs with great call-to-action phrases
• CTAs that balance multiple buttons on one page

1. Evernote
CTA Button: Sign Up
\”Remember Everything.\” Visitors can immediately understand that message the moment they land on this page. The design on Evernote\’s website makes it super simple for users to see quick benefits of using the app and how to actually sign up to use it. Plus, the green color of the main and secondary CTA buttons is the same green as the headline and the Evernote logo, all of which jump off the page.

2. Dropbox
CTA Button: Sign up for free
Dropbox has always embraced simple design with a lot of negative space. Even the graphics on their homepage are subtle and simple.

Thanks to that simple design and negative space, the blue \”Sign up for free\” call-to-action button stands out from everything else on the page. Since the CTA and the Dropbox logo are the same color, it\’s easy for the visitor to interpret this CTA as \”Sign up for Dropbox.\” That\’s one effective call-to-action.

3. OfficeVibe
CTA Button: Subscribe
Here\’s a slide-in call-to-action that caught my attention from OfficeVibe. While scrolling through a post on their blog, a banner slid in from the bottom of the page with a call-to-action to subscribe to their blog. The best part? The copy on the slide-in told me I\’d be getting tips about how to become a better manager — and the post it appeared on was a post about how to become a better manager. In other words, the offer was something I was already interested in.

4. Netflix
CTA Button: Join Free for a Month
One big fear users have before committing to sign up for something? That it\’ll be a pain to cancel their subscription if they end up not liking it. Netflix nips that fear in the bud with the \”Cancel anytime\” copy right above the \”Join Free for a Month\” CTA. I\’d venture a guess that reassurance alone has boosted signups. Also, you\’ll notice again that the red color of the primary and secondary CTAs here match Netflix\’s logo color.

5. Square
CTA Button: Get Started
To achieve effective CTA design, you need to consider more than just the button itself. It\’s also super important to consider elements like background color, surrounding images, and surrounding text.

Mindful of these additional design components, the folks at Square used a single image to showcase the simplicity of using their product, where the hovering \”Get Started\” CTA awaits your click. If you look closely, the color of the credit card in the image and the color of the CTA button match, which helps the viewer connect the dots of what to expect if/when they click.

We hope you can see just how important little CTA tweaks can be. It\’s a good idea to experiment with your CTAs.