Get People to Do What You Want: How to Create Effective CTAs

When was the last time you made an ask of your contacts within an email? Whether you wanted them to sign up for your latest webinar or check out a blog post you were featured in, you probably created some sort of call-to-action, or CTA. How effective was your CTA? How many of your contacts actually followed through on the action you asked of them? If the number is low, it may be time for you to reassess how you create your CTAs and even what they look like.

Better yet, think about the last time you got a promotional email in your inbox. It had a compelling enough subject line to get you to open it, and once you opened it, did you click through to shop or open their website or sign up? Or did you open and close it back out in quick succession?

That compelling CTA—or not so compelling one—is a great starting point for creating your own call to actions in your emails. Keep in mind the three factors that go into creating a successful CTA: color, message, and placement in your email.

Creating a more effective call to action...

Before you start your CTA creation, think about what you want your contact to do. It's a call to action, and you want your contact to take immediate action, so what's going to get them to do that? Because, we'll bet that the basic 'click here' won't entice too many folks in to actually clicking there. You need to give them a reason to click, so what will they get out of it if they do go ahead and click?