Designing Effective Call-to-Action Buttons for Higher Email Conversion Rates
The call-to-action button is often the most underrated element of a landing page or email. It gets neglected among the sea of other, seemingly more important elements, like headers, images, or subject lines.
However, by its very nature, the CTA button will often be the first thing visitors or recipients see. It can help you make just the right first impression, or it can turn you into nothing but yet another unmemorable brand your lead is exposed to daily.
Here is how you can design call-to-action buttons that are more effective and will help you boost your email conversion rates.
Provide Incentive to Sign Up
Your first order of business is to ensure there are plenty of people who will receive your email. No matter how well you design its call-to-action, if it only reaches a handful of individuals, it won’t be nearly as effective. With an average conversion rate of just 3%, your immediate and continuous goal is to increase signups.
A good way to do that is to provide a clear incentive for your website visitors to sign up and potentially convert down the line.
Here’s a good example from ShopSolar of how you can do that.
By surrounding your CTA button with effective, value-adding copy you can make it much more impactful. After all, the button itself is small and can only do so much.
Put It in the Obvious Place
On a similar note, you should also make sure that the signup button is easy to reach and located where website visitors will naturally look for it: in your footer.
Of course, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t also put it elsewhere: in your main menu, as an element in the middle of your homepage, at the bottom of product pages, etc. As long as it’s safely nestled in the footer, you are good.
Here’s a good example of how you can seamlessly integrate the email signup button into your footer. FOCL uses the same font to blend the form in, as well as the same font size. The black and white design makes it effective but understated, and you are not forced to look at the CTA button – but you are very much aware that it’s there.
Make Converting Easy
In order to boost your conversion rates, you want to make converting easy. Ask your nothing more than the lead’s email. You may also ask for their name for personalization purposes, but that’s it.
Sure, it would help you to know more about each lead, like where they are from, how they came to your website, what they are looking for, and their age group and pain points. But you can find all of that out later when they click through your email CTA and you are able to track their behavior. For now, your goal is to gain access to their inbox, where you can continue to warm them up.
Here’s a good example of an easy signup. MarketBeat’s calculator for stock dividends page comes with a popup that allows you to sign up either by providing your email address or by using your Google account. It’s a one-click process that will give the brand all they need without frustrating the lead.
Make It Personal
A high-converting CTA will be as personalized as it can be. It will make the lead feel spoken to and valued.
When you send someone an email, you will already try to tailor every element you can, from the greeting to the message contents. The CTA button should be afforded the same courtesy.
You don’t even need to create a completely unique button for everyone. All you need to do is speak directly to the lead, using “my” or “your” as the pronoun. Ideally, you want it to be “my” or “mine,” as this will establish a deeper level of connection.
As an example, check out Pumpkin. Their CTAs always sound more personal with the use of “my.” “Create my pet’s plan” or “fetch my free quote” has a much higher chance of converting than “create a plan” or “get a free quote.”
Brand Your CTA Text
Alongside the personalization, you also want to aim to brand your CTAs whenever possible. This may not always be possible, depending on your brand name. But if you can play with words or create a pun, go for it!
The simplest solution is to mention the name of the brand in the CTA, even if the rest of the copy is fairly straightforward. For example, Semrush has a “Discover all Semrush features” CTA that is much more impactful than the simpler “sign up” option. The latter is neither personalized nor branded, while the former reinforces the connection with the brand.
A great example of a branded CTA can be found on Going’s cheap flights page. They play with their brand name and tell you repeatedly to “get going.” The play on words tells you both to start traveling and book that flight, as well as to get their service and have their flights delivered to your inbox.
Diversify Them
You should also aim to create different CTAs for different purposes. You don’t want all of them to simply be “buy now” or “see more.” Each of them should adhere to the above principles: stand out, be branded or personalized, and be in direct correlation with the landing page.
When you create a unique CTA for every landing page, you are making your content more interesting. It will be much more dynamic and engaging, especially if you apply the best copywriting principles to crafting this microcopy.
Let’s look at one of Sephora’s latest newsletter emails. They have added a “read the edit” CTA for their latest blog post, a “get yours” personalized CTA for a product page, as well as a “plan your visit” one for their latest event.
All of these CTAs are an example of what you should try to emulate:
- Speak directly to the reader.
- Use action words.
- Don’t make the CTA longer than three words.
Make It Pop
The basic design principle you should employ when creating effective CTA buttons is the simplest one: make the CTA stand out.
You want this to be the first thing readers see when they open your email. You want to make the click engaging and inspire some curiosity.
Use a color that contrasts with the rest of the email. You can still work in the same color family, as long as you choose a shade that stands out. This will prevent the email from becoming too garish or distracting.
Zoom does a good job with its newsletters. Their background is dark blue, which makes the white letters pop. This color choice makes the entire email much more dynamic than the usual black-on-white design.
The bright aquamarine of the CTA makes it instantly noticeable. The text itself makes it clear what the button does: it signs you up for an event. Since it’s the first element you notice, you can now choose to read the rest of the email if you are curious about it. If not, you have saved yourself time and can move on to the next one.
Highlight the Benefits of Converting
Finally, you can use the CTA to clearly show your leads the benefits of converting. This may mean that the CTA will be longer, but this works very well in an email. Try to cut down on the text as much as you can, and use the copy surrounding it to provide more details. Focus on one key element that will be of most use or interest to your leads.
For example, Bachata Dance Academy recently had a sale on their bestselling online course. Their CTAs are perfectly clear about the benefit of converting: you can save 70%.
This kind of CTA provides plenty of room for customization and adjustment. You can also add a bit of FOMO to it and note that the offer is only valid for a certain period or that there is limited stock available if that’s the case.
Wrapping Up
To design CTA buttons that convert, consider the needs and interests of your audience. Why would they want to sign up for your newsletter in the first place? Once you convince them that you won’t be sending them junk, you can go about convincing them to click through an email.
Test out different versions continuously until you find a formula that works. Even when your conversion rates start rising, keep switching things up so that there’s always something new to catch your customer’s eye.