There are two techniques that I use most often to draw attention to special pieces of text. These work well for calls to action (Buy now! Get this free offer! Subscribe here!”), supplementary text such as testimonials, guarantees and announcements, or other pieces of text that you want to call more attention to.
- Callout boxes: These can be boxes that are outlined or have a light-colored background, centered below a section of your text. These can be especially effective if you also use images in them to call extra attention and to generate more curiosity.
You can even put 2 or 3 callout boxes when you want to give your
reader a choice, or have them make a comparison.
A side bar is an appropriate place for an offer, a newsletter sign up box, a free download, a row of testimonials, or even links to other copy further down on the web page.
Keep your side bar skinny, so that it is clearly a side bar and doesn’t compete for attention with the rest of the text on a page. 200 pixels wide tends to be a good width.
Keep the information in a side bar brief. If you include a long paragraph in a skinny side bar, it will wind up being very long, which makes it less desirable to read.
You can even put a callout box inside of a side bar to offer a newsletter subscription or to bring more attention to a product offer.
