A call to action is an important part of driving attention towards something. Usually placed at the end of article, advertisement, Web page, or social media post, the idea is to inspire the viewing audience to do something. Often, it’s to click a link. To enhance this, creators of the CTA might make it an image, so that when the image is clicked it acts as the link.
However, some prefer using HTML buttons. The differences between CTA images and these buttons generally comes down to code and what’s possible with that respective code, which can be great for experts in the field. In some cases, it’s worth replacing images with buttons. Here are a few reasons to consider it.
1. You get more. HTML buttons have a lot of flexibility with what can be put between lines of code and often use simplified brackets like <button> to start. Images, video, and even audio all can be compiled into the button, which makes it a compelling click. Granted it’s often better to keep things simple and clear, but users have a lot more coding range when handling HTML and href.
2. Design flexibility. Call to action images are effective but can create limitations by nature of design. To make them, it’s often required to utilize graphics programs or teams to come up with an interesting image. The image itself is static too, meaning it will need to be coded as a link in the future. While the images are certainly effective and creative, this can create delays if a user is waiting on a graphic design.
HTML buttons, on the other hand, are designable via code. While as mentioned in the first reason, images can be coded into them, a button can be customized via div elements in almost any way: color, shape, borders, text, etc. This can lead to a faster, more efficient process, especially when you want to keep things simple.
3. In-depth, better control. A CTA image is great for getting the point across quickly, and searching around you’ll find there are a lot of websites which will let you generate one without issue. This does require using your own images, however, and that is again a graphic design approach. But HTML buttons offer more direct control over the kind of content you want to deliver.
Integrating them into websites is more in-depth than relying on stock templates as well. The flexibility of how the button is created means it avoids many troublesome errors across browsers, whereas the same cannot be said for generic CTA generation. In fact, when you see a CTA button while visiting a website, it’s likely that button was created using HTML in the first place.
Overall, both have numerous advantages, and one option favors simplicity while the other can be quite diverse with the right person behind it. If you’d rather not wait on custom graphics or design delay, HTML buttons are a great alternative.
