How to Rock your Conversion Rate with high contrast buttons

Your a smart cookie; you know that using buttons for your 'add to cart' and 'checkout' navigation will increase conversions. It's just a fact - people are more likely to click on a button than they are a hyperlink.

But not all buttons are created equally. Are you aware that on most websites, red buttons will usually convert more online traffic than blue buttons? This has nothing to do with the colour red; rather it's owed to the fact that high contrasting buttons are more easily seen and have higher CTR's. Thus, for a pink website, a blue button would be the better choice. Pretty straightforward stuff.
But there is one rule you must follow to prevent an aesthetic nightmare and benefit from better buttons.

How to rock your conversion rate with high contrast buttons
The first thing to do is use them sparingly. Personally, I like using bright red buttons for the key navigation steps that lead to a sale i.e. the "add to cart" button "checkout" buttons. These are the actions you want your visitor's to take. For actions you don't want your customers to take, but still warrant a button, a more diffused version of your high contrast button or perhaps a neutral grey button would be the ideal choice.




The right way to mix two button schemes
The emphasis here is for people to press the checkout button. "continue shopping", 'delete' and 'update' are less likely to earn you a sale; thus, they remain subservient to the site design.



The Wrong way
Not only is this an aesthetic nightmare, but you are promoting actions you don't want people to take, like pressing the "delete" button.

Google is going to kick aside Timewarner like they were a mom and pop shop.

It's nice to see that Google has held steadfast to their goal of becoming the mother of all monopolies. But after reading leading SEO expert, Bill Slawski's analysis of GPAY, it dawned on me that we are only five years away from Google being hand over fist the biggest bank in the world.

Basically, GPAY is going to allow you to use your cell phone as
1) a digital credit cart that will be accepted anywhere plastic credit cards currently are today (no need to worry about that pesky waitress taking more than a carbon copy anymore )
2) a way to make off line purchases through your cell phone (lets say you want to buy a sweater from a catalog, you just type in the 7 digit text message/authorization approval code into your cell phone and Voila! Google charges your credit card, pays the company selling the sweater and gives them your billing address. Sweet!)
3) A convenient way to pay parking meters, buy soda from vending machines etc.. without having to burden yourself with small change.
4) Even strippers will benefit since this digital credit card will work (undoubtedly) in ATM machine's as well.



I'm excited because this is going to mark the dawn of a new era in e-commerce. No longer will e-commerce be confined to just internet advertising . Commercials; magazine ad's, newspaper ad's, even billboards will all be fair game now. Likewise, catalog companies and infomercial campaigns will be able to rake in more money as well (and cut down on telemarketing), if they can negotiate the e-commerce arena with some grace. As I've predicted before though, Google and Yahoo will likely have a duopoly on all e-commerce at that point.
This will probably be the biggest boost to the US economy since the advent of e-commerce in the 90's.



I will bet you one share of Google stock, that within 7 years of now, Google will have a public approval rating (in the USA) significantly higher than any president in the history of this country.
Your going to love what Google does for you, I guarantee it.


1)Kiss your cell phone bill, your house phone bill, those damn surcharges for text messaging, long distance charges to Tokyo, and your broadband/dsl bill farewell. That is an extra $200 a month; probably one of the bigger tax breaks for your average American. Google is going to setup a worldwide infrastructure that will give everyone free broadband access. This has been rumored for some time now, and given all that is at stake, Google can't Afford NOT to give the world free phone and broadband. The profits from all the increased cell phone advertising, offline advertising, and associated credit card processing would justify financing this endeavor easily.

When Google pulls this off, they are going to be in the perfect position to make GPAY the most commonly use credit card in the world. I'll be eating popcorn and watching CNN (or youtube probably) when that day happens. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and right now, Google is a moral and ethical company. Never have I seen a 10,000 pound gorilla so well behaved. I have faith that the masterminds running Google will take every step conceivable so that the company will never sway ethically from their corporate philosophy. I think that Google's management finds the thought of their offices being corrupt reprehensible.
Honestly, they remind me of our nation's forefather's.

Where's the marketing message?

They say that with websites; you have 8 seconds to capture the readers attention before they bail. 8 seconds to display a pull-based marketing message.

But for push based marketing: whether an ad on a bus bench, something in the paper, or my case, the ad on the back of a movie stub – you don’t have the luxury of 8 seconds. 8 seconds is an eternity to look at a billboard when driving, or an ad on a matchbook cover. You really only have a second, maybe 2 if you are lucky. So its best to keep the message you send short, and sweet. No glitzy stuff.

That is not what AMC theaters did when advertising private movie screenings for events on the back of their tickets. I had this ticket stub lying around my apartment for months, maybe years. It kept on showing up, I saw the back of it a gazillion times. Every time I saw it, I only gave it a second of my time – long enough to read ‘VIP’ and then lose interest. It wasn’t until last week that I, for some unknown reason, read the entire ad. I had no idea that one could show theater movies at private parties and events. How cool is that?

Look at the back of the stub yourself – a lot of stuff to read, huh? Between the fancy shmancy image, the logo, the extraneous VIP headline – there is no way a customer can read and digest the advertising message in 1 second.

The back of a movie stub

But, what if AMC just had a short line of text on the back of their tickets; accompanied by the relevant contact information. They wouldn’t be selling anything, they would just be informing prospective customers of a service. They could have had my business – had I known.

How I would have done it