The Best Call to Action Button Examples

Imagine you are driving a car because you need to go somewhere. What do you do? You follow the signs or you let your GPS guide you.

How is that related to the call to action buttons? They are an essential part of your customers’ journey. Think of them as the milestones you’ve created to show them the steps they need to follow. The call to action buttons are important because they stimulate users to take a specific action. This can be signing for a free trial, subscribing for a newsletter or buying a product.

No matter if you own an online shop, a blog or you offer a Software as a service (SaaS); one thing is indisputable – call to action buttons make the site interactive. If your pages don’t have a call to action button, visitors simply can’t be converted.

Call to Action Buttons: A Few Things to Keep in Mind

The famous marketer and entrepreneur Neil Patel shares in a video a few useful tips you can apply when creating your CTA buttons:

• The copy or outline of your call to action buttons should be related to the product or the services you’re offering. Generic words like “Buy” won’t convert well because customers won’t be aware of what’s in it for them if they click on the button.
• If you have a hero image on your page it should be facing the call to action button.
• Using time-sensitive words like “now”, “free trial” or a period of time will create a sense of urgency that will make customers click.
• Where to place it? It depends on the type of page, the stage of the customer’s journey, your products or services, and what action you expect from your customers. If you own an online shop, you should have a call to action button below each product and an add to cart button on the top right of the page.
  In case you have a blog post, you can sprinkle your call to action buttons between paragraphs or have one at the end of the blog post.There are many different placement options, some of which we are going to discuss in this article.

Call-To-Action Buttons Depend on the Stage of Customer’s Journey

Having a call to action button that converts it’s not an easy job. You need to consider its design, the words you are going to use, where to place the button and how often it should appear on your page.

Also, keep in mind the stages of your customer’s journey – awareness, consideration and decision to buy. And your call-to-action buttons should support that.

What Call to Action Buttons Can You Have in the Awareness Stage?

In the awareness phase, people discover they have a problem or a certain need. They start searching for a solution. At this point, you can offer them useful content like a blog post, guide or tutorial that is relevant to their needs.

A suitable call to action button at this point would be “Learn more” or “Subscribe for a newsletter” or “Download your free Ebook”. The idea is to not ask them to purchase from you but to stay on your page and be engaged.

This is a classic example of a top of the funnel call to action button. The CTA button is placed between two paragraphs. It contains a time-sensitive word “now” and what the customers will get if they click – free templates.

This is an example of Mario Peshev’s website. Here the call to action button appears at the end of a blog post with the actionable words “Send Me the Guide”. It is clear what are you going to get when you leave your email address.

If you want to dive into the top-of-the-funnel marketing you can check this blog post – How to Generate Top-of-the-Funnel Leads – where you can learn about building strategies, publishing the right content, optimizing your page and more.

What Call to Action Buttons to Create in the Consideration Stage?

The next stage of the customer’s journey is called consideration. This is where customers have researched various options in order to find a solution to their problems. Even though they are aware of what you are offering and probably they’ve downloaded your free guide they are still considering if your services or products are the best solutions for them.

During the consideration phase, your mission is to keep the prospects engaged. Continue showing them useful content like blog posts, webinars, video tutorials or newsletters. Don’t forget to add an actionable CTA button.

This screenshot shows two good examples of call to action buttons. The first one states that the best things in life are free and visitors are encouraged to watch the demos.

The one on the right invites people to leave their email because newsletters are fun.

How to Convert in the Decision Stage of the Customer’s Journey?

The decision stage is the moment when customers have decided which is the right solution to their problem. This is the right moment to offer them a free trial, more content such as infographics or product guides.

Shopify offers a 14 days free trial where people can test their platform without leaving their credit card details.

Call-To-Action Buttons Depending on the Actions the Customers Can Take

There are different types of call to action buttons depending on what actions we want the customers to take. They can purchase a product, subscribe to a newsletter, sign up for a free trial, get more information, etc.

Let’s take a look at some good examples.

Learn More

When you open a Mailchimp’s website you have an option between “Pick a Plan” or “Learn More” where you can get more information about the services Mailchimp offers.

This is an example of a CTA header by Hubspot. Header CTA buttons are placed on the top of the page. When people scroll down the page the CTA stays visible which increases the chances for clicking.

Sign up

Backlinko’s visitors will receive SEO and traffic tips if they leave their email address. Also, we’ve noticed the well-known brands under the call to action button. They are listed there for a reason – to help build trust.

As we mentioned before Neil Patel has tips on how to create CTA buttons that convert. The visitors are informed of the value they will receive when subscribing for his newsletter – fresh and new marketing tactics the competition doesn’t know. Sounds intriguing, right?

Subscribe

Enhancv has a creative and funny way to ask its visitors to subscribe to their newsletter by stating that it is not spam, but useful content that will help people build a great resume.

Try a Free Trial

“Try It Free” is a very common call to action button nowadays especially for SaaS companies. It offers up the opportunity to try the services for a specific period of time before having to decide
whether to purchase it or pay for a subscription.

It’s always good to give your customers as much information as possible. HotJar has a simple design that highlights how their software will help businesses understand their audience better. An important detail is that no credit card is required.

According to research by Totango.com, the “Credit cart not required” can increase conversions by 10%. If your strategy is to increase conversions and more sign-ups with a free trial you should definitely add this information to your CTA button.

Another example is Enhancv where no credit card is required for a free trial of their services.

Get Started

“Get Started” is a type of call to action button that works well in combination with a good headline. SurveyMonkey shares the statistics on the number of answers they receive. This helps build trust in their website.

Join

This is an example of a call to action button using social proof. Here they are asking visitors to join 75 000 other businesses which definitely shows you can trust this brand.

• Do you need advice on how to start your own blog? Check out “How to Start a Blog in 12 Easy Steps“

The Best Call to Action Buttons Depending on Your Type of Page

Depending on your website there is a wide range of options for call to action buttons that will help visitors convert.

Let’s focus on these examples for blog posts, eCommerce platforms and SaaS businesses.

Blog Posts

Blog posts are all about providing value and educating readers. As mentioned earlier this is the stage where you can offer useful content that answers their problems.

Read More

The whole philosophy behind inbound marketing is to keep customers engaged. When you have a blog post you should also think of how you can keep users on your website. What else can you offer them? You can have related articles, a call to action button for your services, a pop-up with a free guide or newsletter subscription.

When users finish reading an article they have the opportunity to stay at our site and keep reading useful blog posts.

Also at the end of the articles, there is a call to action button providing information about DevriX services, in this case, building eCommerce stores and encouraging the visitors to fill out the contact form in order to learn more.

Subscribe for a Newsletter

Subscribing to a newsletter is a typical call to action button for blogs. A newsletter allows you to send subscribers useful content and stay top of mind if they ever need your services or products.

In the example above, Mario Peshev’s website‘s call to action button “Subscribe” explains the benefits of subscribing to the newsletter.

Bigcommerce has this pop-up when you are about to leave their website. They emphasize that the amount of subscribers who receive their newsletters and get informed weekly about eCommerce tips.

Leave a Comment or Share

Neil Patel’s blog posts always have a huge amount of comments. In this screenshot, the article finishes off with a question encouraging guests to answer along with social media buttons encouraging readers to share the article.

HubSpot also reminds its guests to share their blog posts on different social media channels. Once you’ve read the post or scrolled down to the end, you can stay on the website or keep reading more articles.

Download a Guide or an Ebook

This is an example of a creative and funny CTA that encourages readers to download. It uses “Download Now” and not just “Download” because “now” helps create a sense of urgency and importance.

eCommerce Platforms

Ecommerce platforms and online shops must provide a smooth user experience and an easy check out process. Usually, online shops have the following CTA buttons:

• “Add to Basket”, “Add to Cart”, “Shop Now”, “Purchase Now”, “Shop the Look” etc.
• “Add to Loves”, “Add to Favourites”, “Add to Wishlist”, etc.

Let’s now examine a few CTA examples and where to place them.

Add to Basket and Add to Loves

“Add to Basket” button is usually at the top right corner of the page. It should be visible like this red CTA button on the above screenshot.

Notice the “Add to Loves” button. Those buttons can work great for remarketing. People often browse and add different items to their wishlists, but after that, they don’t buy anything.

How you can get them back to your online shop? With personalized ads or newsletters, based on their behavior. Your platform has saved their wishlists. Why don’t you remind them once the products they’ve saved are discounted?

Shop Now

“Shop Now”, “Show the Collection”, “Shop the Look” are a classic call to action buttons that work for online shops.

The brand Roxy includes the products in their call to action – like “Shop Accessories” or “Shop Tops”.

Coupons and Discounts

Offering coupons or discounts to new users is always a good conversion tactic. Once customers have purchased from your website and see that the process is easy and the products are good they will most likely buy again.

Software as a Service

If you sell SaaS products you can’t just have a CTA button with “Shop now” like eCommerce websites. Here the whole process of purchasing is different. Users often have the opportunity of a free trial and then decide if they are going to subscribe to the service.

Let’s explore some good examples of call to action buttons for SaaS businesses.

Free Trial

When giving the opportunity to try your product for free, it’s a good idea to have the conditions visible- the time of the free trial, what is going to happen when it ends, whether customers need to leave their credit card details, etc.

Having this information visible will save you a lot of headaches.

Netflix offers a subscription for 30 days free. In addition, they’ve stipulated what is going to happen after the free trial period, when customers will be charged and how they can cancel the trial if they want to.

Relate to a Benefit

This call to action button by Crazy Eggs contains the information that the customers will receive if they click – a heatmap to analyze their websites.

It also says that there is a free 30-day trial and that customers can cancel whenever they want to.

Did you notice that the boy and the girl from the hero image are pointing at the call to action button? The image subconsciously draws the customer’s attention to the CTA button.

Weems is a website that provides software to create and promote events. They use color to influence people’s decisions. For instance, purple is categorized as a creative color which fits the site perfectly. Also the orange call to action buttons contrasts nicely and makes it stand out.

If you need further optimization on your SaaS website you can check our article about content marketing strategy for SaaS businesses.

Wrapping Up

Call to action buttons are extremely important and should always be optimized using practices such as having at least one CTA per page or A/B testing to see which CTA buttons work the best.

Try different things to find out what works best for your business. You can play with the colors, the fonts, the content or the hero image.

If you have any thoughts you want to share, feel free to post them in the comment box below.