We’ve all come across a few calls to actions (or CTAs) in the past, maybe within the past hours or minutes. Whether you’re reading emails, scrolling through social, or ordering on a mobile app, every company hopes that you’ll heed its call to action.

Here are examples of what they could be:

• Download our e-book.
• Learn more.
• Save your spot.
• Register now!

Most of us are used to directing cold, spammy looking marketing emails straight to our junk folders because everyone can spot what they are. Marketers can find a way through the noise with optimising CTAs:

#1 Action & benefit oriented.

To make your CTA action-oriented, you must be mindful of the language you use in your copy and what benefits your visitors are receiving.

The more descriptive you are about the action that you want your persona to take and what they’ll get by clicking that button, the better.

Your CTA needs to reflect a benefit; an action that your audience wants to complete.

For example:

• Stay Connected.
• Join the Fun!
• Let’s Talk?
• Watch Right Now.

#2 Be honest.

Let your audience know exactly what the benefit is of opening an email.

Audiences prefer to know what they’re getting into when they click. To figure out which calls to action get the most clicks and conversions, it’s best to test out a few using A/B testing.

Risker methods might include irrelevant words, that may appeal to some audiences; for example, a new season has come around you’ve sent your quarterly email newsletter, in this you include a CTA with “click if you dare”, while this might work with some people, depending on how well the company knows its audience, it’s a bold risk. This may come across as junk mail to some users.

#3 Use a verb or action words.

The purpose of a CTA is to encourage visitors to convert. Using an action word can direct your visitors to do what you expect them to do on a landing page.

Here are 3 verbs to use to attract a conversion:

• Build/learn/grow–  This CTA indicated you’re going to help your persona reach a professional or personal goal. We are naturally curious and want to absorb as much knowledge as possible. A CTA that implies self or professional development will build interest. This could come in the form of any content, whitepaper, blog, guide, “Build your fitness regime today”, “Grown your Twitter community: guide”, or if we’re already interested, and want to learn more: “Learn project management: best practices”.
• Start– To start something implies you can click through to the product or service straight away. An example, a CTA on Spotify that reads “start a free trial today”, this tells me, I’ll be using the platform within minutes.
• Join– A sense of inclusiveness is implied in this, it makes an individual feel they are about to join a community, emotional connections with your persons have a huge impact on the actions you’d want them to take. Here is an example of a “join” CTA: “Join the fastest growing network of singles”.

Beginning your calls to actions with strong action verbs will make your message pop in every email. Take a look at these two calls to actions; “E-book” and “Download the e-book” – Which would convert best? Offering a clear objective is essential as it attracts the visitor to act.

To conclude

Using effective email CTA’s can drive conversions and see an ROI, but it’s important to bear in mind these are not the only thing to consider when doing email marketing. Stay tuned as there’s more to come on effective ways to rise over the clutter.

Here are some great CTAs to view now:

& that’s a wrap, start optimising now and change your email marketing today

References:

Salesforce. (2017). 5 Email Call-to-Action Best Practices to Drive Conversions. [online] Available at: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2017/07/email-call-to-action-best-practices.html [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Iab.com. (2017). Cite a Website – Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2012-BRITE-NYAMA-Marketing-ROI-Study.pdf [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Knowledge.hubspot.com. (2017). Call-to-Action Best Practices. [online] Available at: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/cta-user-guide-v2/call-to-action-best-practices [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Wishpond. (2017). The 25 Best Words to Use in Your Call-To-Action Buttons. [online] Available at: https://blog.wishpond.com/post/103290853633/the-25-best-words-to-use-in-your-call-to-action [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].