Who Is Pushing Your Buttons?

Size and shape of buttons will influence conversion.

Depending on the size, shape, placement, color, or wording of your call-to-action button, you may not be seeing enough action.  Testing variations will help you determine which button is optimal for your specific needs.

Testing is a critical part of getting the right button recipe for your eCommerce website.

Don’t just rely on the old adage “Green means go” so make all buttons on your site green!  To a certain extent that is accurate, but what if your entire site is green.  All of a sudden the action you want people to take has lost its impact!!  There are best practice rules you need to abide by to ensure your call to action is obvious but for today we are focusing on shape.

Recently, Bryan Eisenberg (conversion optimization legend) shared one of his secrets for great call-to-action buttons. Using irregular shapes, (like big plus signs or shopping carts) rather than typical rectangle or oval shapes, catches the eye and ultimately, the “click.”

Understanding that every target customer is different, and every website’s design is unique, you must determine which shape proves to work best for you. Remember, people are conditioned to look for something rectangular, and designing a button too funky, could be risky.  Sometimes less is more, but if you feel an irregular shape might just give you an advantage, here are a few call-to-action shapes already used by online retailers.

You don’t need to be a high end designer to put together button shapes, these examples have been created in the Microsoft Power Point shape tool!:

Now see some unique button shapes currently used by online retailers:

In the end, the call-to-action button you choose for your website will need to be eye catching and easily identified if you want to successfully increase conversion.