The Ultimate Guide to Creating Killer Email CTAs

Do your email marketing campaigns lack the knack to turn prospects into customers? And are you still wondering why your emails don’t get enough clicks even though your email copy and design are top-notch? 

They say, “Very little is needed to make a happy life. And that little has the greatest of impacts.” With emails, the little that has the most significant impact is your call to action (or CTA). 

Today, we’ll cover everything you need to know about creating the perfect CTAs. Moreover, we will talk about how you can utilize cutting-edge AI-powered technologies and tactics to create impactful CTAs that are visually appealing, data-driven, and practical. Pour in your favorite drink and get ready to learn ways to increase your email click-throughs and sales. 

Why are Email CTAs so Important? 

Email marketing has become increasingly important in today’s fast-paced digital world as a means for organizations to reach out to their target audience. But crafting email campaigns that attract attention and generate sales is no mean feat. Here’s where impactful CTAs come in handy. 

CTAs are the buttons or links that encourage the reader to take action you want them to take, such as purchase, sign up for a service, or join a mailing list. Now, let’s look at the best practices for creating action-oriented CTAs. 

6 Email CTA Best Practices to Swear By 

Are you still wondering if an email’s body copy should be the one creating the whole difference and thinking that giving the CTA so much importance is maybe not worth it? Well, think again. 

A call to action isn’t just about what you aim to achieve. It also offers your user clarity about their actions. It’s also about what they want to do, what exactly would happen, and where they will land when they click on that call-to-action button. 

Here are 6 email CTA best practices that will help you create call-to-actions that work. 

1. Understand Your Audience

You must first know your target demographic to maximize results in email marketing. You must zero in on your ideal customer. You may then create highly personalized email messages with AI algorithms. 

You can use AI-powered personalization methods to provide relevant information that resonates with your audience. This way, you improve your chances of turning them into loyal customers by crafting CTAs that speak directly to their unique pain areas and wants. 

2. Craft Crisp, Effective, Intriguing CTAs

Basic principles of effective CTAs

Successful email marketing campaigns rely heavily on well-written CTAs. While there is no universally applicable method for writing an excellent CTA copy, you must observe specific general guidelines. 

For example, AI can determine the most successful CTA language and design using real-time data like click-through and conversion rates. Also, using A/B testing, you may refine your CTAs such that they are more likely to elicit the desired response. 

Here are the fundamentals aspects to consider when penning a CTA copy:

• Clarity
• Visibility 
• Urgency 
• Relevancy 
• Action-Oriented approach 

Importance of Copy and Design in CTAs 

A direct, to-the-point copy is always engaging and effective. It must be simple to understand, pertinent to the email’s subject matter, and persuasive enough to motivate the reader to take action. In addition, the copy’s tone should be closely-knit with your brand’s tone. 

Moreover, your design choices may affect the CTA’s visibility and efficacy, including color, contrast, shape, and positioning. Making the CTA button stand out with a different color than the rest of the email will help it perform better. 

Take the help of professional email design services to develop top-notch, visually appealing CTA buttons so that your focus can remain solely on the call-to-action copy. 

Let’s now take a look at some essential CTA design elements and how to hit the bull’s eye with them: 

CTA Shapes 

CTA shapes can be classified into several types: rectangular, rounded, circular, etc. While there can be no final order of what CTA shape works best, several studies have shown that horizontal rectangular boxes with rounded corners have improved. That’s why they are the most popular shape. 

However, it is crucial to realize that CTA shapes depend on your overall design; it’s best to test different shapes and see what works best and resonates with your target audience. 

CTA Colors 

Colors are expressions that don’t need words. They hold immense power to directly influence someone’s mood and feelings. The same applies to email call-to-action buttons. 

According to a study by Hubspot, the red color outperformed the green color CTA by 21%. 

When it comes to the color of your CTA, you have to choose the one that is coherent with our overall design and consistent with our branding schemes. 

Here’s a call to action(CTA) email example of Skill Share using colors consistent with their brand

Image source

However, there are a few colors that work best with all designs. Like, 

a) Black and White: Whenever in doubt, go for the black-and-white call to action, depending upon your UI. This will also help you while designing dark-mode emails. 

b) Bright Colors: Red, Green, and Orange usually perform better than most because of their bright contrasts. They are easily distinguishable from the background. 

3. Analyze Best-performing Email CTAs (Examples)

Persuasive language, a sense of urgency, and social proof are all critical factors in the success of CTAs. But what really made that email work for you? 

Since we can’t really learn about others’ rate of success of an email, we can choose an example of our best-performing, visually appealing email and dissect the factors that would have made it a hit. 

Examining the factors that contribute to the success of these CTAs can teach us how to polish our efforts. So, let’s do our research. 

To run a thorough analysis check, this is what you must look for in an email CTA example:

• Where is the CTA placement? 
• What is the language used in CTA? Does it communicate clearly? 
• Are the design elements visually appealing and eye-catching? 
• What is the overall message of the email? Do the CTA and message align? 
• What are the conversion rates? Is it driving significant clicks and conversions?  

These will help you gain insights into what creates a difference regarding CTAs. And you will also continuously improve and optimize your email campaigns for maximum conversions. 

4. Optimize Email CTAs for Mobile Devices

Mobile device optimization in email marketing campaigns is becoming increasingly important in today’s digital ecosystem. According to a report, almost 62% of email opens now occur on mobile devices – (Aedestra, 2019). Therefore it’s crucial to make CTAs that are engaging and simple to use even on such small displays. 

Optimization tools driven by AI can help you determine the optimal call-to-action (CTA) design and placement for mobile devices, considering user behavior and engagement. By tailoring your calls to action (CTAs) for mobile, you can enhance the user experience and boost the possibility that your mobile audience will convert. 

After figuring out how to create call-to-action buttons that resonate perfectly with your brand, it’s time to test which works best. 

5. Test and Measure CTA Performance 

Improving your email marketing strategy relies heavily on testing and measuring the efficacy of your CTAs. With the help of AI-powered A/B testing, you can determine which calls to action generate the most interest and action and optimize your future campaigns accordingly. 

What are Email CTA Best Practices for Testing? 

Test one element at a time – Tools such as Google Analytics provides various elements to track and analyze the performance of your email CTA. 

Use A/B testing – Tools such as Optimizely, VWO, and Unbounce allow you to quickly set up and provide detailed reports. 

Test on a representative sample – You can also consider heatmap tools like Crazy Egg or Hotjar to help you understand how your users interact with your CTAs. 

Measure success with relevant metrics – ESPs have built-in analytics reporting tools that allow you to track the performance of your CTAs and optimize accordingly. 

Run tests over a sufficient period – User testing platforms like UserTesting and Userlytics allow you to receive real-time feedback from real users.

In addition, you can maximize the effectiveness of your calls to action (CTAs) and reach your email marketing goals with the help of AI by analyzing data and making data-driven decisions. 

In addition, you can maximize the effectiveness of your calls to action (CTAs) and reach your email marketing goals with the help of AI by analyzing data and making data-driven decisions. 

6. Link the CTAs to the Right Landing Pages

Every CTA has a target landing page where the visitor is taken to on clicking through. For example, in a welcome message, you may entice subscribers to learn more about your business by clicking on a call to action (CTA) that directs them to your website or an exclusive offer. On the other hand, a promotional email’s call-to-action button could direct recipients to the landing page that describes the product/service in more detail.

Some Special Tips on getting your CTAs Right 

• Determine what you want to achieve with this email campaign and tailor your call to action accordingly.
• Maintain consistency and direct readers’ attention by including just one CTA per email.
• Emails are more likely to be opened and read if the call to action is in a prominent spot, such as near the end of the message or in a contrasting color.
• It would be best to urge the reader to act immediately using urgent, action-oriented language.
• Create a call to action that speaks directly to the interests and requirements of your target audience by using personalization and audience segmentation.
• Consistently testing and analyzing CTA performance will help you fine-tune your approach.
• Use dynamic content and AI-powered recommendations to improve the effectiveness of your calls to action (CTAs) in real time. 

Key Takeaways 

We hope this article has served your purpose for learning about the importance of call-to-action (CTA) in emails. We wish to see you create awesome CTAs that serve your purpose and boost your clickthrough rate. CTA is like an emphasis while stating the obvious. 

See you again with our next article. Happy Learning!