A better call to action in your emails

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on January 30, 2008

The email call to action (CTA) gets astonishingly little attention compared to the craft and care that goes into subject lines. Yet the CTA also plays an important role in persuading people to take the next step in the chain of events leading to an eventual sale / download / registration / ad impresssion, etc.

Here's a quick call to action overview, followed by a few pointers to more in-depth articles:

Give them a reason to click


"Click here" leaves a lot to the imagination. Take away the uncertainty by explaining what a click really does. And remind them of the benefits of doing so.

For example...
  • "click to register for your free report"
  • "review colors and styles"
  • "click to learn more"

sample email call to action

sample email call to action

sample email call to action

You can have more than one link


There are obvious places for a formal call to action, such as adjacent to the relevant text. But there's no rule that says you can only have one link.

You might have a link and call to action at the very top of your email to catch those with low attention spans. One at the end of the relevant copy and images, for those who viewed everything. And/or others at natural breaks in the email copy or close to response-oriented text and images.

Also consider making images and text snippets clickable to satisfy users' natural curiosity. Studies show people will try and click on various elements within an email or on a webpage, such as images, headlines, product names etc.

Make it stand out but avoid the spam trap


Links need to be clearly clickable. So the text or image needs to stand out. But don't be seduced into anything that might look like the kind of CTA you find in a spam email. So no punctuation overload, for example.

And be aware that image-based calls to action may get blocked. You should have a text alternative somewhere to deal with that eventuality.

For more details, try these articles:
8 Tips for a Stronger Call to Action
Pay attention to your call-to-action
Call to Action: good practices (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
Image links versus text links
Where do you click?
Simple Word Change in Email Hyperlink Raises Clicks 8.53%
Email marketing: call-to-action tips

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[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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6 Comments:

Mark -

Great post. I see this oversight with so many clients. I believe that CTA's should always avoid using the word "click." It is 2008 - we all know what to do when we see a link, right?

I like what Trek used as a CTA in this email - http://blog.bronto.com/bronto_updates/2007/07/customer-email-.html - "See the new Madone"

*Disclaimer: Trek is a Bronto client

dj at bronto
By Blogger DJ Waldow, on 30 January, 2008  
 

I agree that "click here" sitting by itself, with no explanation of what the user gets in exchange for his/her click, is poor copy.

But I'm not sure I agree with DJ's assertion that we should always avoid using the word "click" in our CTAs.

MarketingSherpa pointed out in a study covered here a while back that using the word "click" in their CTAs raised response. And Sherpa's readers are arguably as net- and email-savvy as any out there, right?

In the wake of that study, Brian Clark at Copyblogger outlined the case for including "click" in CTAs. Good discussion in the comments there, too.
By Anonymous Justin Premick, on 30 January, 2008  
 

Justin -

Okay. So maybe I was being a bit too harsh. I'll modify my comment to be "click here by itself" is a no-no. Thanks for keeping me honest, Justin.

dj at bronto
By Blogger DJ Waldow, on 30 January, 2008  
 

No problem DJ - aesthetically, I don't like saying "click" either. But it works (sometimes).

BTW, I'm on Trek's mailing list & dug that Madone campaign. Totally agree that their CTA could go without saying "click" there.
By Anonymous Justin Premick, on 30 January, 2008  
 

Great post. There is corresponding material and statistics related to email marketing here as well - http://www.massmailsoftware.com/blog/ that definitely correspond. Proper calls to action can make email ROI massive.
By Anonymous Saporito, on 30 January, 2008  
 

Thanks all for the insight. I think there's a lot of potential crossover here with what the usability people tell us. Make it easy for people to understand what they should do and why.

When browsing through my inbox looking for a few examples to paste up in the post, there were some where I really couldn't tell what I was supposed to click on. And I think of myself as relatively email-savvy. But only relatively ;-)
By Blogger Mark Brownlow - Email Marketing Reports, on 30 January, 2008  
 

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