Master The 3 A’s of Calls to Action

Your call to action is a key component of your email marketing campaigns. It’s where you ask for a response from your subscribers, and where they choose whether or not to give you that response.

The call to action is your chance to convert readers who aren’t interested, reinforce interest for those who are and sway those who are unsure.

That’s a lot to get done with a few words in a fairly small space. Make the most of that space with these tips for creating effective calls to action.

Alignment

Positioning your call to action above the scroll (the point where readers need to scroll down to see more) gives you the opportunity to draw response from more subscribers: those who aren’t interested in reading to the bottom and those in a rush who scan the preview pane and move on.

With your call to action up high, they can just glance and click. Remember, different ISPs, preview panes and mobile devices have different points of scroll, so plan accordingly.

To let readers click through whenever they feel ready, provide multiple calls to the same action. Keep your wording consistent so readers aren’t confused and scatter them strategically through the email.

Calling for only one action keeps the email from being overwhelming while repeating the call several times gives the suggestion more weight, as you can see in this example from marketing consultant Michael Fortin.

When you position these calls to action, consider your layout. Place your call to action directly in readers’ visual path. Use the other elements in your email to guide readers’ eyes and surround the call to action with plenty of white space so it stands out.

Approach

The words you choose to approach subscribers with your call to action are critical. You’re making a request, and the “voice” you use sets the tone for your subscriber-marketer relationship.

To make a strong impact, incorporate some power words. These are words that prompt specific reactions and clarify exactly what you’re asking readers to do.

Blogger Dustin Curtis’ call to action started as a passive statement. He rewrote it with power words that showed force and personality, and his response rate grew 173%.

Be careful, though, that the words you choose create the effect you are looking for. Try considering them from your readers’ point of view . What does each one ask of your subscribers? How does it feel to be asked to “submit”, “subscribe”, “donate” or “join”?

Words are important, but even the format of your offers can make a difference. When Evo, an outdoor outfitter, tested $50 off against 15% off (worth approx. $50), the dollars-off email had a 72% higher conversion rate.

Finally, it’s important that your call to action reflects your usual brand voice – the way you write in your newsletter, your blog and your other marketing efforts.

Your brand voice is familiar to your subscribers. They like it – that’s why they stick around – so use it.

Appearance

Once you design that powerful combination of words to spring subscribers into action, draw attention to it.

When Insurance.com split test two email designs, the call to action was barely noticeable in the first creative, but appeared on a big, red button in the second version. Guess which one got more conversions?

(Note, however, that large, red buttons prompt alarm elsewhere, so make sure to test what works for your own campaign!)

Part of your call to action’s appearance is its format. Should you use an image, a button, a text link? Your answer will depend on your campaign. Take a look at AWeber’s button vs. text link experiment for ideas on how to test format for yourself.

Another aspect of your call to action’s appearance is its size. How does it compare to other elements in your design? If you have several calls to action, which should you make more prominent?

Have a look at Get Elastic’s thoughts on testing size, among other elements, to create an ideal call to action.

And Keep In Mind…

Your campaign is unique. No one else has your combination of audience, industry, brand and purpose. And not every call to action created with the above guidelines will work for you.

Marketing strategist Jeanne Jennings‘ advice: “You’re never really gonna know what works for you unless you test it…Make sure that what works for the majority of marketers works for you.”

So take inspiration from these ideas, pay close attention to what your subscribers want and consider your business goals. Plan your calls to action accordingly, test them out and watch your conversions rise.

Alternative Ideas

When designing your own calls to action, have you come across any standards that seem to work well? Do you have any tips that fellow email marketers could benefit from?

If you do, we’d love to see them in the comment section below!

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13 Comments

  1. Trond Eirik Haavarstein

    Great tips, I’ll try them out on my next blog post

    6/29/2010 9:16 am
  2. Jess

    Awesome tips here, thank you for sharing! It has made me more aware of what I’m really saying and putting into my emails… No more just throwing it together! ;)

    6/29/2010 1:18 pm
  3. Gary

    All great points. One other thought is how your email offer ties in with the landing page your driving to.

    Having consistent messaging along with branding from your email to your landing page can help make sure that users are not suddenly confused by the "offer" they just clicked through to receive only to find they have to ream through a load of non relevant text to get what you promised them.

    6/30/2010 12:40 am
  4. PV

    Hi there!

    This is such an awesome post that you have here. It so detailed and organized. I definitely agree with you when you said, “Your call to action is a key component of your email marketing campaigns. It?s where you ask for a response from your subscribers, and where they choose whether or not to give you that response.

    The call to action is your chance to convert readers who aren?t interested, reinforce interest for those who are and sway those who are unsure.” This is so true. Having a very persuading and clear “call to action” is what your email marketing (or any online strategies) to be successful. This is like the “force” that pushes your prospects to do what you want. Obviously if your call to action is not good then chances are it will not be as successful as you want it to be.

    I hope people involve in online marketing find this post useful.

    Thanks once again.

    6/30/2010 5:31 am
  5. Edward Stevenson

    A great piece. You definitely have to sift through your subscribers to understand who are your real customer(s), and who is just getting a free ride on your tail. Costs of harboring ineffective subscribers can quickly get out of hand. Thanks for the read.

    7/1/2010 12:10 pm
  6. Karen Emanuelson

    Very informative post. Love all the links to specific examples.

    Gary was right-on with his tip about the importance of the landing page. It goes along with Dustin Curtis’ post detailing the need to specifically tell readers what you want them to do.

    When readers do as asked, they should be rewarded with a landing page that specifically thanks them for their action, mentioning where they came from i.e."Thanks for clicking on our email link. Here’s the …. we promised"

    Thanks for sharing what you know.

    7/2/2010 11:09 pm
  7. George

    From my experience, I find that using a button with a nice glossy effect with the action words legibly stated makes a huge difference in eliciting response from subscribers. Good luck to all!

    7/5/2010 10:50 pm
  8. Andrew Potter

    WOW !!!

    These are great tips and something that I am going to be trying out from now on with my emails.

    A button as a call to action – why did I not think of doing that before….

    Many Thanks for these.

    7/6/2010 4:41 am
  9. Jessica Harwell

    Great info. We are currently working on improving our blog and connecting with social media. Learning how to get our customers to "opt in" is a great way to help us with this.

    Thanks for sharing. I definitely appreciate the examples.

    7/9/2010 2:05 pm
  10. Geno Prussakov

    Simple yet excellent points, Amanda. Glad to have discovered this post. Will retweet it to all my followers now.

    7/14/2010 1:19 pm

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