Imagine walking through an exhibit at an art museum when suddenly you don't know what to see next or where to go. The same can happen in your email marketing campaign if you don't give direction to your audience on what to do. After writing a catchy subject line and presenting a compelling offer, you need a good call to action to get your recipients off the coach to sign up for the offer, make a purchase or click for more information.
What is a Good Email Call to Action?
The aim of a marketing message is to convert a lead or get a response. After building an email list and using an email validator tool to verify the emails, you don't want your emails to flop when they reach your target audience.
If the intention of your email is to get a response from your prospect, then it should have a compelling call to action to get your target audience to take action. For instance, you can request your audience to join you on a call for a discussion or meeting.
For your audience to take action, your email must have a clear value proposition that will compel your lead. A good CTA should be easy and fast, with no friction between your customer reading an email and booking a call. If the process takes too long, they may not have the patience to jump through hoops.
Five Tips to Enhance Your CTAs
1. Use Action-Oriented Words
It takes action to spur action. Therefore, you need to use verbs in your call to action to compel or get a reaction from your audience. The striking and actionable text draws in readers and encourages immediate action.
You could use the classic CTA ‘order now’ if the subject line and the body of your email provide context for your target audience. Alternatively, skip boring words like ‘click here,’ ‘enter’ or ‘submit’ for actionable verbs like ‘read now,’ ‘get a discount’ or ‘reserve your spot’ to get a response from your audience.
2. Keep it Short, Clear and Concise
When writing an outreach email or newsletter for your audience, always keep it short and concise. Your email should address the challenges of your leads and uniquely position your offer to help them. With a brief and concise email, the call-to-action should also be clear and equally short.
An effective call-to-action button should be no more than five words. If you feel the need to provide essential information, you can add a sentence before the button. Remember, your call-to-action text is larger than the rest of the email, so it's a no-brainer to keep it short.
3. Create a Sense of Urgency
If you want people to take action now, create a sense of urgency with your call-to-action button. For instance, you can add a limited-time CTA by giving it a deadline to get people to act immediately. Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a powerful motivator and will get your audience to take action immediately. An example of a CTA button that creates urgency is ‘50% off today only’.
4. Be Colourful and Creative
The design and creativity of your CTAs are just as important as the content. Your CTA button should stand out in the email and be visually appealing so that your audience can spot it immediately. Start by choosing a colour that contrasts the background of your email to draw the attention of your audience. For instance, if your email background is white, use a colour that pops for your CTA button, like red or blue, which will stand out from the rest of the email.
5. Follow a Natural Progression
When doing email outreach, your emails should follow a natural progression leading up to CTAs for the call to action to be effective. That means when a lead reads the CTA, they should know exactly what they are getting into. You can achieve a natural progression with a good email marketing strategy. Your email should focus on your leads and showcase the benefits to them. If there's something in the email for your audience, they're more likely to click the call to action button.
Call-to-action buttons are powerful email marketing tools. They are the best way to drive engagement and boost click-through rates. Hence, you should put a lot of thought into crafting compelling calls to action for your email campaigns. When you start creating effective CTAs, your email marketing campaigns will soar to new heights and convert your subscribers into customers.
