Continuing our guide to email marketing for newbies, today we look at why you should be using strong calls to action in all your email marketing campaigns.

Good, compelling copy is obviously a vital part of getting subscribers to do something positive such as signing up to a newsletter or taking advantage of a buy-now-pay-later scheme for example, but regardless of how well written or persuasive that copy is, subscribers will very often need that little extra push to make them act and a good call to action should do just that.

In an older post, I wrote about the strength of a call to action:

“There are really only two types of calls to action: strong and weak and it doesn’t take a genius to work out which is the better option. Regardless of how well written your copy is, a weak call to action is like a half-built pyramid – pointless – and it’s highly unlikely it will succeed in persuading subscribers to take any action other than to bin your email”.

In the same post, I gave an example of a weak call to action:

“Some of the weaker calls to action often involve the word ‘if’, a fairly innocuous word you would think, but it doesn’t persuade: instead it dilutes the power of the call and consequently its effectiveness. A simple example would be:

‘If you are interested in this great new offer give us a call!’  

The use of ‘if’ gives subscribers the option of ‘having a think about it’ instead of persuading them to respond positively to the offer”.

As I said, subscribers often need an extra little push: something that finally persuades them to act, so a far stronger call to action would be something like:

You simply can’t afford to miss this great new offer – don’t delay – call us now!

This call to action not only tells subscribers they’ll lose out if they don’t take you up on the offer, it’s also giving a positive command to respond immediately and not put the decision on hold.

Many of your subscribers will naturally dither over making a decision that involves spending money and perhaps more so now because of the current economic climate and this is why your calls to action should be stronger and more persuasive than ever.

Your calls to action should give clear instructions on how subscribers can easily and quickly take advantages of your offers before they go off the boil but it’s important to remember that they should also inform subscribers what’s at the end, for example:

Click here to instantly download your unique discount code!

Or

Click here to receive your free welcome gift!

Whatever particular course of action you want your subscribers to take, make sure you tell them forcefully but politely and consider using more than one call to action in your marketing emails.

There is no rule against using two or three strategically placed calls to action in your email but any more than that may have a negative effect on your email marketing campaigns, so moderation is important and split testing well advised.

Until next time.

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Email Marketing

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