Graphic redesign increases homepage conversions 200 percent

Industry: Communications
Content: New graphic CTAs
Highlights: Conversions increased 200 percent

Looks matter in user experience, and you need good-looking call to action buttons if you want people to convert on your site.

We updated three calls to action on one of our client’s websites with a streamlined design that looked better and generated more conversions. In the course of a month, we saw the number of portal registrations increase 200 percent. Here’s how:

No more circa-2000 designs

Here’s a side-by-side look at the old design and new CTA button we replaced them with. There were a couple of reasons why the old CTAs weren’t as successful as they could have been:

• There were three in a row, forcing users to make a choice about which one to click. As we’ve seen, too many options can make purchase decisions harder.
• They were all the same color, which makes it difficult for viewers to understand the hierarchy – what button they should click first, what’s most important.
• The text was hard to read. And people associate hard-to-read text with activities that are difficult to perform – i.e. less action, fewer conversions.

A first-time visitor might skim over the old buttons because they looked like generic website elements, when they should have been stopping traffic and influencing conversion.

Slick look, better results

Some features that made the new CTA buttons 200 percent more effective were:

• Contrasting colors that make the buttons stand out on the page
• Larger text that visitors can easily read at a glance
• Information hierarchy, going from three buttons to two and makes the most important information stand out

The results speak for themselves. People who landed on the site are now 122 percent more likely to actually click on this call to action than they were before. More clicks means more conversions and sales opportunities.

Make it clear where you want people to click next

If you’re not clearly directing users toward the actions you want them to take next, you’re squandering opportunities with the traffic you worked hard to attract.

Too many companies spend time, resources and money optimizing their content for SEO, but fail to give visitors a clear breadcrumb trail that leads them straight to (or at least closer to) conversions.

If you want people to submit their contact information, you need to make it easy for them to do so.

Internet users need direction to take action and call to action buttons are the easiest way to let them know without coming across as overly pushy or promotional.

For more examples of how this works, check out these related resources:

• How simple design tweaks can make your CTAs 40x more successful
• Site revamp improves content-driven conversions by 300%