The call to action (CTA) is simply the most important part of your email. Your target audience needs to be told, what to do – they won’t contact you just because you send them an email. They want to be able to act fast and simple. If they have to figure out the way to contact you, if they have to do extra work to give you money, most of them won’t do the work and abandon your email.
So you must include a CTA, or multiple CTAs – we will get to this in a moment.
A CTA has to be designed carefully, because the smallest details can have enormous effect on conversion. Just changing the color of a CTA button can land 20-30% more (or less) conversions for you. But we will talk about that another time: now we will have a look at where you should place them in your mail.
According to Hubspot your first CTA may very well be in the subject line of your email. But be careful with this tip, since many recipients may discard your email if subject line that is way too assertive.
Only include a call to action in the subject line, if you are really, really confident with it, and if it’s not the regular stuff people receive on a daily basis. An uncommon but still attractive CTA is what you should be looking for in case of subject lines to grab the attention of the receiver.
Size matters
Let’s talk a bit about CTA size. According to Apple the size of a touchable area should be at least 44 x 44 px. The primary call to action should be even bigger then this one to make it stand from the rest of the design. This size may seem pretty large compared to plain text, but that’s not a problem at all since you have to make the CTA (button) the most prominent element of your design.
Image source: Campaign Monitor
One or more?
In the text you can use multiple CTAs – this is useful recipients have to scroll down to read your full email, so those who don’t reach the end won’t see a CTA that is placed there.
Multiple CTA buttons could be counter-effective according to some studies, but links in the text – especially with a good anchor – can serve you well. **You also get the chance to create **secondary CTAs which lead to other landing pages than your primary one.
**Including dozens of CTAs can intimidate potential leads, while a carefully crafted one will attract their attention. **Have a look at these two examples and think about which one would you be more likely to click!
Where to place the primary call to action?
Also, it is advisable to make your CTA stand out – not only with its colors, but its placement too. Surround it with white space and remove any distractions for a higher click-through rate. If you are using a drag-and-drop email editor you can play around easily to find the best solution.
You primary CTA however should be at the bottom. A/B tests confirmed that if you place them there instead of the top, you can boost your conversion rates. There is logic behind that: if you provide time for openers to read through your copy, have a look at your offers and get a good picture, you are more likely to grab their attention and gain their trust.
A CTA on the top of an email (or page) will only convert those who already know that they want something from you. For those who don’t, you have to place your offer to the right point where they are convinced enough to convert.
Campaign Monitor says – and we agree – that the complexity of your offer is a direct indicator of where you should position the CTA. If your offer is simple, it can be at the top, but if it’s complex, the bottom is you target.
Remember, your audience needs to be told what to do. If they get to the end of your email and there is no CTA, they will be confused. They won’t scroll back up, they will just bounce. Not because they are dumb but because they don’t like to do any plus work in order to spend their money. It’s your job to make conversion a simple and fast process.
But nothing is carved in stone
You may find that multiple flashy CTAs work better for you than only one or two. Or that the top of the page is more efficient. It all depends on your specific target audience, your market, your communication style, your product and many other factors. ***You should conduct your own A/B tests ***to find the best solution for your special case. Creating a couple different CTA versions should not be an issue if you use a drag-and-drop email editor for the job.
