Your CTAs Are Killing Your Conversions (Here’s What to Say Instead.)
Your website has a dirty little secret. It's not a funnel—it's a brochure with buttons. And those buttons? They're killing your conversions one "Learn More" at a time.
You've probably spent thousands on your website. You've optimized for SEO. You've A/B tested your headlines. But your CTAs still read like they were written by someone who hates their job. And your visitors? They can feel it.
Here's the thing—most CTAs are written from the company's perspective, not the visitor's. They're lazy, generic, and about as inspiring as beige wallpaper. No wonder your conversion rate looks like a sad flatline.
The $10 Million Button Problem
Amazon famously made $300 million by changing one button. They replaced "Register" with "Continue as Guest." One button. Nine figures.
Yet here we are, decades later, and B2B websites are still using CTAs from the GeoCities era.
I've audited 100+ B2B sites this year. The pattern is pathological: Companies spending six figures on demand gen, pouring traffic into websites with buttons that actively repel buyers.
You know what your prospects see when they land on your site? A sea of identical, meaningless commands. Learn More. Get Started. Submit. It's like walking into a store where every sign just says "Stuff."
Why Your CTAs Are Conversion Kryptonite
Here's the uncomfortable truth: Your CTAs reveal how little you understand your buyers.
"Learn More" says you have no idea what your visitor wants to know. "Get Started" admits you don't know where they are in their journey. "Submit" screams that you view them as a data point, not a person.
Think I'm being dramatic? Pull up your analytics. I'll wait.
That 0.3% conversion rate? That's not a traffic problem. That's a CTA problem.
The Khaki Pants Epidemic
My old business partner Ellis Friedman had this perfect line: "Learn More" is the khaki pants of CTAs. Safe. Boring. Forgotten the moment you see it.
But it's worse than boring—it's expensive. Every "Learn More" button is a confused visitor. Every confused visitor is a lost opportunity. Every lost opportunity is revenue you'll never see.
One client had 23 "Learn More" buttons across their site. Twenty-three chances to be specific, helpful, clear. Twenty-three shrugs instead.
The Five CTAs Killing Your Pipeline
"Contact Us" - The Lazy Tax
Nobody wakes up excited to contact a company. Yet there it sits, usually in your header, demanding effort while promising nothing.
Contact you for what? A demo? A quote? To be added to your newsletter I didn't ask for?
I watched a prospect hover over a "Contact Us" button for 12 seconds during a user test. You know what they did? Left the site.
"Subscribe to Our Newsletter" - The Delusion Button
Last month, a CMO proudly told me about their 15,000 newsletter subscribers.
"Great," I said. "How many became customers?"
Silence.
Unless you're publishing stock tips or lottery numbers, nobody wants your newsletter. They want solutions to problems. If your newsletter provides that, tell them: "Get Weekly Automation Breakdowns" or "Steal Our A/B Test Winners."
"Submit" - The DMV Special
We've had web forms for three decades. Three. Decades. And we're still asking people to "Submit."
Submit what? Their will to live?
One client replaced "Submit" with "Get My Custom Quote" and saw 47% more conversions. Same form. Different button. Real money.
The CTA Formula That Actually Works
Forget everything marketing told you about CTAs. Here's what actually drives conversions:
Stage Awareness + Specific Outcome + Emotional Trigger = Click
Let me break that down with real examples that generated actual pipeline:
Top of Funnel:
"See Your Tech Stack Gaps" (not "Learn More")
"Calculate Your AWS Waste" (not "Get Started")
"Watch a 2-Minute Demo" (not "See How It Works")
Middle of Funnel:
"Compare Us to Salesforce" (not "View Comparison")
"Get the Migration Timeline" (not "Download Guide")
"See Pricing for Your Team Size" (not "Contact Sales")
Bottom of Funnel:
"Book Your Implementation Call" (not "Get Started")
"Start Your Pilot Program" (not "Contact Us")
"Lock In 2024 Pricing" (not "Submit")
Notice the pattern? Every CTA tells you exactly what happens next. No guessing. No anxiety. No friction.
The Psychology Everyone Ignores
Your visitors are anxious. They're comparison shopping five competitors, dodging sales calls, and protecting their inbox like it's Fort Knox.
Your CTA is their moment of truth. It either reduces anxiety or amplifies it.
"Learn More" amplifies anxiety—learn what, exactly? "See Your Custom Pricing" reduces it—no surprises.
This isn't copywriting. It's psychology.
People don't click buttons. They click promises. Make better promises.
Your 48-Hour CTA Overhaul
Stop reading blog posts about this. Start fixing it. Here's your Monday morning action plan:
Hour 1: The Audit Screenshot every CTA on your site. Print them out. Circle every "Learn More," "Get Started," and "Submit." That's your hit list.
Hour 2: The Mapping Next to each circled CTA, write what actually happens when someone clicks. Be specific. If you can't explain it in five words, the CTA is broken.
Hours 3-4: The Rewrite Replace every generic CTA with a specific promise. Use this format: [Action Verb] + [Specific Outcome]
Day 2: The Testing A/B test your top three CTAs. Not the color. Not the size. The words. I promise your specific CTAs will destroy your generic ones.
The Part Where I Upset Your Designer
Your designer will hate this. They'll talk about consistency, brand guidelines, visual hierarchy.
Here's what they won't talk about: conversion rates.
Pretty buttons that don't convert are just expensive decorations. I'd rather have an ugly button that prints money than a beautiful one that doesn't.
Make the buttons work first. Make them pretty later.
Stop Decorating. Start Converting.
Your website has one job: turn visitors into pipeline. Every element either helps or hurts that goal.
Your CTAs are hurting.
But here's the good news: This is the easiest conversion problem to fix. No new tech stack. No developer resources. Just better words on buttons.
One client fixed their CTAs and saw 3x conversions in two weeks. Same traffic. Same site. Different buttons.
That's the difference between content that decorates and content that converts. Between a website that exists and one that actually works.
Your CTAs are speaking. The question is: Are they saying anything worth hearing?
Need CTAs that actually convert? We build conversion systems that turn dead websites into revenue machines. No fluff, just pipeline. anthony@edifycontent.com
