Followed the email marketing and design best practices, great copy and compelling images with alt text, effective headline and nail biting email layout but still no results? Your answer lies in the call to action.
“A call-to-action is simply a proposition of the value that will be delivered immediately after the action,” said Paul Cheney, Editorial Analyst, MECLABS. “The more value the prospect perceives in the call-to-action, the more likely the prospect will be to take action.” Writing a CTA is most often a back breaking task, given the high expectations from this effort.
So, how can you write an eye candy calls-to-action? Email Uplers after a profound research could agree to the latest article from Marketing Experiments Blog that asked considering these 4 questions while writing a CTA the next time so to help you communicate your online value proposition (OVP) in effective and engaging way.
Question 1: Assumed VS. Direct Proposition?
Ideally, the CTA should have a process-level value proposition to tell your visitors, why they should take the action for which you’re asking. Process level value proposition makes the ad very clear to the prospect so to enable him to decide right away.
For Eg. “Get you free consultation” “Free Trial, Get Started!” kind of CTA are more direct than the values like “Call us to know more!” Identify whether the value you are providing is direct with a process attached to it or is it assumed.
The optimized call-to-action can produce up to 357% increase in monthly clients – ” Marketing Experiment Blog Research “
Question 2: Unsought, Specialty Products, Technical Service?
Visitors will always love to respond to an “ask” that is not premature and matching with the thought process. So, in an extreme example, if you are selling a house on a landing page, it probably would not make sense for you to say “Buy now.” A more effective call-to-action might be “Tour this home.”
Understanding the type of consumer products or service plays a vital role to pen down your CTA. A straight upfront CTA for luxury goods or technical services might not add any value as it is a long term decision making process. Evaluate where the visitor is in the purchase process and what the most appropriate call-to-action is. Some examples:
- Register today vs. Learn more
- See full information vs. Buy now
- Preview report vs. Download now
Make sure you only ask them to do something that of which they already understand the value.
Question 3: What’s the tone of your call-to-action?
There can be a lift of around 84.6% to just one factor, the tone of the calls-to-action you’re your Call to action demanding, polite, baffling, creative etc will determine the engagement of your audience.
The tone can be subtle or extreme, anything within this range but make sure it is in line with your audience’s expectations.
Question 4: Is there a real authentic urgency?
People are bombarded with marketing messages and they are too busy to act on all. In case you have an authentic urgency use words like “act now”. This can improve the conversion rates if used in times of need else it will become meaningless white noise.
Wrapping up:
10 Key Takeaways from Email Experts
1. Clear Online Value Proposition
2. Direct approach of writing
3. Industry / Product Specific Calls to Action
4. Tone of the Calls to Action copy
5. Unambiguous Message Urgency whenever needed
6. Format of the Calls to Action
7. Use of catchy Font and Color
8. Link to the right landing page.
9. Content of the Calls to Action copy should sync with the layout
10. Keep it simple and short (KISS)
We hope these questions will help you frame better Calls-to-action and gain higher click-throughs. In case you have further queries on writing an effective CTA, Email Uplers will help you resolve all of those.