Call To Action - Best Email Structure Strategies for Email Marketing

Discover how effective email structures such as an aggressive Call To Action (CTA) can deliver successful marketing campaigns
Knowing the fundamentals of email marketing is the start of creating a quality structure and content that results in tangible output
Learn how to create quality email contents with some of the best practices that you can easily follow for your business website
Comprehensive knowledge on the common errors in creating an email will help you avoid the email pitfalls
Find out the easy and practical ways on how you can optimize your email CTA and general content

An email is an essential element in your marketing campaign, especially in the online arena. Coming up with a quality email structure and content that works may sound simple and common. However, the ever-changing demands and calls of the time can make email marketing an extremely challenging and daunting task. You would only know that you have an effective and quality email content and structure if it yields results. Call to Action (CTA) is an essential component that all digital marketers and business owners should know, understand, and master.

Before delving into the essential components of an email, it is imperative to know how email marketing can effectively help your brand or business. Comprehensive basic knowledge of what this marketing strategy is all about can deepen your conviction and drive to do it well. Most importantly, discover how a powerful and effective Call to Action can make a difference in your campaign.

Call To Action in Emails

What exactly is a call to action (CTA) and how is it a relevant component in your email content? The simple definition of a call to action (CTA) is a link or button that readers are prompted to click. As the term implies, a CTA generally summons or requests email recipients to respond to your offer or message.

Secrets to a Successful Call To Action (CTA)

The call to action is not an independent element in your email content. It is instead considered a climax that completes a compelling story. Every email element plays a contributory role that would make a CTA work. The format of a great story, which compels your audience is the same.

First, the audience will be given a storyline that will draw their attention following a premise that will help them understand what the story’s message is trying to convey. Finally, the story ultimately builds leading to the important part, which is the climax. This particular format is exactly how it works with emails particularly email conversions.

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How does CTA work?

Just like in stories, calls to action are the email’s climactic point where the reader will decide how the result of the story would play out. However, the CTA may not have an effect and work unless you build up your content enough to entice interest and compel your reader to take action. Thus, make sure that you build your story starting with the subject line, the body of the content, and the email design.

The climax of the email should be your CTA link or button. You must prime and prepare your reader first so that they can come up with the decision to click that button or link. The CTA should work together with the subject line and content in a cohesive story, consequently leading to the action of the reader.

How to Make Readers Click your Button/Link

CTAs are generally in bold or bright colors, which are made with thoughtful placement. Moreover, they are precise and actionable words or images that attract the attention of readers, drawing them and enticing them to engage with your content. CTA buttons or links are eye-catching, easy to see, and clean, offering a simple yet sure way to improve conversions.

Here are some examples of an appealing, powerful, and effective CTA:

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Use a font with the right size and shape that would attract the reader and entice them to click. Bright colors for the button or link also play a crucial role in appealing to the reader and making the text or image more visible and attractive to them.

How to Write a CTA Text

Leverage the CTA texts that you will use in your call to action link or button by knowing the helpful tips on how to create them. Here are some of the best ways to come up with the best CTA texts:

Action-Oriented Text

As the name implies, a call to action requires the reader to take action. Therefore, you must use actionable and striking texts that would draw your readers in. Skip obvious and boring texts such as enter, submit, or even “click.” More compelling verbs such as try, get, read, and the likes can relate the verb to your specific offer.

Concise and Straightforward

Action-oriented texts are appealing to your readers. However, make sure that they are not that hard to read and lengthy, which will turn your readers off. Keep the copy short and straight to the point. The best texts would be between two and three words but must not exceed five to six words at most.

Large and Legible

The CTA text should not only be visible but must also stand out in your email. The moment that your recipient reads your email, your CTA must immediately jump out to them, grabbing their attention. To do this, make sure you choose a large, legible, and bold font.

However, it should not be too overwhelming that it becomes obnoxious. Take note that threateningly large fonts or lettering can result in distaste in most readers whether consciously or subconsciously. Choose a font that is big enough to catch attention but never go overboard.

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Create Urgency In Your Call To Action

An effective and successful CTA text should create that sense of urgency in your reader. This will help get high click-through rates with your recipients and ensure that they respond to your CTA according to your intended goal or message. Some texts such as “NOW” can build urgency to your readers, persuading them to immediately take action and heed your call.

Here are some of the examples of an urgent call to action:

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Use the First Person

There is a 90% boost in click rates when you switch from a second person to the first, which helps them relate or see themselves in the situation. For instance, instead of saying “Get Your Freebie”, you can rather say “Get MY Freebie.”

Use a Friendly Approach

Friendly and approaching texts are the best words that you should use to result in action or response from your reader. Remember that some words or verbs make the recipient stressed or uncomfortable. These could be demanding action words, which may not necessarily lead to the response that you are looking for.

How you talk to your readers will depend on your choice of words, which in turn will lead to the kind of actions they take. Try certain words that will not pressure them into doing something. Instead, they should be words that will convince them because they will get something in return.

Create Effective CTA Designs

Whether it is in button or link form, your call to action must entice your readers to click and respond. In terms of mobile devices, buttons are much easier to click on and access especially on touch screens and smaller devices. You can find an email builder that gives you a wide range of button options to customize for your email.

Here are some of the CTA button designs that will surely stand out in your email:

Contrasting Colors

Choose a button color that will pop and stand out in your email for your CTA text. Moreover, the CTA button should not clash with the text colors and background. Choose a design that is cohesive with the rest of your email while making sure that it is still the loudest shade on your screen for visibility, access, and appeal.

Responsive and Interactive

It is tricky to ensure the interactivity of your call to action button but doing so will increase its click rates. For instance, create a type of illusion that sets the button apart or on a different plane. There are other designs that change the button colors and depth the moment you hover your mouse over it.

Directional Cues

Using or adding directional cues such as arrows pointing to your buttons can enhance the look of your CTA in the email. However, it is important that you do not overdo this technique because it can easily distract readers in looking into the essentials of your email content. You can do this or add subtle techniques such as imagery that will serve the same purpose.

Add White Space

The space around the call to action is essential and adding just a substantial white space to it can make a difference. What will a white space do to your email structure? For instance, it can create a visual breakage to the text, drawing the attention of the reader exactly where you want it to be. The additional white space can also simply and cleanly make your CTA stand out in the text. This will specifically have a good effect on the mobile format of your email where the reader can have some clear area to click your CTA link or button.

Proper Positioning

An effective email structure should follow a natural progression that is applicable to the general readers. The natural progression is that people read from left to right, top to bottom. Position your CTA buttons in the most logical places, placing them to the right or towards the bottom of the email content. The right placement proves to outperform other content while this makes sense, especially from an email messaging standpoint.

Test your Call to Action (CTA)

The good thing about email marketing is that it is measurable and scalable. Thus, you can always evaluate your email content for efficacy and strength. You can test your different text and button options, which you can freely experiment on creatively. Take note that the call to action is only part of the overall conversion rate of your marketing campaign. You can assess the other elements in your content such as the headlines, subject lines, and imagery as to their effect on its click rate.

How Calls to Action Improve Your Email Marketing

Online users are inundated with hundreds of emails every day. The barrage of messages can be too overwhelming and competitive that your emails can end up unopened or sent to the SPAM folder. However, your call to action (CTA) can make a difference.

Benefits of Email Call To Action

A powerful and clear CTA can do the following:

Eliminates Confusion and Decision Fatigue

The things that block your reader from responding to your call may be due to confusion that will lead to decision fatigue. A simple and clear call to action serves as a strong and consistent directive to your prospective customers on where to go and what to do with your offer or message. Effective CTAs do not make your readers confused but rather gives them a clear instruction for the appropriate next steps.

Proper Direction and Response

Let your call to action show your intent and message as seen in the email’s overall content. It should give direction to the action of the reader according to your needs or goals. Your goal should also be to provide a CTA that would not make the reader click away because of confusion or apathy. The email content should build an intriguing and exciting scenario while your CTA entices them to dig more, pique their interest and lead them to become paying customers.

Generate and Grow Leads

Generating and growing your audience is possible with the right email content and approach. Using your call to action to achieve this goal is possible especially if you create the right content. Email marketing campaigns should include and highlight a call to action that would increase your audience and generate quality leads with the highest conversion rates.

Motivate and Increase Your Sales

The call to action serves as the instruction to your reader, telling them what to do next, and compelling them to take immediate action based on your needs. All businesses naturally aim towards boosting their sales and revenues. This is where you can use your CTA to serve your purpose and motivate and increase your sales funnel. Boost your sales and revenue with CTA that will grow your brand and achieve your business goals.

Create Better User Experience

Customers want and expect a call to action from any email they receive. Having a CTA button or link integrated into your email content can improve the user experience of your readers, convincing them that they are not wasting their time opening and reading your email in the first place. Avoid making your audience wonder or guess how to proceed with the process by creating a visible and functional CTA link or button.

Establishes Predictability and Credibility

A predictable and trustworthy brand is established by using the right call to action. Your CTA should be convenient to engage with and predictable, which can also mean that it is not confusing and disappointing to your readers. Take note that an effective call to action is expected in your marketing campaign.

Boost your Digital Advertising

A call to action is not just a response to your message or offer as stated in your email. It can also be a way of enhancing your digital advertising efforts, especially with a high click rate. It is the missing puzzle that emphasizes what you want your readers to do or respond to. The CTA is the finishing touch to your email content telling your customer to act right away in exchange for the perks and benefits in store for them.

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Common Mistakes in Email Contents

The efficacy of your email marketing campaign depends on the best practices that you use especially in creating your content and call to action. However, there are also common errors that will break your campaign and render it useless. It helps to know some mistakes that you should avoid by all means.

Unnecessary Words

Emails that have a lot of fluff are lengthy and can easily bring an ambiguous and confusing message to your readers. Thus, it is necessary to get rid of too much excess and oftentimes unneeded words. You should put yourself in a world of “I got 3 seconds”, which means that you should consider your readers do not have the luxury of time to spare reading your emails.

Eliminate some distracting details or information that your readers are not interested to know. How do you know if your content is relevant or not? It is important that you establish a buyer persona before you even craft your email content. Know what they need and what piques their interest and target those data to be included in your email.

Beating Around the Bush

Go right to the point particularly your main offer or message. Beating around the bush is unprofessional, confusing, and misleading to your readers, which will not be an appealing feature for them. You have to remember that most of your online recipients will not have extra time to spend reading some lengthy emails.

Talk about the details of your email, tell exactly what you’re offering and what your readers will be getting in exchange of responding to your CTA. Give complete data in your content, providing complete detail of what it is, what the cost is, how to get the offer, and the likes.

Highlighting the Wrong Elements

You need to watch your hierarchy in the email content. One email may include some components such as images, links, and buttons but they are not your main CTA. Those extra components should not be a distraction to the main message or call to action in your email.

The email goal is to ensure that your reader clicks on your primary call to action button, which means all other elements or details should take a back seat. All unnecessary texts should be in much smaller font size. You should also consider using matching colors that will be for the secondary texts or CTAs. Gray-scale buttons will also work for this purpose.

Use the biggest and brightest font and color for the main CTA so that everything else is like a canvass.

Other Mistakes in Email Marketing

Your email content that highlights your call to action (CTA) is just part of your overall email marketing campaign. However, there are still other common mistakes that can affect your efforts and the efficacy of your email for its purpose:

Not Segmenting Email Subscriptions

One of the huge mistakes in email marketing is having a huge email list and the practice of sending all your subscribers an identical content at the same time. Although you are sending the message that you want to convey, personalizing the email can still ensure a higher click and open rates.

Take note that different people have varied needs and preferences. Thus, one may appreciate receiving content that will help them understand your brand through a newsletter. However, some may only be waiting for coupons and promotions, which means they will discard any content other than what they want.

Segmenting your email according to your readers’ buyer persona or details can guarantee more revenue, leads, and opens. This can also increase customer acquisition, retention, and transaction rates. You can segment your subscribers according to their location, age, sales cycle, language, lifetime value, previous purchases, browsing behavior, and interests.

Too Many Emails Too Frequently

This is one of the common pitfalls of email marketers, which can sometimes be irreversible. The thing is that even if people already subscribed to your email list, they still have the option to discontinue their subscription or just block you from sending them messages.

Do not bombard your subscribers with email messages all day, every day. Your emails would most likely go into the SPAM folder if you continue with this kind of erroneous practice. You do not want people to unsubscribe or opt-out of your email list because they get overflowing messages from you.

This mistake will not only make you lose your readers or potential customers. It can also make them annoyed at you because of the troubles you are giving them. The frequency of sending your email should also be of utmost importance. You can include in your email some options such as how often they want to receive your email.

No Call to Action (CTA)

This is most probably one of the biggest mistakes you would ever commit to doing your email marketing campaign. Forgetting and not including a CTA in your email content is like a mortal sin in the world of email marketing. It puts all your efforts in vain because your prospective audience will have no way of getting in touch with you or making a transaction.

Without a CTA, what exactly would your recipient do with your message? A call to action should entice conversions or make your readers make an engagement with you, whether through inquiries or purchases. The opposite of not integrating a call to action in your email is going overboard and having numerous CTAs in a single message.

You should have one main call to action so as not to confuse your readers. A conflicted customer can be turned off and this may hurt your conversion rates. Make an email content that will prime and set up the stage for your call to action. Entice them to sign up, make a purchase, join, or whatever your goal may be.

Now that you have a piece of comprehensive knowledge about email contents and the importance of an effective and powerful call to action in it, it is high time that you know the other important things about this marketing strategy. A good picture of what email marketing campaigns can do to your business will strengthen your resolve in creating and improving your email content and CTA.

What Email Marketing Can Do For You

Why bother with a good email structure and content that includes a strong and effective Call To Action (CTA)? How is email marketing going to make wonders for your business regardless of its level in your niche?

An email marketing is a type of marketing strategy that uses electronic mails to establish rapport and relationships with your target audience. Proper flow of communication through email marketing helps you reach out to your audience by sending them relevant and timely information. Most importantly, it can convert your audience into buying loyal customers.

Email Marketing Top Benefits

Your digital marketing campaign must highlight email marketing as one of its primary strategies. Why? These are the top advantages of using this type of marketing strategy then and now:

Ease of Use

Email marketing is quite easy to do compared to other digital marketing activities available today. You can find numerous sources online, which you can use to initialize your email marketing plan. Some online sources offer free software or email builders while others have more comprehensive packages, thus, they are premium or paid products. You can create and design your personalized email template, marketing automation workflow, drop editors, and landing pages. However, it is another story to create quality email structures and contents that will work.

Low-Cost

Digital marketing and advertising may be financially demanding especially to new business owners or brands. However, email marketing can be the best initial marketing campaign for those who are still establishing their cash flow. Coming up with an effective email marketing only requires you to have the right basic tools and a basic marketing strategy.

You can find free sources while premium email software has competitive pricing to cater to your preferred budget. Moreover, most email marketing services and solutions are ideally scalable. It is practical to choose a basic plan and upgrade to premium advanced plans as you build up your email list and start growing your revenue.

Call to Action: Measurable and Controllable

Your email marketing campaign depends on you. You have the power to create a successful email plan or something that would flop and yield no results. Full control and measurable emails are in your hands. You create your email content and structure, depending on your brand preferences and your personal discretion.

You can decide on what type of email marketing campaign to run, design your email, web form, and landing pages, make segmentation of your email list to ensure precise targeting and align your marketing automation workflow with your business goals.

Accuracy

Creating an organic email list requires you to request people to confirm their subscription. This method ensures that you are only getting a subscription from people who are really willing and even looking forward to receiving emails from you. Quality leads mean that you have higher chances of converting these interested people into actual customers who will positively respond to your CTA. Accurate and precise targeting of your market results in high-quality and better business output.

Flexible Communication

Contemporary email builders and software allow you to customize your content so that they can be accessed on different devices. For instance, your email can now be opened on mobile devices aside from the usual PCs or laptops. The open rate for emails in desktop is 45.69% while 34.31% is for mobile opens, and open rates for webmail is at 20%. The versatility of emails allows you to reach a much wider customer demographic and consequently, influence their buying decision regardless of their location and accessibility.

Excellent ROI

The bottom line of your email marketing campaign is the return on investment. The good news is that email marketing offers a higher ROI in comparison to other digital marketing channels. It is easy to run and measure the results of your email marketing activities especially in gauging your revenue growth. According to a Litmus 2018 study, the average ROI for email marketing is 38:1, which means you get $38 in return if you invest $1 for your email marketing campaign.

Some of the factors that will affect your ROI are the following:

Relevance of content
Quality and size of the email list
Clear and persuasive Call to Action (CTA)
Design and copy

On top of having a good return on investment, measuring and tracking your campaign performance is easy. You can also get and present data as proof that your ROI exists and is legit.

Why Use Email Marketing With Call To Action

Using email to boost your marketing campaign is a proven and tested strategy for a lot of businesses. Here are some of the common uses of email marketing:

To boost brand awareness especially for brands that are new or need reintroduction and promotion in an extremely competitive niche.

Why Use Email Marketing With Call To Action

To establish and ensure relationships with your target audience, building connections by means of personalized engagement.
To promote your brand content and in sharing relevant blogs to provide a better understanding of your business ideals and offers
To effectively market your brand particularly in promoting your products and services.
To generate quality leads by enticing your readers or subscribers to give you their personal information in exchange for your offers or any assets that are relevant and important to them.
To nurture your leads by keeping in touch with your customers and maintaining rapport through content that will help them achieve their goals.

Create a Successful Email Marketing Strategy

An online user or reader receives an average of 121 emails per day, which means that their inbox will be overcrowded with emails from you and your competition. Your goal is to create an email that your recipient will not only open and engage with but for it not to be sent straight to the SPAM folder.

Building an effective email strategy starts with creating content that your recipients would want to read. An effective plan helps you outline your campaign and create a quality email structure and content with the highest open rate.

Best Practices for Quality Email Content

Define your Audience

Knowing your target audience allows you to create relevant and timely content that will appeal to them. Relevant emails are effective emails, which work with tangible results. The first step in defining your audience is, to begin with the buyer persona. Learn about them, understand their needs and wants, and tailor your email content and overall marketing campaign to the result of your buyer persona details.

Establish your Goals

Set up your business campaign goals with realistic and scalable factors. You need to gather some context to use in determining and establishing your goals. You can research some important factors in the industry, using them as your benchmarks for the campaign goals.

Decide on your Email Campaign Type

Email campaigns are not created equal. They vary and have unique features that cater to different brands and business goals. Thus, it is quite overwhelming to decide which of these campaign types is the best for your business. Some campaigns require you to send weekly newsletters while others are bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, and so on.

Use your business goals as a basis for choosing the best type of email marketing campaign. Choose the type based on what you and your customers or prospects need and relevant to them.

Create a Method for Email List

An effective email marketing strategy includes helping you create an email list. This list is inclusive of a group of recipients or users who subscribed or gave their permission to you so that you can send them relevant and timely content. You need an effective method to make sure that people opt in to subscribe or receive your emails. Create a way so that people can subscribe and join your email list.

Schedule your Email Campaign With Call To Action

One of the purposes of your email list is so that you can build or establish your connection with your target audience. Make sure that you stick to your consistent schedule to send your email content to your email list so that you can build trust and rapport. Most importantly, reminding your audience with regular and scheduled email helps them not to forget about your brand.

Scale and Measure your Results

Knowing that your email marketing campaign works should be your main goal. You need to be sure that you are getting your return on investment. The email campaign should yield effective and successful results. Your campaign should include measuring your results using meticulous and accurate key metrics. Nowadays, you can find numerous tools and resources that can help you with this strategic task.

Final Thought

Digital marketers and online business owners know the significance of a good email marketing campaign for today’s businesses. Despite some misconceptions and downplay of this strategic marketing method, email marketing is alive and thriving. In fact, more and more evidence shows how it can provide a long-term boost for your business or brand. The good news is that you can find numerous resources that can help you come up with the best email structure, design, and content.

One of the most essential things to consider in email marketing is the email content, particularly the Call to Action (CTA). It is a powerful and effective way of connecting with your target audience and making them do what you want them to do for your business.

A well-written, quality and effective CTA generates quality leads for new and established businesses alike. It can boost your business sales and growth by showing your audience how to make transactions with you. Create a quality call to action and see how far it can bring your business to greater heights.

Tags: call to action, Email Marketing Strategy, Email marketing Tips

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