A call to action (CTA) is the third part of the holy triumvirate of successful business email writing: 1. A catchy subject line, 2. A compelling offer, and 3. A call to action that, well, gets action.
A successful CTA is what gets your target off the couch to click for more information, sign up for an offer, make a purchase . . . or whatever action your email is asking them to take.
We see so many businesses struggle with creating a successful call to action in their emails, so to help, we have five tips any business can use.
Make Your Call to Action More Successful with these 5 Tips
1. Make it Real
Flooded by a tsunami of marketing messages, people are wary of bogus offers, clickbait and other unethical practices of the spam choking their email inboxes.
So don’t promise what you can’t deliver. Know your target audience and what they want, and then create a legitimate offer that addresses that need, with a CTA that gets them moving.
For example, if we added a CTA in this article that said, “Read this now to get rich instantly!” that would be misleading. It would be better to say:
Learn to create stronger calls to action! or, Want to write better calls to action in your business emails? Call to Learn More!
2. Keep it Short and Active
If you want to make your business more successful, then this link needs to clicked by you.
Don’t be the person who writes this monstrosity. When it comes to CTAs, shorter is better. And it’s better to lead with a strong action verb.
Think: “Buy Now!”, “Shop,” “Order,” “Download the Free eBook,” or “Start My Trial.”
Imagine your CTA as a clickable button. In fact, it might be a button. How much text would you want to see on a button? A few words at most.
3. Create a Sense of Urgency
The reason why marketers do limited-time offers and remind people they have only one week to act is that putting deadlines on a CTA helps to create a sense of urgency that gets people to take action right now. Fear of missing out, or FOMO, is a powerful motivator.
Related to the sense of urgency, and making it real, is having a unique value proposition. If you ask people to Call Today, then your selling point may be a free consultation or a two-for-one offer.
So:
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(Value of this pretend offer: priceless!)
4. Be Colorful
If you decide to use a CTA button, as opposed to a simple hyperlink, then choose a button color that stands in contrast to the rest of the email layout. If someone quickly scans your email, the CTA should pop out and catch their eye.
There is also psychology around color and what makes people click. Check out this article from Convertkit that helps explain what effect different colors have. So consider your audience and how the color may affect them.
5. Be Creative
You can keep your CTA, short, colorful, relevant and time-limited and still get ignored by people who are bombarded by similar offers using the same language. So don’t be afraid to be creative in your CTA, or in the language setting it up, to stand out from the crowd.
Tired of your business emails getting trashed? Create calls to action that get action. Read more!
No need to click, of course. The goods have already been delivered.
By getting strategic about your CTA’s and implementing these five tips, you’ll be on your way to more clicks… and more sales!
