A Call to Action (CTA) is the element on your minimalist and beautiful website, which lets visitors know of the next step that they need to take in order to get where they need to. This must be in line with your website goals, and the idea is to get the visitor offline (yes, offline!) and engaging with your business in some way. In this post we discuss the strategy behind the best call to action design.

Before you can decide what your CTAs will be, there are some initial website design aspects which you need to cover. So ...

Let’s start this blog post off by asking you loyal readers 3 questions:

What is your website goal(s)? - What are you hoping to achieve from the website, for your business?
What is the unique niche that your business offers? - What are you offering, that nobody else does.
What is your website roadmap? - What route have you mapped out for your visitor to take after landing on your homepage?

We cover these fundamental aspects, in pretty much most of our blog posts, but can’t emphasise more, how important it is for all businesses and entrepreneurs to determine this before designing a beautiful and minimal website. Afterall, the whole point of minimalist website design is to form a site that is clean, concise and to the point!

A big part of minimalist websites is to have effective call to action (CTA) buttons - both in their design and the text. The best call to action words are not anything too complicated or elaborate. This as well as everything else on the site, should be kept simple and to the point.

Examples for the Best CTA

Selling a Product(s)/Service(s)

Buy now
Order now
Shop now
Get pricing
Book now

Requesting a Contact

Schedule a call
Request a free consultation
Request a meeting
Request an appointment
Request a proposal
Get options
Schedule a visit

Request a Subscription/Registration

Subscribe
Download now
Register now
Get access
Sign up

Pop Up Option

Another option of a CTA is to have this as a pop up on your page after about 10 seconds of your visitor browsing. This pop up hides all other content on the page and presents the user with a choice of either clicking the action or not.

Avoid this CTA being something generic like ‘Subscribe’ or ‘Subscribe to our Newsletter’. However, over time you will learn which CTA is converting the best for your business.

Squarespace allows you to view your website analytics very easily, and the data is able to show you which actions are proving to be the most effective. From analysing this, you’re able to see what phrases/explanations are working the best.

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Best Call to Action Design

As the above examples show, you want to write the CTA text so that it grabs the user’s attention, rather than a generic call to action. Offer the visitor a specific reason to click the button or to get in touch with you.

The design of your CTA will depend on the design of your website. However, you need to make the CTA absolutely stand out and obvious to your prospective clients. What are the implications of visitors not finding the CTA - well, you’re risking them leaving and not coming back. It’s as simple as that.

We have a whole other blog post dedicated to the power of white (or blank) space on the website, so do have a read for further insight! The impact of increasing white space on your minimal design is so significant, because the more you add .. the more your content, including the CTAs, will stand out! Check out the below example from the Apple.com homepage.

Buttons make the best CTAs because you’re able to make them stand out much better by using the combination of white space and the right colour coordination.

‘See our Portfolio’ CTA button, & ‘Get Options and Pricing’ CTA button in the primary navigation

Purpose of a CTA

The call to actions need to be aligned with your website goals and must follow the route of your defined roadmap.

The purpose is to make sure your prospective client does this, to increase the chances of you meeting your website goal(s).

Exercise for you

1.Determine your website roadmap. Write this down on your iPad or grab a pen & paper.

Bear in mind, that the trick here is not to have a goal of minimising the number of pages when doing this, however, there is a rule to have no more than 7 pages on your primary navigation. You want to meet that sweet spot.

An example of a roadmap may look like this, if you’re selling some sort of online professional service:

Home > Portfolio > Pricing > Contact Page

Each subsequent page on your website roadmap, needs to be included as a CTA on the previous one. So, here is what we mean:

The Homepage will include CTAs for the Portfolio page.
The Portfolio page will include CTAs for the Pricing page.
The Pricing page will include CTAs for the Contact page

Do you see how this follows a logical order in order to guide your visitors to the next step in the website roadmap?

2. Now come up with your CTAs for each page.

How to Structure a CTA?

The call to actions should be spread across your page, because you want to constantly remind your visitors of the next step to take. Don’t be annoying, but be subtly persistent.

The last thing you want to do is let them rely on their memory.

Free Workbook

We have designed a free 10 page workbook for you to read and complete. This is easily downloadable below, and it will take you through the fundamentals of minimalist website design.

How to design the best call to action button