What Are CTAs in Email Marketing? A Brief Guide to Call-to-Action’s

November 20, 2024

You’ve probably heard the term ‘CTA’ a million times when marketing your brand. But what are CTA’s in email marketing and how can they help drive revenue?

A call-to-action (aka CTA) is something you’ve probably heard a lot in the online marketing world. And, by now, you’re probably thinking it’s just another marketing acronym designed to annoy and confuse. 

However, what if we told you that using a clear CTA on your email marketing can increase clicks by 371%? Changed your mind?

In this article, we’ve prepared a short guide to CTAs in the context of email marketing. So you can understand what they are, how they work and what they can do for ROI. 

If you are thinking of getting conversions through strong call to action prompts, let’s dive into it. But, first, how about we tell you more about what exactly CTAs are.

What Are CTAs in email marketing? Are they important?
What are CTAs in email marketing? And why are they instrumental for driving revenue? Image from Pixabay

What Are CTAs?

To put it simply, CTAs are prompts that encourage your prospects to take the next action. Whether that’s buying your products or signing up to catch your emails, CTAs are clear and quick click drivers. 

Of course, we’re talking about CTAs in email marketing here and we’ll get onto that in more detail shortly. But CTAs can also be used across the digital marketing mix to direct your prospects wherever you want them to go.  

Types of CTAs in Marketing

Some examples of CTAs from across your marketing channels include:

 

Digital Marketing ChannelExample CTAs
Website “Start Your Free Trial Today”
“Shop the Collection Now”
Social Media “Tag a Friend Who Needs This!”
“Swipe Up for More!”
PPC Ads “Book Your Free Consultation Today”
“Learn More About Our Best-Sellers”
Content Marketing“Download the Full Guide”
“Watch the Tutorial Now”

Whether it’s in an email asking customers to check out a sale or the popup prompting prospects to sign up to your subscriber list in the first place. It is necessary to provide instructions to the readers so they know what to do next. 

Your email may be worth a read, nonetheless, if the sends don’t offer readers a direction they will likely close or delete them. What a missed opportunity, right? 

Basically, CTAs increase email conversions and this turns your readers into customers.

Clear CTA showing on an email campaign for NITE watches
Your CTA should ensure your customers know what action to take next. Here’s how we did it for NITE Watches

They Really Work – Check Out Our Case Study

We used high-powered CTAs (among other strategies) to help NITE WATCHES increase revenue by 99%


Where Can You Put Your CTAs?

You want to make it easy for people to take action. So your CTA should be prominent, stand out on its own and not appear too far down the email that the receiver has to scroll down to see it.

Examples of clearer CTAs in email marketing
It’s super important to ensure your CTA stands out

It’s important to implement CTAs in your email designs. As you can see from the graphic above, buttons are great for standing out and giving customers a clear action point. Plus, they convert much better than text versions.

Ensure your CTA buttons are sizably large and coloured, following your brand guidelines.

You can also repeat them to emphasise the importance of your CTAs. Postscript is a good place for CTAs (as a hyperlinked text). Nobody misses it.


Get our killer CTAs on your team with our specialist email marketing 


What are CTAs in Email Marketing?

Remember, you are sending an email. Therefore, CTAs should be short, clear, and punchy, similar to the email content. 

Regardless of whether you’re selling to or nurturing your audience, make sure you state explicitly the action you want your readers to take next.

It’s also better if it provides an incentive to encourage readers to click the CTAs. You can mention it just before the buttons.

Some examples of CTAs used in email marketing:

  • Buy Now
  • Purchase Now
  • Explore Products
  • To The Sale
  • Get Yours Today
  • Find Out More
  • Visit Our Store
  • Click Here For 20% OFF
Flash sale email CTA example
Here’s how we used the Kiss My Keto branding to colour our CTA button to stand out against a striking background

How Can You Make them Effective?

Now we know what they are and how they work, how can you make your email CTAs work harder than a boat maker in a flood? After all, one purchase is great, but you want your CTAs to work time and again to boost customer retention rates. 

To make your CTAs effective in email marketing, it’s all about finding the right balance. Too many CTAs can overwhelm your readers, making it hard for them to focus on what you really want them to do. On the other hand, just one clear CTA can help guide your subscribers directly to the action you want.

But how do you know what works best? Simple—test it!

Experiment with different numbers of CTAs, wording and designs. Test, track, and optimise based on what your email data tells you. Over time, you’ll find the perfect CTA strategy to boost engagement and drive conversions!


Harness The Power of CTAs in Your Email Marketing

In summary, CTAs are crucial to getting the most from your email campaigns. Although you can forget to include your signature in your email (not recommended), you absolutely cannot leave out CTAs.

But, if you get Drop Zero Digital involved with your email strategy, you won’t have to worry about forgetting anything. 

Find out more about our expert email marketing services today and start demanding more from your sends. 

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