A short guide to calls to action

It comes up on almost every project, usually later than it should. Everything we would tell a client about calls to action in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

Pages that answer a real question outlive pages written to fill a slot in a sitemap. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.

Why it matters

One clear next step beats several options. Where this goes wrong is almost never a lack of knowledge. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

How we handle it

Say what happens after the click. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

Warning signs

Reduce the sense of risk near the button. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. The failure mode is not doing it wrong, it is doing it once and assuming it stays done.

The short version

Content is the part of a project most likely to be underestimated and most likely to delay a launch. Three things worth confirming about calls to action before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• One clear next step beats several options — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If any of that sounds like a description of your current setup, it is fixable.