Why "Contact Us" doesn't work — how to write a CTA that gets clicked
Count the "Contact Us" buttons on your website. There are probably more than three. None of them tell you why they get so few clicks — the problem isn't the button's colour, it's the word on it.
By the time a visitor reaches a button, they're already interested — they read the page, scrolled down, got this far. One decision is left: click or don't. The brain answers that in under a second: what happens if I press this? If the answer isn't clear, the safest choice is to do nothing — and that's exactly what most visitors do.
What "Contact Us" actually promises
Grammatically it's an instruction, but it answers none of the three questions a visitor actually has: what happens after the click — does a form open, does a call start, does WhatsApp launch? How long will it take? What will be asked of me — a name, a phone number, or a full project brief? In its breakdown of interface microcopy, Nielsen Norman Group notes that a button or link label's job is to tell the user what will happen when they interact with the element. "Contact Us" tells them nothing — it's an address, not a promised outcome.
Why weak verbs don't get clicks
The problem isn't one phrase. These are the verbs that show up most often on business websites, and each fails for the same reason — it names the action, not the result:
- "Submit" — doesn't say what filling in the form leads to, only describes the mechanical step.
- "Learn more" — more about what, exactly? The visitor clicks blind, with no idea what the next page holds.
- "Order now" — right for a visitor who has already decided, but too big a step for someone still weighing it up.
- "Click here" — the button already means "click here"; repeating it adds nothing.
The mistake is the same every time: the verb names the operation. The visitor already knows where they are — what they want to know is where the click takes them.
The replacement formula: what they get, how long it takes, what they lose
A CTA that works answers three questions before the click happens. Each answer has to fit in a handful of words — a button isn't space for an explanation, it's space for a decision.
1. What they get
Write the outcome, not the verb. Not "Submit" but "Get your free quote." Not "Sign up" but "Start your free trial." The difference looks small, but the first sells the operation and the second sells the result — and the visitor is buying the result, not the operation.
2. How long it takes
An unknown duration is one of the biggest blockers. If a visitor can't answer "is this two minutes or half an hour" for themselves, the safest move is not to start at all. Concrete markers like "2-minute form" or "Get an answer on one call" set the expectation up front and remove a layer of hesitation.
3. What they lose — or rather, what they don't
This isn't about creating fear — it's the opposite: removing an unfounded one. Phrases like "no card required," "no commitment," "cancel anytime" tell the visitor exactly what the click costs them: nothing. If the real risk genuinely is zero, staying silent about it wastes the point — the visitor won't guess that on their own; left to guess, they assume the worst case.
Before and after, by industry
To keep the formula from staying abstract, a few concrete swaps across different kinds of business:
- Online store: "Order now" → "Complete your order — 2 minutes, delivered tomorrow"
- Clinic or salon: "Learn more" → "Book today, no card needed"
- B2B agency or consulting: "Contact us" → "Book a free 20-minute call"
- Subscription service: "Sign up" → "Try 14 days free, no card required"
What changes in each example isn't the word count — it's that the button now answers a question on its own.
How many different CTAs one page can carry
A weak verb isn't the only failure mode — a page full of equally loud buttons does just as much damage. When a page has three or four differently coloured buttons with different labels, the visitor doesn't choose between them, they choose none of them, because nothing signals which one is the real action. One page should have one primary call, set apart by colour and placement, while the rest ("See pricing," "See our work") stay visibly quieter. That doesn't reduce the options — it just shows which one comes first.
Why word count decides on a mobile screen
This matters more here than most places: most visitors arrive on a phone, and the screen is short. A five- or six-word button label wraps to two lines on mobile, and once it wraps, it stops reading like a decision and starts reading like a long caption. The rule is simple: fit the outcome into three or four words, and push the rest — duration, risk — into a small helper line under the button. The button announces the decision; it doesn't explain it.
How to check this yourself
You don't need a paid tool to test this. List every button on your site in one place and read each one on its own, stripped of the page around it. Does the verb tell the reader the result, or the operation? If it's the operation, rewrite it. If analytics is already wired up, alternate two versions of the text over a couple of weeks and compare the click counts — that's not a complex A/B test, it's just a dated log.
The moment a visitor has to think, they've already stopped clicking.
If you want to see exactly which buttons on your site aren't getting clicks and what's stopping each one, our conversion-focused website tune-up is built for precisely that — we look at the whole page path, not one button in isolation.
