Arguably one of the most important elements in an email, the call-to-action is what spurs your recipient to take action on your offer.
Emails can contain multiple types of calls-to-action, including preheader messages, buttons, links, and recently, animated gifs. Regardless of the type, calls-to-action are most effective when they:
1. Are Powerful. The call-to-action language entices the click through by using the subscriber’s language and provides a strong incentive. Examples:
Piperlime does a great job of speaking subscriber lingo and hits the nerve of all teenage girls that want to stand out from the crowd.
Sephora sets up the call-to-action with the messaging that subscribers can try a product before it even hits the stores.
2. Are Actionable. The call-to-action should make it clear what action the subscriber should take. Don’t make them guess like Abercrombie or Costco do.
3. Create urgency. The call-to-action lights the fire under subscribers to act immediately on the offer. Examples:
Bath & Body Works tells subscribers that the offer is limited and creates that urgency in 4 words.
Bluefly sends out “the Quickie” offer emails that provides subscribers a 4-hour window within which to take advantage of the offer.
4. Aren’t hidden. Make your call-to-action stand out by not hiding it in tiny type a la Hermes or blended into an image like Lands’ End.
(The now defunct) Circuit City does a great job of making each of their calls-to-action stand out by utilizing different colors and copy.
5. Are bulletproof and viewable both with images disabled and enabled.
Bonus material… A few examples of animated gifs in the wild:
Williams-Sonoma shows off an animated gif call-to-action in their header graphic of the email.
Eaton makes the call-to-action truly impossible to miss by adding in a text link version of it directly below the animated gif (which is blocked when images are turned off).
Do you have any examples of truly spectacular calls-to-action? Feel free to share them and any other thoughts below.
Kelly Lorenz
Account Manager at Bronto
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the excellent examples about creating effective email marketing campaigns. I have forwarded this article to by customers and business associates :)
Matt,
Glad you found them helpful! Please feel free to come back and share the successes of your customers!
-Kelly @ Bronto