I'd like to talk a little bit about a common misconception. Red call to action buttons do not in and of themselves increase conversions. There isn't anything magical about red call-to-action buttons. Red CTA buttons only work to increase conversions if they are the only red item on the page.

I have seen quite a number of websites lately, a few of them belonging to members of the CRO Junkies Facebook group, that are misusing this conversion rate optimization technique. You want your call-to-action button to be a different color than anything else on the page. That could mean a green button or a yellow button or an orange button or even a black button.

The reason this technique works is because of something called Gestalt psychology. In the image below, what do you see first? You see the red Jellybean. It pops out and draws your eyes to it.

It's also worth mentioning that colors can be successfully employed in a wide variety of other techniques to help control user eye paths. For better conversions, stick to a single purpose for each page. Pages with multiple calls to action get far fewer conversions for each action. And the split is not even.

You would think that if you have a page with 5 different calls to action, that the conversions would be split 5 ways. This is absolutely not the case. When you present many different types of CTAs, it causes confusion and users are likely to not convert for anything.

If you have to use more than one CTA, use the 70/30 rule. This means that 70% of a page is devoted to one type of CTA and 30% is devoted to another. If you choose to use more than two CTAs, you will get far less conversions of each type.

When it comes to CTAs, more is not better.

There can be many reasons you're CTAs aren't performing like you would have hoped. Here are some of the top reasons.

• Your overwhelming users with too many options to choose from
• They're hard to find
• Isn't mobile friendly
• Your forms are to long and complicated
• Poor color choices
• You're asking a lot without offering anything in return

Multiple CTAs in the viewport increase confusion, not conversion.

The all time worst CTA button to have on your webpage is submit. This word has a negative connotation to it. It's pure programmer speak. Its not even human. Submit to what? To your superior sales copy? To your command that I do something? "Submit" may actual decrease your conversions.

I contend that bossy CTAs will not perform as well as CTAs that are more passively toned and more user-benefit-centric. "Click Here Now" is a clear command. Its overtly bossy. "Download Now" is not a clear command but can be interpreted as a command. "Get Instant Access" is clearly not a command, but a passive tone that is giving the person the option to "get" something, rather then telling them to do something.

"Click Here Now" and "Download Now" are not offering anything. "Get Instant Access" is offering something. For me, the difference between the three is night and day. After all, isn't the heart of sales the offer? Don't you want to offer something to your potential customers that they might want, not bully them into doing something you wan't?

In other words, if you are telling a prospect what to do, you will create resistance, friction, anxiety in the sales process. What is far more ideal is to write such a compelling offer that they form a conclusion in their mind that compels them to take action. The difference between the two approaches is night and day.

When a prospect forms a conclusion in their minds, based on compelling copy, the own it. They made the decision. When you try to "tell them what to do", you're trying to force something on them. This aspect is so important to the sales process and so few marketers understand it.

I would love to hear what you think. Please feel free to email me at robert@nimbus.market and share your thoughts.