3 - buttons-and-click-boosting-calls-to-action-copy-hackers-2nd-edition-for-2014.pdf

2 Buttons & Click-Boosting

Calls to Action

WHAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO

BY THE TIME YOU’RE DONE THIS EBOOK

Write clear, high-performing buttons

Never again fall victim to the lazy-man’s calls to action

Move from calls to action to calls to value

Stop writing conversion-killing buttons that suggest work

Remove the most common sources of friction holding back your buttons

Add meaningful click triggers to your buttons

Not wear a blank stare when someone mentions the Belcher Button to you

Get more visitors to watch your videos

Help more visitors understand your screenshots

Never call your visitors “visitors” again (at least when you’re writing buttons)


Calls to Action

IN THIS EBOOK

1. A Brief Introduction to Calls to Action .................................................................................. 4

2. Not Buttons But Closed Doors ............................................................................................ 12

3. Why & How to Create Your Buttons for the “Lizard Brain” ................................................ 24

4. The Click-Boosting Secret: Click Triggers ............................................................................ 34

5. How to Get People to Fill In Your Sign-Up Fields and Watch Your Demos ........................ 44

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joanna Wiebe is the original conversion copywriter and a messaging strategist specializing in persuasive

writing that turns visitors into happy, repeat customers. Since 2003, she has been writing, editing &

proofreading online and offline copy and designing interactions for tech companies as well as startups.

She also consults and teaches writing for professionals. She holds an MA in Communications &

Technology with specialization in persuasion in ecommerce environments.

The co-founder of Disco Surveys, Joanna lives with her hub-bub in Victoria, British Columbia.

Twitter: @copyhackers Website: copyhackers.com


Calls to Action

1.

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO CALLS TO ACTION

A call to action is not just a button. Or a text link.

A call to action is the representation of your page goal and your visitor’s goal…

A call to action is the point at which all the work you’ve done to overcome objections,

reflect your visitors’ motivations, and highlight the value of your solution comes together in

a single action your visitor should take. It is the point at which conversion is enacted. It

doesn’t convert; it facilitates the act of converting – whether “converting” means clicking to

the next page (i.e., micro-conversion) or doing something more significant, like signing up

for a newsletter, signing up for a trial, sharing with a friend… or buying.

But just because your button isn’t actively converting people doesn’t mean that your button

can’t get in the way of – or better help – conversions.

Your visitors cannot convert online without clicking a button.

In most cases, your visitors will not convert online before they’ve clicked a series of buttons.

Which means your call to action, most commonly represented on the page as a button, can

make or break your page. Can make or break your conversion rate. Can make or break your

business. Alas, take it seriously.


Calls to Action

In this conversion copywriter’s experience, calls to action are the second-most important

element on a page, right after headlines.

THE 5 PRINCIPLES OF WRITING CLEAR,

HIGH-PERFORMING BUTTON COPY

As a solid rule of thumb, do not get too clever with your buttons. Rather, keep these

principles in mind when you’re ready to write a button:

1. Lead with a known, familiar verb

2. Use articles (e.g., ‘the’, ‘a’) or prepositions (e.g., ‘for’) to avoid sounding robotic

3. Be specific with your word choice rather than generic

4. Speak to something your prospect greatly desires

5. Consider the page you’re driving to and the headline on that page

If you can swing it without sounding aggressive, it can help to suggest instant gratification

by tacking on words like “Today”, “Now”, “Instantly” or “In Seconds”.

Here are a few of my favorite buttons featuring copy you could easily swipe or A/B test.

They follow the above 5 principles, in most cases, with a little extra oomph.

InspirePay.com (2014)

Speak to both the act of proceeding and the value of it.

AppDesignVault.com (2014)

Make a compelling case! Your button doesn’t have to stand alone on your site.

Copyblogger.com (2011)


Calls to Action

Add a visual that drives home what they’re trying to get, and speak to instant gratification.

YOU CAN & MUST DO BETTER THAN THESE

You are the rare exception if you don’t have the following buttons on your site. These

buttons represent the average starting point for a button – but they are not optimized, and

they are not ideal. In most cases, they’re either the button copy that came with a theme…

or they’re the product of an uninspired mind that doesn’t understand how important calls

to action are for conversion…

If you’ve seen Crazy Stupid Love, you may recognize the line, “Be better than the Gap.”

Allow me to swipe and slightly modify that line: “Be better than Sign Up Now.” Do not use

the following:


Calls to Action

What’s so wrong with all of those calls to action?

You’ll find out as you read through this ebook. In fact, by the end of it, I’m quite certain

you’ll be able to quickly assess buttons like the above and know exactly why a good copy

hacker would never settle for such lackluster, valueless crud.

But rather than make you wait another 45 or so pages, here’s a shortlist of the problems

with those calls to action:

They don’t suggest or speak to the value of taking an action

They don’t reflect the visitor’s motivation or goal

They imply work without giving a reason why the work is worth it

Similarly or identically colored / treated buttons, put on the same page in close

proximity, make it difficult for the prospect to know which button to choose


Calls to Action

And in the case of “Case Studies”, hello? People who want to see case studies are

usually warm leads – so why would you be so pathetic about engaging them?

FROM “CALL TO ACTION” TO “CALL TO VALUE”

Here’s a phrase I shared in my talk at Copyblogger’s Authority Intensive in 2014:

Don’t amplify the act of proceeding.

Amplify the value of proceeding.

That quote got tweeted quite a bit, and Dharmesh Shah added it to Inbound as a favorite

and then invited me to speak at his Inbound Conference.

Think I’m name dropping there? I sort of am. But I’m also trying to leverage Dharmesh’s

authority – plus the social proof that is smart people tweeting my quote – in the hopes that

you will take what I’m about to tell you quite seriously. Because what you’re going to

learn may dramatically improve the way you think about calls to action.

The problem with so many calls to action, including the ones I’ve asked you to rise above, is

that they’re amplifying the act of proceeding rather than the value of it.

People know that a button signifies the act of proceeding.

(Those who don’t know are rare exceptions, unless your market is new to the web.)

People rarely need to be reminded that clicking a button will let them view a demo or

submit a form or sign up or get more information (i.e., “learn more”). What they instead

need to be reminded of is the value of proceeding. The reason to proceed. The benefit or

amazingness they’ll get when they click the button and move forward. What, of real value,

is in it for them?

Consider this button from the sign-up page of Schedulicity.com (2014):

This button is speaking to the act of moving forward. “You will be able to try Schedulicity

free if you click this button.” That’s fine. That’s a call to action. …But you can do better.

Now consider this button, which we tested against the above Control:


Calls to Action

This button is speaking to the value of moving forward. “You will be able to end your

scheduling hassles if you click this button.”

What would you rather do? Try something free, or put an end to a hassle you’ve been

struggling with? In the case of Schedulicity’s audience, 24% more people clicked on the call

to value: End My Scheduling Hassles.

Here’s how I wrote the calls to value on QuickSprout.com/Pro (2014). Both could have

been “Sign Up Now”, but instead they highlight the value of proceeding:

Takeaway? Where possible, don’t amplify the act of proceeding. Amplify the value of it.

Exception? Buttons repeat visitors and power-users use, like in-app and “Sign In”.

WHERE YOUR BUTTONS SHOULD GO ON THE PAGE

It’s impossible to know! I

recommend you test it,

though, because

positioning a call to action at

the right point on your page is critical for conversion.

Here’s an idea that Hiten Shah was kind enough to share with me, an idea I’ve shared out

only recently. As of May 2014, on the one-pager site that is CrazyEgg.com – the very one-

pager I’ve been part of optimizing – Hiten replaced all the calls to action that used to be

scattered down the page with this single fixed call to action bar:


Calls to Action

With that bar, the call to action is always within reach for a visitor. It’s always fixed in the

same spot at the top of the window. So there’s no guesswork for your visitor when they’re

convinced enough to give Crazy Egg a shot – and there’s no guesswork for Hiten as to where

to place a button on a page. It’s always-already present.

Hiten has said that this is responsible for significant increases in revenue for his business.

I’m not at liberty to say the number, but it’s large enough that I now can’t help but

recommend every SaaS startup do their best to try to incorporate it, or a version of it, in

their one-pager site or across their site.

AVOID COSTLY MISTAKES BY TESTING YOUR CALLS TO ACTION

Although headlines are right up there on the list of copy elements to test, calls to action are

just as critical because they are, of course, the single piece of content with which you need

the majority of your visitors to interact. They need to be clicked.

You can quickly find out if a button or text link is effective by testing variations.

Calls to action are generally very easy to test (with free and low-cost testing tools, like

VWO). That’s because they’re so contained, compared to testing, say, tone, and conversions

are directly tied to them. Swap one design for another, or swap copy on each design.

NEXT STEPS

~ APPLY WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED NOW ~

For the key landing pages on your site, complete the button questionnaire on the next

page. Edit the copy you generate until it sounds fluid and could work effectively as a call to

action – or, better yet, you could A/B test immediately.


Calls to Action

WRITE YOUR FIRST-DRAFT BUTTON COPY

Print this page from your PDF copy, or visit CopyHackers.com for a full selection of printable

worksheets, including this one.

1. What is the specific action your visitor is about to take? This should be a verb.

__________________________

2. After clicking this button, what page will the user land on? Consider the headline of

that landing page when crafting this call to action.

__________________________

3. What is the value of proceeding? What will the visitor get out of clicking this button?

__________________________

Once you have completed all three of the above questions, you will have the core of your

call to action button (or even text link). Remember to lead with the verb/action word. Your

next step is to work the copy so that it sounds fluid rather than robotic.


Calls to Action

2.

NOT BUTTONS BUT CLOSED DOORS

You know what’s not scary? A button.

We snack on tasty things called chocolate buttons. We say things like, “Oh, that’s as cute as

a button!” Our moms have big, friendly jars of colorful buttons that we used to like to play

with and sort, bringing us hours of great joy in organizing them by size, color, shape,

material and uniqueness. (Or was that just me?)

The word “button” isn’t associated with anything scary.

Which is why I’m recommending that, when it comes time for you to write a button, you

don’t think of it as a “button”. Don’t call it that in your head. Because if you do, you’ll never

appreciate just how terrifying buttons can be for your visitors…

Instead, call a button a “closed door”.

You are about to learn how to optimize your closed doors so more people open them.

CLOSED DOORS GENERATE ANXIETY

SIMILAR TO THAT GENERATED BY “BUTTONS” ON YOUR SITE…

People who are new or relatively new to your site are like people who are in a strange, dark

building looking for an item that’s hidden behind a closed door. These people don’t quite


Calls to Action

know which door the item is behind. How much (or little) they desire the item they’re

seeking will impact their willingness to open one or more closed doors to find it.

Think of all the things that could be behind a closed door:

A fire you didn’t know was burning, which gusts out when you open the door

A lion

A creepy dude that attacks you

A drug dealer the police are about to raid

Another door

A staircase to a dark, eerie basement

Now, in most cases, nothing bad will actually be behind a closed door. But there is so much

anxiety and fear associated with the unknown contents of a room that opening the closed

door has become a key moment of suspense in the books we read and the films we watch.

When people don’t know what’s on the other side, they get anxious.

That’s true for closed doors.

And it’s true for buttons.

Think of all the things that could be on the other side of a button:

A new site that will fill your screen with pop-ups

A page that isn’t what the button copy promised

A form you’ll have to complete / Work you’ll have to do

A paywall or barrier to getting what you thought you were about to get

Another series of buttons to choose from

And what if you can’t find your way back once you click a button? Will the link open in a

new window? Will it take you to a new site? Is everything secure on the next page? Am I the

only one who’s ever clicked this button? Am I the first person to consider trusting these

guys? Is there a better option out there, one I should go look for instead?

Neutralize Anxieties in General We tested the theory of buttons-as-doorways on the sign-up page for Friendbuy.com

(2013). The button copy stayed the same across the three variations we tested, including

the Control, but we added anxiety-reducing messaging, known as click-triggers, alongside

the two new variations.


Calls to Action

Control:

Variation B:

Variation C:

Variation B used a click-trigger meant to reduce anxieties around being the first or only

person ever to use the solution in question.

Variation C used two click triggers, the first of which addressed the anxiety of the unknown

(i.e., “Will I have to pay?”) and the second of which drove home the value of proceeding, as

discussed in the last chapter.

Both variations trended above the Control, and Variation C beat the Control with a 34%

increase in clicks (99% confidence). If you can neutralize anxieties and amplify value, you

may see more people opening more doors.

Minimize a Friction-y Anxiety: The Sense of Work A lot of buttons lead to new steps in flows on websites, and each of those steps may have a

certain level of work associated with it. For example, you may have a button that leads

people to a sign-up form; sign-up forms are rife with work and, as such, are often enemies

of conversion.

People don’t need or want to be reminded that they’re about to do work.

Even if they are about to do work, they don’t need to be told.

A key anxiety people have is whether, when they “open the closed door”, life is going to get

easier or harder for them. Again, the fear of the unknown introduces risk, and risk is a chief


Calls to Action

source of anxiety. We need to minimize the fear of the unknown… not by being 100%

honest about the work that follows but rather by soothing worries about it…

What that really means is this: Don’t write button copy that suggests work will follow.

Allow me to demonstrate.

Compare these 2 buttons, which we tested against each other on CoSchedule.com (2014):

Which one suggests work is going to follow? Which one suggests life may get a little harder

after you click it?

Our test found that 15% fewer people clicked on “Add It to WordPress Now” than clicked

on “Try It Free Now”. People don’t like work. Even if they have to do the work, which they

had to do in both cases on the following page, they don’t like the reminder or warning.

Oh, and if you’re thinking that those who clicked “Add It to WordPress Now” were better

leads who were more willing to work, sorry, you’re wrong. (I was wrong about that, too.) In

fact, of those who clicked through, fewer completed installation when they’d clicked “Add It

to WordPress Now”.

To reduce anxieties, considering wording your button copy or adding supporting lines of

copy, called “click triggers” (which we discuss later), that address:

What is going to happen on the next page (e.g., You’re just 1 step away from backing

up all your data securely)

What isn’t going to happen on the next page (e.g., No salesperson will call, No credit

card required)

Numbers of other people who are already using your solution

Influential organizations that are already using your solution

Whether a download or install is or is not required

How quickly they’re about to get what they want

If it’s a free trial, and how long the trial is

Guarantees or promises, like money-back guarantees and privacy guarantees


Calls to Action

How secure your service is

Your credibility (indicated often by BBB ratings and similar third-party credentials)

What existing users have to say about it (e.g., star ratings, testimonial)

For social sign-in like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, additional anxieties to address at the

point of conversion include:

Whether or not you’ll post on their behalf

If their friends will see that they’ve signed up for your service

What their friends will or won’t see

How secure your service is

You don’t necessarily have to add more than 1 of these anxiety-reducers. Test to be sure.

And, of course, repeating the value of proceeding is another great way to keep anxieties at

bay: an irrational fear of a lion attacking can be quashed by the reality of solving a problem.

Here are some great examples to inspire you.

Shoeboxed.com (2014)

InspirePay.com (2014)

GetFlow.com (2014)


Calls to Action

From my wireframe; page not built at time of writing

MarketMeSuite.com (2014)

TheZebra.com (2014)

Lodgify.com (2014)


Calls to Action

COMMON ANXIETY-INSPIRED QUESTIONS

CONSUMERS HAVE ON STARTUP SITES

Unless they’re accompanied by considerable hype from highly influential, credible sources,

new businesses of any kind – online or off – are inherently anxiety-inducing for

consumers.

Think of your bank. Would you consider leaving your current bank to start an account with a

brand new one with low interest rates on credit and high returns on savings… if that bank

was only online and headquartered somewhere you’d never heard of?

Would you switch from keeping receipts in a shoebox to saving them online if you thought

the online tool might scrape your receipts for data?

Would you switch from Instagram to a new photo sharing service if you weren’t sure your

privacy was protected on the new service site?

When you’re brand new – or even new-ish – the perception of the value you offer needs

to overcome the fear of loss for every single visitor you’re trying to convert. And there are

a LOT of things that people have to lose. Anxieties are related to much more than simply

handing over one’s hard-earned money.

We’ve talked about a few anxieties. And it’s impossible to list every possible one. But, in the

interest of getting your juices flowing so you can begin to consider the possible anxieties of

your potential customers, here are some worry-inspired questions people ask of startup

sites – questions you need to answer if you want to get your buttons clicked:

How long has this company been around?

Where are these people located?

Are they still based out of a garage, or is this a ‘legit’ business?

Are these guys going to go out of business in a year, after I’ve uploaded all my

photos to their site, tagged them and invited my friends?

Sure, they don’t charge for their service now, but are they going to?

I know they say this is free, but doesn’t free just mean watered-down crap?

I have no idea what country these guys operate out of, but since their English copy

sounds like the stuff of a second language, should I hand over my credit card or

personal details?

If I install this free download, am I really installing a virus or spyware?

If I email my friends invitations to this site, is the site going to start spamming them?

When I sign up using my Facebook account, how much data am I transferring to this

company?


Calls to Action

When I sign up using my Facebook account, will all my friends see? Even worse, will

this company try to reach out to my friends?

Is there no other way to create an account but to use my Facebook account?

Why do I need to create an account at all?

How secure is my ‘secure account’?

Do I have to sign up for a contract, or can I cancel if I don’t like it?

Is it easy to transfer my data if I upgrade or downgrade?

Can more than one person use this account, or do I have to pay per user?

If I import data from Outlook / QuickBooks / Photoshop, will they end up using that

data in some sort of industry report?

Is this company even licensed to sell the brand-name products they sell? How do I

know these aren’t all knock-offs?

If I give my credit card for this trial, will they tell me to cancel before I get charged?

What don’t I know that I need to know?

RESEARCH TO DETERMINE VISITOR/CONSUMER ANXIETIES

Conduct a simple competitor content audit to see exactly what kind of anxieties your

competitors are trying to overcome in their copy. (Refer to Copy Hackers Book 1: Where

Stellar Messages Come From for help with content audits.) At minimum, you should be

addressing the same anxieties your competitors do.

Even better, hire a few people on UserTesting.com, and, in the task you create for them, ask

them to speak to the worries that are keeping them from a) moving forward in your funnel

and b) converting. If you don’t have a site yet, hire those users to walk through the sites of

your competitors. This can be extremely revealing.

Also, consider a solution like UserHue.com, which Lance Jones (co-founder of Copy Hackers)

created to get natural visitors to provide feedback about a site directly on the site. Check it

out – users can draw lines around the part of a page that troubled them most and even give

you written feedback about the concerns it raised for them.

DATA: TEST RESULTS

Marketing Experiments (2007) conducted a test for a client in the investor services industry.

They’d determined that the company’s trustworthiness was a source of anxiety for visitors,

so they used testimonials, third-party credibility indicators, message personalization and

satisfaction guarantee click-triggers to overcome those anxieties.

When they tested the anxiety-reducing page against the control, the test (recipe B)

increased sign up for the company’s newsletter by an astounding 70.5%.


Calls to Action

Additional Techniques for Neutralizing Anxieties

Group copy about your money-back guarantee with credible credit card logos.

Group company info – like location and user base – together in clear, visual ways that

reduce multiple anxieties at once.

Offer multiple sign-in options to reduce anxiety around choosing just one.

Address anxieties about data management and ownership.


Calls to Action

Support free trial offers with what’s included in the trial (e.g., full access, support), the

length of the trial and whether a credit card is required to get started or not.

Show and tell visitors that your sign-up process is nothing to fret over.

Increase trust in your site by showing proof of security.


Calls to Action

NEXT STEPS


For the primary calls to action on the key landing pages on your site, identify the greatest

anxieties associated with clicking to move forward. Draft short copy to help you neutralize

those anxieties at the point of each button.

Can you craft better button copy that will make more visitors feel comfortable “opening a

closed door”? Can you add supporting copy alongside those buttons or as a second line in

those buttons to achieve that goal?


Calls to Action

ANXIETIES & NEUTRALIZERS

Print this page from your PDF copy, or visit CopyHackers.com for a full selection of printable


PAGE: ____________________________________________

CALL TO ACTION: ___________________________________

LANDING PAGE: ____________________________________

Possible Anxiety

Copy to Neutralize It

Certainty That

This Is an Anxiety?

(High, Med, Low)

Use On or

Near Button?

PROPOSED CALL TO ACTION: ___________________________


Calls to Action

3.

WHY & HOW TO CREATE YOUR BUTTONS FOR THE

“LIZARD BRAIN”

I want you to do something. It’s going to happen in your head – don’t worry – I won’t make

you stand up and dance a jig. Although, actually, now that I mention it…

Nevermind. Do this in your head:

Visualize a lizard.

A lizard. Like a gecko or some other slimy, scurrying thing with goggly eyes. It’s green or it’s

blue and spotted. It’s a lizard. Keep the lizard with you from now on, whenever you look at

a button or a page.

Because you need to design and position your button to speak to the lizard brain, that

ancient part of our minds technically known as the amygdala but more popularly, especially

in marketing circles, called the lizard brain. The lizard brain:

Protects you from harm

Reacts to noticeable stimuli, like noise and bright, shiny objects

Ensures your survival

Registers hunger, fear, anger

Can’t read

Resists


Calls to Action

The lizard brain is far older than literacy. Your lizard brain doesn’t read or think rationally or

intellectualize. It reacts and resists. Countless studies show this, and popular books discuss

it. (Ahem.)

We just talked about the importance of seeing your buttons not as buttons but as closed

doors, and you’re sold – or you’re pretending to be sold – on the idea that a button

introduces a world of anxieties that must be neutralized in order for a visitor to click.

Now, just as I asked you to think of buttons as closed doors, I want you to think of your

visitors as lizards.

Not always!

And not in a negative way.

Just when you’re designing and positioning your buttons.

Why would I ask you to simplify your complex, thinking, beautiful human visitor into a

reactive lizard? For exactly the reasons I just listed: because humans are complex, thinking

beings.

Visitors, you see, are humans with high intellectual capacity.

That makes them above buttons. Smarter than buttons. Smarter than the mistakes we

make with buttons. When we think of visitors as uber-smart human beings like ourselves

(and we are all very smart, aren’t we?), we end up with tiny grey buttons that read, “Submit

Form” because, well, a human can make sense of that.

But what would a lizard do with a small, grey button that reads “Submit form”?

Nothing at all.

Because a lizard can’t read. And unless the grey is in stark contrast to everything else on the

page, the lizard won’t notice blendy, bland buttons.

Don’t write or design buttons for visitors. Instead, make buttons for lizards.

REDUCING FRICTION: WHAT WOULD A LIZARD DO? #WWLD

Just as anxiety keeps your visitor from clicking, so does friction at the site of our buttons

keep your lizard brain from easier decision-making. Friction keeps our lizard brain from

spotting a button and from trusting that button. We need to ask ourselves, What would a

lizard do?


Calls to Action

What would a lizard click?

What would a lizard look at?

Would a lizard be able to a) find my button, b) recognize it as a thing to click and c) click it?

You’d be amazed at how simply reducing friction for the lizard brain can boost conversion.

Which of these 3 buttons, from AcuityScheduling.com (2014), would attract a lizard’s eye?

Remember, the lizard brain is far, far older than our thinking brain. It’s far, far older than

literacy. It doesn’t read; it looks.

Which button would attract a lizard’s eye?

How about in this example:

When we tested this in 2013, we found that the variation with the green button brought in

81% more clicks on the green button…

This button color test shows that your visitors are not just thinking human beings. They

respond to stimuli in ways that are IRRATIONAL. That we could actually get 81% more


Calls to Action

people to click on the button just because it looks different from the other 2 buttons says

everything.

Now this may look like a button color test, but it’s not simply that.

It’s a Lizard Brain Test.

It’s a test of contrast, which is a powerful persuasive strategy that simplifies decision-

making. In this case, it was contrast within the brand color palette for Acuity Scheduling,

which is black, grey and green.

Now how does the lizard brain react when you go outside the brand color palette, like in

this case:

When we tested this variation, we saw 95% more clicks on the orange button. Contrast is

what a lizard brain craves. Contrast is what your visitors crave. It will help them make

decisions much faster with less thinking…

Now, still on the topic of “Not visitors but lizards,” another question to ask when placing

your buttons is, Where would a lizard click?

Not a visitor – a lizard.

On the next page is a small snapshot of the very busy home page for TGstore.co.uk (2013):


Calls to Action

The detail of this page isn’t as important as the overall takeaway from looking at it: it’s very

busy. There are, in fact, no buttons. And outside of a few spots of orange and red, it was

hard to know if a lizard would have a freakin’ clue what to click on.

We knew that the most-visited pages were Cycling and Running, for men and for women.

So we added those 4 buttons to the page, as you’re about to see. But 4 buttons is a lot for a

lizard to make sense of. So we:

Divided the 4 buttons into the 2 option sets: one set for men, one set for women

o That allowed the lizard brain to decide quickly based on the most obvious

criteria: male or female – which was supported by images

Made the buttons within those option sets 2 different colors, to further help the

lizard brain

Did our best to keep the designs of the 2 option sets quite similar so as not to throw

off the lizard brain

Take a look at the buttons we added (on the next page).


Calls to Action

See them? It’s likely your lizard brain would if you were visiting this site in search of

something you desire… like cycling or running gear.

By adding these buttons to the page, we increased visits to Cycling for Men by 96.6% and to

Running for Men by 104.5%. (The buttons for women trended above the Control but didn’t

reach significance.) All we had to do was help that unthinking, reactive, illiterate lizard brain

better narrow down its options so it could decide on a place to click...

Now you might say, “Joanna, of course you’re going to see a lift! You put buttons where

they weren’t before.” To which I’d say… “Yeah? Exactly.”

This isn’t about making genius changes. This is about a) knowing where your visitors WANT

to go, and b) making it easy for them to get there by helping their lizard brain out.

We need explicit, easy to recognize calls to action.

Help your visitor make a decision by putting their options clearly on the page.


Calls to Action

DOS & DON’TS IN THE WORLD OF LIZARD-FRIENDLY BUTTONS

DON’T…

…let your design aesthetic or brand masters get in the way of conversion. Not only is the

call to action here a mere text link, but it’s not even underlined, which would be a cue for

your lizard brain that it’s at least clickable.

DO…

…keep the number of options small, if you can, as we did on the MadMimi.com

pricing page, bringing in three-digit CTR lift on all 3 buttons.


Calls to Action

DON’T…

…be blendy-blendy. Who are you serving by making your button

the same color as the background?

DON’T…

…increase friction by not only putting 2 buttons on a landing page but also

making them the exact same size and color.

DO…

…make your button big and front-and-center, with eye-catching images

and arrows, like ELaCarte.com (2014) does here.

DO…

…go outside your brand color palette, as GetFlow.com (2014) does here, to

help lizard brains instantly spot the call to action.


Calls to Action

WHAT WOULD A LIZARD DO HERE?

Perry Belcher (www.belcherbutton.com) has tested the following button design in over

10,000 cases… evidently always with stellar results against the control. He has said that, in

split tests, this button has increased conversions by 35 to 320%. We now refer to this style

of button as The Belcher Button:

You may not like it, but you may want to test it. The key is to test while keeping the

elements you see as they are. Red-dotted outline, big discount with strikethrough and copy,

2 styles of “add to cart”, and 4 credit cards.

The only way to find out if its visual aggressiveness attracts more lizard brains than it turns

off is to test it for yourself.

NEXT STEPS

~ APPLY WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED ~

For every button on your site, complete the worksheet on the following page to identify any

issues that may be introducing friction for the ‘lizard brain’ of your visitors.

http://www.belcherbutton.com/


Calls to Action

THE LIZARD-FRIENDLY BUTTON CHECKLIST Print this page from your PDF copy, or visit CopyHackers.com for a full selection of printable


INSERT BUTTON IN QUESTION HERE (ideally with some of the page for context):

This button is colored outside my brand color palette, boosting noticeability

This button is not grey (which can suggest to the lizard brain it’s unclickable)

If used alongside other buttons, this button is easy to contrast with those

buttons

This button is easy to acquire / large to easily click

This button uses attention-grabbing iconography or imagery

I’ve added sufficient whitespace to separate this button from other elements on

the page

A lizard could easily tell that this is a button

This button does not appear spammy (which can chase lizards away)


Calls to Action

4.

THE CLICK-BOOSTING SECRET: CLICK TRIGGERS

If you’ve ever watched a western movie with a duel scene, you know that duelers hold their

hands just an inch or so above their pistol. Their hands hover. Their fingers wiggle. They

seem to be itching to pull out their Colt 45 and shoot.

The same is true for people browsing a website – except the gun is the mouse.

If they’re at a computer, they keep their hand on the mouse and their index finger lightly

prepared to click. If they’re using a tablet or mobile phone, their index finger (or, in some

cases, their thumb) is pointed out and appears to be always roaming.

It is simple user behavior.

And it can work to your benefit.

Your visitors, like gunfighters, are always ready to react. You just have to give them

something to react to.

For the most part, your headline, demos and body copy are intended to get people to the

point of clicking to buy your product, sign up for a trial, get on your email or beta list – or

convert in whatever way you wish them to convert. And in some cases, that’s exactly what

your copy will do. Everything leading up to your button call to action will entice a good

number of visitors to click.

But you don’t just want a good number of visitors to convert.


Calls to Action

You want to squeeze out every last penny. Which means converting every visitor you

possibly can. How can you do that? You can start by strategically positioning key messages

near buttons to prime people to click them.

Using “click triggers” will help you get more people to click the button.

Get everyone who was going to convert… and the extras who weren’t.

THE TWO TYPES OF “CLICK TRIGGERS”

AND WHERE TO USE THEM

Let me define “click trigger” quickly:

A click trigger is any message that’s positioned near a key call to action, with

the express purpose of compelling people to click the button.

They knock barriers out of the user’s path, make worries go far away, and call dreamlike

attention to every cherry you could possibly drop on top. And they do so at exactly the right

moment: the moment a visitor’s cursor is on the button but they haven’t yet clicked.

For greatest impact, a click trigger should a) neutralize a key anxiety that is likely to keep

your prospect from moving forward or b) amplify the value of proceeding, which is all about

reminding your prospect of what motivated them to seek you out in the first place, what

value you offer, what benefit they’ll derive. If you’re offering an incentive, your click trigger

may be that incentive.

Your copy brings a visitor to the button. It overcomes objections, gets emotions soaring,

and makes the conversion happen in their head.

Your click trigger makes them click the button.

Your click trigger encourage the conversion.

Click triggers fall into two categories:

1. The Simply Put Click Trigger

No fuss, no muss. Position a handful of these straightforward click triggers near

buttons on your home page, pricing page, comparison chart, sign-up page, upgrade

page and even thank-you page.

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Calls to Action

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amazing, do you? You are merely meeting expectations with a Simply Put Click

Trigger.

To get the most out of these click triggers, you’ll need to stack more than one of

them near the button or demo to be clicked. Get unabashedly aggressive, if you’re

tough enough.

2. The Unabashedly Aggressive Click Trigger

The click triggers that bring in the big money are always the unabashedly aggressive.

They do so not with standard copy – but with amazing, smack-you-in-the-head

words. You’ll notice that anxiety reducers and objection stompers show well here.

Use these near buttons or major points of interaction on the pages immediately

preceding the cart and on high-traffic pages, especially PPC.

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Calls to Action

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Unabashedly Aggressive Click Triggers are wordy. Guess what? Words sell. Not if you

go on and on about nothing. But if you take the time to talk about what your visitors

want (and need) to hear to proceed, every word will be worth its weight in gold.

The goal is to get people to read your copy so that they will comprehend just how

amazing you are.

If you are using an Unabashedly Aggressive Click Trigger, be sure to use only one of

them near the button. You can use others elsewhere in the vicinity.

The reason you don’t want to stack multiple Unabashedly Aggressive Click Triggers

near a button is because you don’t want to overwhelm and fatigue visitors with

both what you’re saying… and how hard you’re trying to sell.

As soon as your click triggers look even a little suspiciously close to aggressive sales

messages, you’re screwed (as in you just pulled the trigger on yourself).

EXAMPLES OF STARTUPS WITH GREAT CLICK TRIGGERS

Sometimes it’s a mega-button. Sometimes it’s much more than that. Check out what other

startups are doing to make it impossible for their visitors not to click.

23andMe.com (2011)

The service offering, social proof and an incentive – all in one box designed to

get visitors to click the button. (See next page.)


Calls to Action

BeatTheGMAT.com (2011)

Click triggers meet marketing messages.

Groupon.com (2011, 2014)

Exactly what you’ll save – and how long you have

until you won’t be able to save that anymore.


Calls to Action

ModCloth.com (2011)

Perfectly placed in Step 1 of the checkout process.

Pixable.com (2011)

Nice, short, tight. Bonus points if they could just tweak the second click trigger to

talk about how they’re saving the user from the pain of registering.

PowerInbox.com (2011)

One big ol’ click trigger that starts close to the button, with email clients, and extends

outward to include a value proposition and 3 influential social proof points.

Profitably.com (2011)

The copy on the button is great, and the mention of no account needed is well done.


Calls to Action

seobook.com (2011)

One of the best click triggers is simply to go obvious: “click here” + big arrow.

Trover.com (2011)

Buttons + charmingly petite “By the way, it’s free”.

Uber.com

Although the home page doesn’t provide click triggers, the pages closer to the funnel do.

This one speaks to the speed of account creation and setup.

WakeMate.com

The low price. The free stuff. The guarantee. My fingers are itching to click.


Calls to Action

ARE PR MENTIONS & STATEMENTS FROM AUTHORITIES CLICK

TRIGGERS?

Yes and yes. Anything that neutralizes anxiety can be a click trigger. But keep in mind that

so many SaaS sites use logos of major publishers on their sites, your visitors may not believe

you were really written about if you don’t include a snippet. So go beyond simply adding

the logo of the publication to your page.

In 2011, FreshBooks did this very close to the button. (That’s where good click-triggers

belong.) The “Used by over 2 million” message didn’t hurt, either. Nor did the real-time use

example.

EVERY TARGET CAN BENEFIT FROM A CLICK TRIGGER

Keep in mind that every target you have needs to have an implicit or explicit reason for

someone to click it.

Implicit reasons are built into us and inspired by things like an incentive shown

elsewhere on your page, a deep desire for your product or sheer personal

motivation to go to the next step on your site

Explicit reasons are click triggers

Let me repeat: every target needs at least one reason to click it. Your demo needs one.

Your sign-up button needs one. Your email list needs one. Your pre-order button needs one.

The smart copy hacker knows that implicit is rarely worthy relying on… so be sure to place

explicit click triggers in close visual proximity to everything you want your visitors to click.

Everything.


Calls to Action

You now know a click trigger is any statement that makes it hard for a visitor not to click a

button. And you now know that click triggers are to be placed in close proximity to a

button, demo or anything you want a user to click.

NEXT STEPS


The worksheets you completed will come in very handy now as you start to think through

which anxiety reducers, objection stompers and reasons to believe will compel more of

your visitors to click X button on Y page.

Using everything you’ve completed thus far in this ebook, complete the next worksheet to

find the best click-triggers for one of the buttons you created back in Chapter 1.

When you’ve found the best click triggers for a button on a page, go ahead and test them

by placing them in close visual proximity to that button on that page. As always, record your

results so you can learn.


Calls to Action

FIND YOUR CLICK TRIGGERS

Print this page from your PDF copy, or visit CopyHackers.com for a full selection.

INSERT BUTTON IN QUESTION HERE:

PAGE NAME: __________________________________________

Possible Anxiety

Possible Delighter

Simply Put

Click Trigger

Unabashedly

Aggressive Click Trigger


Calls to Action

5.

HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO FILL IN YOUR SIGN-UP FIELDS

AND WATCH YOUR DEMOS

The click triggers you’ve already learned about will come in just as handy on your sign-up

forms and around your demos as they do on any standard button or text link. But there’s

still more you can do with these particular types of calls to action – sign up / create an

account and watch our demo – so that’s what you’ll learn in this chapter.

Let’s start with signing up for something, and then we’ll address demos.

SIGN UP FOR INFORMATION (E.G., NEWSLETTER, BETA LIST)

You will probably be surprised by how simple my recommendations here are. But that’s a

good thing! Simple is easier to implement than complex. Which means you can go make

tweaks ASAP.

The first thing to keep in mind with any sign-up field is that your visitors require explicit

directions to use them. (2% of your visitors don’t… but we want to convert more than that!)

Never tell yourself that people will just understand what to do. That’s how you lose

conversions. Instead, always give clear directions.

Notice the difference between the two examples on the next page.


Calls to Action

Metawatch.org (2011)

Dashlane.com (2011)

What’s the difference between the email entry fields? Obvious, right? Metawatch has an

empty field and Dashlane has described the action the user should take.

That’s the first lesson in this chapter: give clear directions on what you’d like your visitor to

do. Even if you think it’s too obvious for words.

Addressing the obvious is key to squeezing out extra conversions. You should never take

yourself so seriously that you think you’re above giving clear directions.

PinkDingo.com (2011) is another example of a startup that gets good and explicit with their

instructions to visitors.

Once you’ve got clear directions in the email field you want your visitors to fill in, you can

dress things up a bit with more persuasive elements. For example, Piclyf.com (2011) makes

their invitation list feel more exclusive by using invitation codes. (See next page for

example.)


Calls to Action

I caution you to be careful, though, when you use what may appear to be gimmicks.

HyperInkPress.com (2011) suggests they have a waiting list of clients… but do they really? If

it seems unlikely, it can tarnish your credibility big-time.

Another alternative is to remove the need to create an account at all. Of course, more and

more startups are doing this as people grow fatigued with creating new accounts.

Visualize.me (2011) asks people to use LinkedIn to sign in. But then they go the extra mile

to overcome objections and reduce anxieties their users may have with this approach. As

you can see, the supporting text takes care of concerns.

SIGN UP FOR AN ACCOUNT

The biggest and best rule for converting in general is to make it easy to buy. (Or easy to sign

up if buying isn’t an option.) To make it easy to buy or sign up, you need to remove

obstacles to doing so.


Calls to Action

When you’re trying to get a visitor to create an account with you, the most obvious

obstacles are lengthy forms (with unnecessary questions). As you can see, the following two

examples do their best to eliminate extra fields… so visitors can become customers fast.

PersonalCapital.com (2011)

FreshBooks.com (2011)


Calls to Action

FreshBooks.com (2014)

FreshBooks even takes things a step further with a smart headline and subhead (see Copy

Hackers Book 2 to learn how to do that) and a great objection-stomper positioned

strategically as a click trigger. Note that the page has barely changed between 2011 and

now, with the only difference – aside from a little bolding – being the removal of the

“Secure Login Page” on the 2014 version…

Another obstacle to signing up is the inability to find the sign-up form. Poor visual design or

information design is usually the culprit here – and also the solution.

To help people find the forms you want them to fill in, do as I recommended earlier: give

them clear, explicit directions. You don’t have to use words, although you can. You can do as

Zendesk.com (2011) does in the following example and simply rely on a directive to point

more people in the right direction.

An alternative to account creation is, of course, no account creation. If you can swing it – if

you can get people into your product without creating an account – then why wouldn’t

you?

Why have a sign-up field if you can simply get people into the process of using your

solution? Skip account creation entirely… until they’re ready.

Back in 2011 when KISSinsights.com was still called that, not Qualaroo, they made it very

easy to buy by making it very easy to get started right on their home page, right at the top.


Calls to Action

Screenr.com does the same thing – they did it in 2011, and they do it today. You don’t need

to create an account. You can just click Record and, voila, get started. The account gets

created later. That they haven’t changed this process in at least two and a half years

suggests to me that it’s probably working well for them…

In the online retail world, account creation is pretty major. Marketing managers want to

build lists of customers to communicate with. That’s a perfectly reasonable objective.

But does that objective belong in the checkout process?

The checkout process should be focused on one objective above all: getting more visitors

from entry to the receipt page. Tests (that I’ve conducted and others have, too) show that

conversion increases when you remove account creation from the funnel.

Aeropostale.com (2011) does a great job of this. They ask guests to create an account on

the receipt page. This is not only a good strategy in that it resists interrupting the


Calls to Action

conversion process… but also because, after completing a purchase, people are often in

better moods than when they started (because they’ve satisfied their need to complete a

task).

And the best time to ask anyone for a favour is when they’re in a great mood!

VIDEO / DEMO CAPTIONS ARE CALLS TO ACTION, TOO

Not every call to action is a button or a text link. The caption on your video demo or video

testimonial is also a call to action.

If you take the time to create a video, you should take the time to write a compelling call to

action that inspires people to click to watch. Printing the word “Play” across the screen

under a play button indicator is just the beginning.

To get more people to watch your videos, here are the

points you should consider covering in the captions:

Length of play time – Videos are time commitments.

Let visitors know your demo won’t take more than

0:44.

Verb – What do you want people to do? Tell them!

Write “Click to play”, “Click to watch”, “Click for sound” or “Watch” in your caption.

Benefit – What will I get out of watching this video? What’s in it for me? Say so in a

few words.

‘Cool’ factor – Did you shell out big bucks to get Christopher Walken in your demo?

Tell people he’s in it! Is your whole team in it? Cool – tell people. Does your video

WISTIA REPORTS (2014):

The average viewer will watch 75% of a video if it’s

between 30 and 60 seconds.


Calls to Action

showcase the #1 feature everyone’s talking about? No one will know that if you

don’t tell them.

When I first wrote this book in 2011, it was extremely difficult to find examples of startups

using captions on the screenshots and videos. Today, it’s much easier – which I dare to

hope has a little something to do with the increasing interest startups are taking in

optimizing their copy as we teach in our ebooks and online…

GrooveHQ.com (2014)

CrazyEgg.com (2014)


Calls to Action

AppDesignVault.com (2014)

Zaypay.com (2011)

UsePeak.com (2014)


Calls to Action

ThingLink.com (2011)


Calls to Action

Founded in 2011 by Joanna Wiebe and Lance

Jones, Copy Hackers started like most startups:

as a minimum viable product that launched on

Hacker News.

Nearly three years later, we’re pleased to see

that the market has validated our idea – and

then some. Copy Hackers books are on the

Kindles and laptops of over 10,000 startup

founders and, based on the emails we get almost daily, are responsible for

helping busy programmers and marketers write higher-converting copy with

greater confidence.

You don’t have to become a copywriter.

But you can write like one. And sell like one.

For more to help you grow your startup or small biz, visit www.CopyHackers.com

http://www.copyhackers.com/


Calls to Action

VISIT COPYHACKERS.COM

to find easy-to-consume copywriting blog posts, ebooks and videos

All brand features referenced within are protected by applicable trademark, copyright and other

intellectual property laws.

InspirePay.com

AppDesignVault.com

Copyblogger.com

Schedulicity.com

QuickSprout.com/Pro

CrazyEgg.com

Friendbuy.com

CoSchedule.com

Shoeboxed.com

GetFlow.com

MarketMeSuite.com

TheZebra.com

Lodgify.com

GetSatisfaction.com

LetsFreckle.com

AcuityScheduling.com

TGstore.co.uk

MadMimi.com

ELaCarte.com

BelcherButton.com

23andMe.com

BeatTheGMAT.com

Groupon.com

ModCloth.com

Pixable.com

PowerInbox.com

Profitably.com

seobook.com

Trover.com

Uber.com

WakeMate.com

FreshBooks.com

Metawatch.org

Dashlane.com

PinkDingo.com

Piclyf.com

HyperInkPress.com

Visualize.me

PersonalCapital.com

Zendesk.com

KISSinsights.com

Screenr.com

Aeropostale.com

GrooveHQ.com

Zaypay.com

UsePeak.com

ThingLink.com

3 - buttons-and-click-boosting-calls-to-action-copy-hackers-2nd-edition-for-2014.pdf

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