What is the most important part of any email template? Is it the subject line? The introduction? The body text?
The answer is: Everything. You can’t just discard a component of your email and expect everything to work properly. To get the desired effect from your message, you should polish it from the beginning to the end.
Speaking of the ways to end your sales email, it’s usually concluded by a call-to-action or CTA. After spending hours on generating proper body text and checking it for spam traps, senders understand that writing CTAs isn’t a piece of cake. What is so hard about writing a couple of words?
Of course, composing a call-to-action phrase won’t take as much time as writing the content of the email, but it still requires attention and a complete understanding of your campaign goals. Using one and the same call-to-action for all your templates will be of no use — you want your prospects to take a certain action, so it’s up to you to outline this action as clearly as possible.
In this post, we’ll elaborate on CTAs and the ways of making them shine. Join us and enrich your knowledge of template writing, one paragraph at a time!
Why do you need a call-to-action in your writing?
Sometimes, senders come up with a revolutionary idea that they don’t need a call-to-action at all! What is a call-to-action phrase? A way to frustrate recipients, that’s what it is!
With that thought in their mind, the rebellious senders give their email a laconic ending and wait for their recipients to respond. The outcome is...unpredictable. If the body text was good enough, the recipients would be interested in responding and upholding a conversation. But in 60% of cases, recipients just ignore the email and move on.
In email marketing, a call-to-action phrase is something more than a simple attention-grabber. It’s an instruction, finalization of your intent. It’s the addition that helps you make your message less vague.
For example, you want to promote your blog to your loyal customers. You send them an email that outlines the content published in your blog and explains the benefits of reading this content. Then you wish your recipients a good day and click “Send.” You see that your intended recipient opens your messages; you even detect an increased number of visits to your blog’s homepage. You don’t get more subscribers, your recipients don’t interact with your emails any further.
Now, imagine you wrote an email to your loyal customers, promoting your blog and explaining its benefits and you finalized it with a request, “We’ll be happy to have you as our subscriber. You can do it by following this link.”
After sending your email, you see an increased open rate, more visits to your website, and a spike in blog subscriptions. Amazing! How can a couple of sentences make such a difference?
The answer is simple. By adding a call-to-action, you explain what you expect from your recipients. No beating around the bush, no hints, no unnecessary subtlety. Just the way they like it.
Tips on writing a call-to-action for email marketing
In general, when you know the body text of your email, you don’t have to worry about its closure. The right words will come to you naturally. However, it would be best if you remember several important guidelines regarding CTAs.
Add only one call-to-action per email
Don’t ask for too much in your email. Each message must be dedicated to a certain subject: Introduction, product promotion, new partnership offer, etc. Suppose you ask your prospects to visit your website and get a trial version of your service at the same time. In that case, you’ll make them feel pressured into interacting with you as if by opening your message, your recipients are obligated to do whatever you say. Not the best aftertaste.
Make your CTAs original
Many senders are tempted to conclude their emails with words like “Learn more” or “Get started”, but these phrases have been used over and over — just look at call-to-action buttons on any website! The less deja vu your email causes, the more interesting it looks to users, so embrace the power of synonyms. Take your initial offer and see how you can rewrite it.
As long as you’re respectful and keep your style consistent, your prospects will appreciate your sincerity and willingness to drop the cookie-cutter approach.
Give suggestions, not orders
Email marketing is based on friendliness and respect. There is no place for acting bossy or commanding. CTAs like “Hurry up and check our new service page” or “Subscribe to our blog now” create a feeling of urgency and, therefore, sound like an order. You don’t open emails just to get pushed around; neither do your prospects.
Your call-to-action must sound like a useful recommendation or an outline of your intention. Be friendly, be well-meaning, not bossy and pushy.
Forget about words that create urgency and make prospects uncomfortable. No “go see” or “do it now.” Your call-to-action must convey that a) you’d appreciate your prospects taking a certain action, b) your prospects would benefit from this action.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Choose the best CTA via A/B testing
Never leave anything to chance. The only way to figure out which CTA works best for your campaign is to test it and check the metrics. Therefore, come up with several CTA versions, create two separate campaigns, launch them and observe.
- Which one gets more opens?
- Which one brings more rewarding interactions?
- Which one increases conversions?
- Which one delivers more responses?
In general, you need around two weeks to figure out the best call-to-action for your email marketing campaign.
Conclusion
Your ability to finalize your marketing email with a compelling call-to-action depends on your understanding of your message and your prospects. Don’t be afraid to experiment with synonyms — stay within the limits dictated by your style of choice and make your CTA sound like an instruction, not a command.
As long as you know what you want from your recipients at each stage of your outreach campaign and know how to test your results, you’ll never be at a loss for words.
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