Results revealed: Is the Static Call To Action a Thing of The Past?
In our previous blog, we discussed our plans for a marketing experiment. We wanted to learn, ‘Is the Static Call to Action a thing of the past?’. A blog post released by HubSpot inspired us. They ran an experiment with interesting results. They found that slide-in calls to action performed better than the static call to actions. We wanted to replicate this experiment and see what would happen. Specifically, we wanted to see if we could improve our call to action results by using a slide in call to action.
HubSpot’s Results
HubSpot indicated the following results based on their experiment:
- 192% increase click-through rates by using a slide-in calls-to-action
- 27% more submissions by using a slide-in calls-to-action
GOAL
With HubSpots impressive numbers, of course our goal was to increase CTA click-through rates and submissions.
Adjustments we made
HubSpot is a much larger company and generates more website traffic than us. This gives them a larger audience to experiment with. Regardless, we replicated the HubSpot experiment with a few minor adjustments to account for this difference. Here is what we adjusted:
Time Frame
- HubSpot time frame: 1 month
- Growth Labs time frame: 1.5 months
- Rationale: Given we just started our new domain, our traffic isn’t comparable to that of HubSpot so we gave ourselves 2 extra weeks (think of it like a head start).
Number of Blogs Tested
- HubSpot number of blogs tested: 10
- Growth Labs number of blogs tested: 7
- Rationale: Again, HubSpot has a lot more blogs than us. If you test 10 blog among a large pool and 10 blogs among a small pool, you can easily see that results may become skewed. Given that difference, we scaled back the number of blogs that we tested.
OUR RESULTS
The verdict is in. After 1.5 months of testing our slide-in CTAs and static CTAs on 7 of our most popular blogs we found that the slide-in CTA had NO IMPACT on click-through rates or submissions.
| Blog | Views | Submissions | New Contacts |
| 1 | 946 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 321 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 280 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | 148 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 97 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | 85 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | 87 | 0 | 0 |
Reflection
Given we did not yield the same results as HubSpot, do we think that HubSpot completely missed the mark? Not quite. HubSpot was likely able to get more accurate results with a larger pool to test from.
What this means for the small business owner
Many small business owners will face a similar challenge to us by not being as large and established as HubSpot. Here is what we suggest:
We believe it is still worthwhile to implement the practice of a slide in CTA. As mentioned, HubSpot’s results were likely more accurate than ours, given the larger pool they had to test among. As long the slide in CTA doesn’t negatively impact your user experience, it is yet another opportunity for users to engage with your brand. It is also important to consider other alternatives that can drive CTA conversion and submission rates, including:
- Adjusting the design
- Adjusting the copy
- Adjusting the placement of the CTAs
- Adjusting CTA offers to include new offers that might be more relevant to the blog post
- Increase promotion of the blogs to improve blog traffic and create a larger pool for testing
Next steps for the small business owner
- Being a small business owner, with a smaller audience, it’s important to test and determine what works best for YOUR audience. What works for someones audience may not work for someone else.
- The important things to remember are the key principles that you can test to improve your CTAs. Knowing these key principles will give you a foundation for testing. This includes:
- Design: colours, fonts, size etc
- Copy: direct, specific etc
- Placement: middle or end of blog etc
- The actual offer itself: determining which offer relates best to your blog post)
- Remember to test one variable at a time so you can clearly define what creates impact.