Conversion Rate Optimization: Insider Tactics

Which Colors Convert Best?

Larry Chase: There's some controversy about red helping or hindering conversion rates. What do you say?

Bryan Eisenberg: Lots of people believe red is the best color for increasing conversion rates. But, conversion psychology shows red as a "stop" color.

The reason red works on a lot of sites is because a lot of sites are blue or green. Red works best then because it contrasts with blue and green. But, the same can be said about orange.

If you have a lot of red on your page, don't use a red Call to Action (CTA) button because it won't stand out, and you'll hurt your conversion rate.

LC: Do you want the color scheme to be garish?

BE: Not to be garish, but the CTA button should be the center of attention.

LC: I've read that men react better to red than women.

BE: You have to worry about that, and you have to worry about people who don't see red.

LC: So, you'd probably want to test another color, like orange?

BE: We tend to like orange buttons a lot.

The other note about color is with multiple calls to action on one page. If you're on a shopping cart page, you want the main CTA to be in the contrasting color, but you might want to gray out the other buttons.

LC: If I have multiple CTA buttons on one page, I don't want them all looking the same. I want to change those up, right?

BE: Yes. You want your primary CTA button to be the one that stands out, and the secondary ones muted somewhat. Four CTAs on one page is probably too many anyway, but regardless, you don't want them all to be in the primary color.

You can duplicate the primary on lower screens. Just remember that the message you're sending is "This is the action I want you to take," so you're better off not trying to confuse your shoppers.

LC: What about long sales letters, where you have one "Buy It Now" button higher up in the copy and then the same CTA seven paragraphs later?

BE: Definitely, you should repeat it, but vary it. If it's the same button, keep it the same color but vary it between buttons and links.

Blue Text Links versus Buttons

LC: Are 1994-era blue HTML links effective?

BE: They're still extremely effective.

LC: Maybe sometimes more than graphical buttons?

BE: It depends on the context, but no, I find buttons usually work better. Where text links work best is where you have multiple calls to action. The link is the secondary call to action, which brings us to location.

Page Layout: Clean versus Carnival

LC: How important is the location of the call to action?

BE: You want to have your CTA almost always above the fold [the center of the Web page]. It should be obvious, but I've seen CTAs on the left, the center and the right. They tend to work better in the center and on the right.

LC: In perfect center or a little right of center?

BE: It depends on your design, how you use white space, how the eye flows through the design. You can use [heatmap services such as] Attention Wizard and Feng-GUI to see how they draw attention. Publisher's note: Find links to these services in the Resources list at the end of this article.

LC: A lot of Web pages look like carnival midways because they have so much going on. Is the trend going for a cleaner and more focused design or more carnival?

BE: A lot of Web 2.0 sites are going for the cleaner look. At times, I think they're choosing to sacrifice clarity to keep things simple and clean and not explaining what they do well enough. So, that hurts conversion.

With Web design, there's always a compromise. You want to avoid having your Web designer cost you money by making something overly pretty. Focus on whether you're getting the right results and the right key performance indicators.

Blinking Buttons

LC: I know someone who years ago put a blinking beacon by the CTA button. He said it helped a great deal. Do you have any data on that?

BE: For the most part, animation annoys people. A little bit of motion is okay. If it's slow enough, it could attract attention, but if it's endless, it's annoying, like a blinking light.

LC: Have you tested this?

BE: We did for one client, but people don't want their sites to look like Times Square.

Button Readability

LC: Is legibility still a factor?

BE: This goes back to wording. Can I read what you're actually saying on the button? Make sure you choose the right words in the right font and color so it's easy to read with the rest of your design.

LC: Do serif or sans serif typefaces work better?

BE: Usually, sans serif is easier to read on a button, but it depends on what you're trying to achieve. Sometimes your branding protocols don't give you that option [to choose] so you just have to go with what you have.

LC: Let's say you design a website starting with the call to action button. What would the font be?

BE: I would probably have to go with a sans serif font to make it easier to read. Helvetica and Tahoma are some of my favorite fonts.

Watch Out When You're Watching Amazon

BE: Amazon used to put an implied benefit on its CTA button: "You Can Always Remove It Later." They eventually replaced it with "Cancel Later."

The day Amazon made that change, we got email from half a dozen clients, saying, "Amazon got rid of that language; we should get rid of it, too." Our first response was, "You're not Amazon."

Amazon's goal was to make the buttons smaller. Button size is another variable in conversion.

LC: Why would Amazon want to reduce the button footprint?

BE: Because at the time, they wanted to put the selling of used books above the fold. The buttons took up more room then so the page didn't have the space Amazon needed to push that copy up.

At the time, Amazon made much more profit selling used books even if it lowered conversion rates by removing "You can always remove it later."

LC: Amazon removed the language for reasons unbeknownst to your clients, and they misinterpreted its meaning? Did your clients go ahead and remove that caveat from their own buttons?

BE: They did it; they tested it, and it dropped their conversion rates. They did put that language back in.

LC: One of the lessons here is misinterpreting the competition's moves and making faulty assertions based on those misinterpretations.

BE: Yes. Don't confuse the tactics with the strategy.

SocMed CTA Tip

BE: One of my favorite tricks that people don't know about is this: When you're using the URL shortening services, customize the word on the link.

If I want you to download a paper about call to action, my link might say "http://bit.ly/call-to-action."

Resources

Bryan Eisenberg is a pioneer in online marketing, improving online conversion rates and persona marketing. He is a regular keynote speaker and author of the best-selling business books Call to Action, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? and Always Be Testing.

This is Part 2 of my interview with Bryan Eisenberg. You can find Part 1, in which we discuss button size, shape, style and wording, here: "Call to Action Buttons: Top Tactics for Better Results."

These are the heatmap services Bryan mentioned in our interview:

• Attention Wizard
• Feng-GUI