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!â€), 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.