New to email marketing? Need to polish up your knowledge? The Beginner's Guide to Email Calls-To-Action (CTAs) is your one-stop-shop for all the information you'll need to design CTAs that convert.
Table of Contents (click to expand)
- Chapter 1: How People Interact With Email
- The unexpected thing we notice first about an email
- Earning the open with the right subject line
- Giving more context with the pre-header
- Chapter 3: Visual Design Guidelines for Email CTAs
- Rule #1: Use a button for your primary CTA
- Rule #2: Use at most two buttons
- Rule #3: Use text links for secondary CTAs
- Rule #4: Avoid images, use HTML
- Rule #5: Make sure your CTAs work on mobile devices
- Rule #6: Do the squint test
- Chapter 4: Copywriting Tips for Email CTAs
- Start with the CTA
- Tell people what to do with ACTION verbs
- Be specific
- Reduce friction and improve usability
- Only 24 hours left to convert more readers with the help of URGENCY!
- Reduce the risk
- Stomp objections with testimonials & social proof in your supporting copy
- Provide visual cues
- Chapter 5: Myths & Misconceptions about Email CTAs
- Not following through on your promises
- No CTA or a hidden CTA
- Not testing your CTAs
- Chapter 6: After-the-Click Tracking for Emails
- Open and click tracking explained
- The problem with open tracking
- After-the-click tracking with Google Analytics
Why email marketing is important
We send more than 200 billion emails a day - every day. That number is mind-blowing and it tells you one thing: Email is undoubtedly a cornerstone of the internet as we know it.
Email is also among the top marketing channels with 80% of retail marketers identifying email as their primary revenue channel and studies concluding that email brings in $44 for every $1 spent.
All this is to say one thing: If you're not using email in your marketing right now, you're missing out.
Why Calls to Action are important in email marketing
Look: You can write the greatest, most inspiring sales email in the history of the Universe. As readers go through your email an inexplicable desire to buy your product overcomes them, a bright light emanates from their screen, and they get visions of the dramatic changes buying your product will effect on their lives...
And then there's no button to buy. Confusion spreads among your readers, they wander around aimlessly, and some even jump off a cliff and swim out to sea in search of Atlantis, where it's rumored that they can buy your product.
Overdramatic? Potentially. Hyperbole? Most certainly!
But here's the thing: If you don't tell people what step they need to take next, they will not take any action. Because that's what you implicitly tell them: There's nothing more for you to do here.
So you need to include Calls to Action (or CTAs for short) in your email. You need to tell people what you want them to do: Buy your product, sign up for a webinar, read an article, etc.
The Beginner's Guide to Email CTA Infographic
Letitia, our designer created a stunning infographic that summarizes the information in this guide.
Check it out:
Share this Infographic On Your Site
Click the textfield to copy the code to your clipboard.
Feel free to use this infographic for your own use, with attribution
In this extensive guide, you'll learn everything from the basics of how email works all the way to the visual design of email CTAs to copywriting tips to tracking the success of your email marketing campaigns.
So go ahead and learn how to craft the perfect email CTA!