You have an awesome whitepaper, which is sure to attract—with the force of Earth’s gravitational pull—myriad readers. After hours of deliberation, with what seemed like 200 collaborators, you determined the audience and subject line for the email. The launch of your email campaign is upon you, open rates are skyrocketing like Apple stock, and you can’t wait to see the plethora of leads.
But, wait… No one is visiting your landing page!
Sound familiar? Maybe your email’s design is thwarting your call to action (CTA). Here are some tips for improving your email’s CTA, based on my work at MarketingProfs, where I track and analyze ad campaigns. In my opinion, these tips offer the best chance for success.
Layout Tips
- Keep it simple and uncluttered.
- Less text is better than tons of it. Use bullets like these. (People have neither the time nor desire to read chunks of text. Skimming is
king.) - Stick with a white background.
- Follow a template: header at the top, one image in right column, copy to the left.
CTA Placement
This is the single most important item of your email design.
- Use multiple CTAs. (I suggest three.)
- Use one above the copy, one below the copy, and one in the right column.
- Keep two CTAs near the copy as text, but larger and bolded.
- Make the right column CTA a button.
- Text CTAs should be a different color (not red, which signals ALARM).
- Make sure your main CTA is above the fold.
What to Avoid
These mistakes are made all the time—but they are easy to fix!
- Never have your main CTA or any other pertinent info in an image. (Most folks set up their email clients to block images.)
- Don’t use too many images. They are very distracting.
- Don’t use too much copy. The CTA and message can get lost.
- Avoid black backgrounds… or any other color for that matter. (Stick with white!)
- Avoid print under 12 point. Don’t make your prospects squint.
Sure, there are a million variables as to why you get clicks—or not. However, I have seen the mentioned techniques succeed or fail in my studying countless analytics reports.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. What email design tips work for you?
Jason Lorentz is the sales solutions manager of MarketingProfs, which means he handles all the behind-the-scenes action for the sales staff and their clients. He lives with his wife and their 4-year-old son in Delaware.
(Photo courtesy of Bigstock: One Click)
Good tips. Got an image you could post showing an example email?
Hi Kimberly. I’ll email you an example. Thanks for the comment!
Jason, thanks for the tips! I would love to see an example as well. Please email. Thanks again.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the comment as well! Should be on the way as I write this
Great timing! I’m close to having a new LP go live so this gives me a last minute review for my email campaign. I’d also appreciate your example.
Glad I could help! Just sent to you. In the works on a follow up post…with examples!
Great post, Jason!
Great tips! Would you share an example with me. Thanks!
Thank you for the tips! Would you share an example.
Great tips! Would you share an example. Thanks!
Hi Kim,
Thanks for the kind words! I just sent you an example. Hope it helps!
Hi, folks!
Glad you enjoyed Jason Lorentz’s article. I just wanted to chime in here and let you know that Jason is working on a follow-up post, complete with examples.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Your friendly neighborhood Daily Fix editor
You can use images as long as they’re background images with text in the cell/behind the image, so that if images ARE turned off, you can still see the text. Our team also prefers left-column CTAs — for most of us, natural reading is left to right and people are going to notice stuff on the left first.
Hi Janet. Thanks for the reply! I am definitely not saying don’t use images, but keep the proportion of image to text about 2/3 text to 1/3 image. I totally agree that you should always employ and alt text behind the image for that situation. However, if you have several images and the alt text is being displayed, it can take away from the email as it completely changes the look of the email, especially if the images dominate the design. I like your idea regarding the left column! I have not employed that or seen it done before. I’d like to test that design in an A/B split. Thanks for the input! Best, Jason
Hi Jason,
thanks for your articles! Love the hands-on style.
I would like to know if you made the testing left vs. right-column Picture CTA? Got any conclusions? Greetings from Germany.
Nils
Hi Nils. Thanks for the kind words. I did not test the left column for picture CTA’s. It’s an interesting idea, and I had another person mention it as well. I would imagine it might work well, as people generally read from left to right and are trained to start there. Best, Jason
Nice Article Jason !
Any tips on how to make an email look trustworthy and attractive as well, at times a well designed and colorful email tend to appear more like a spam. A sample/example would be really helpful. Thanks !
Hi Sudeep. I appreciate the comment, and definitely understand your concern. It is very easy to cross that line, into the spammy who are these people kidding with this message zone. Like I mentioned in the write up, keeping the design clean and organized will help avoid that. I honestly believe the more design you put into it, the more it can sometimes take away from the email. Keep your reader focused on what you are offering, and make it easy for them to find it. If you present an offer and deliver the offer in your email, the reader will have a much easier time believing it’s legit. Hope this helps! Best, Jason
I would lille to see a great example email too. Thanks
Hi Leslie. Thanks for the comment! Just forwarded to you and the other readers who were looking for an example.
Nice read! Thanks for the tips!!
Can i have the example as well? Thanks!
Thanks for the tips! Can you please forward the example to me too?
Hi Terri. I appreciate the comment! There is going to be an example post coming early next week, which will actually show several examples of good emails. Hope you enjoy them! Best, Jason
Hi Jason
Thanks for this useful note.
I am assuming this would apply to the newsletter I send out.
I do some of the things you suggest to avoid – and I need to rethink my CTA approach.
All the best
Stephen
Hi Stephen. Thanks for the props! Yes, the theory behind this could also be applied to a newsletter. Although, more content is probably what people are looking for in a newsletter. However, keeping it clean and easy to find your CTA’s is definitely a great idea. Best, Jason
[...] day, you can boost the chances of getting your CTA getting clicked. As I mentioned in my post, “Get More Clicks on Your Email’s Call to Action: Advice From the Frontlines at MarketingProfs,” you need to make it easy and obvious for readers to know where to click and what they will [...]
Which side do you favor in the HTML vs text debate?
Honestly, I can only speak from experience. From the emails I have been involved with, only a very small percentage chose to read emails in text format. So, there really isn’t much debate on my side. However, you should always make it available for the readers opting for text only emails, and it should read the same as your HTML version to avoid spam filtering. Hope this is what you were asking! Thanks for the question. Best, Jason
I would love an example too please – wonderful tips thank you