Call to Action: How To Create Eye-Catching Banners

Your call to action means very little if you do not have everybody’s eyes looking at it. A call to action statement could be the most beautifully crafted piece of marketing text since Dominos change the face of the Pizza industry with their tag line, “Your pizza in 30 minutes or its free.” Yet, if nobody is looking at your banner, it will not matter what you write. Creating a good “Call to Action” is only half of the battle; the first half is to make sure your readers are looking at your banner. Here are some tips to make sure your readers simply cannot miss your call to action.

Don’t automatically make your banners big
This is mistake number one, and it is a common mistake. Making something big does not make it more noticeable. Many people have lived in New York and have not seen the statue of Liberty, even though it is so big that you can see it when you pass by on a plane. Big does not mean attention grabbing, it just means big. It just means a person has to scroll in order to ignore it. Don’t forget that you want people to see and read it, not just see it. People who use the Internet are very good at selective viewing and skim reading, because the Internet is packed with useless information. If we all read (or noticed) everything we saw, then we would have a headache within forty minutes.

Use contrasting colors when making a point
These draw the eye (which is good) and then make the text within a little easier to read. The more readable your text is, then the more chance that the message you give is going to be read and understood. People like it when you make it easier for them.

Do not put your text in hard to read colors
Hard to read colors include almost all of them. White text is only ever readable if it is on a dark and bold colored background. And even then, it needs to be of a fairly thick and large font. Your best bet is simply black text on a white background. However, if you want to know a little trick (don’t tell your friends) there are some dyslexic people who can read black text off of an off-white/cream background.

If you are going to use other colors for your text then make sure the text is bold and big, and make sure the color is bold and dark. Do not go for an orange color, go for a dark orange. If you pick yellow, then make it more of a dirty gold color.

Use an upside down pyramid

This is a cute little trick where you have lots of content moving downwards to little content. The final line (or words) should be your call to action. What happens is that your viewer enters your website in “skim read” mode, but with this idea they are forced to start reading as the text becomes less cramped. It is also more effective if the words get bigger as you move down the pyramid.

Do not put design before the message
The design of your banner should be a high quality, but keep in mind that it is the text that is important. If you are cutting out words, or cramping parts in, in order to fit the text to your banner, then you are doing it wrong. The message should come before the text. The banner should be changed to fit the text, and not the other way around.

Lead the eye with your banner
Leading the eye is something that artists and marketing experts both do. It involves creating design elements that force the eye to look at a certain point. You may be mistaken into thinking that leaving a blank space will lead the eye, but it will not.

Make sure your banner does not harmonize with the rest of the page
Your banner needs to stand out, otherwise it is not a banner–it is a page element. For that reason you should not add similar design elements, and you should definitely not have it the same color as the rest of your page.

Use 3D effects
For some reason, 3D writing and 3D page element effects still works. People still look at them, so it is your job to make sure they look at the 3D elements and then read what is on them.

Plant call-to-action ideas prior to showing the banner
Within the text of the page, mention the call to action and plant a subconscious message or two, so that when they see the banner they may be more inclined to click it.

Use an image to grab attention
This is a cheap trick, but is handy when creating banner. They are all over affiliate advert banners so they must work well.

Post By
Korah Morrison, writer on College-Paper.org that helps students achieve their academic goals.