Do you ever get stuck in a call to action (CTA) rut when building emails? Or end up using the same call-to-actions over and over? It’s understandable. Especially when you find something that works, it’s hard not to lean into it. But today, we’re going to help you break out of the same old cycle. Check out these effective email marketing CTA examples to help freshen up your campaigns and boost engagement.
Including a variety of CTAs in your email marketing strategy can help increase conversions, so don’t be scared to mix and match and use what works!
Email marketing gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to CTAs. Unlike other types of marketing call to actions, the whole purpose of the email is to push people from their inboxes to your website or store. It doesn’t help most businesses to keep people in their inboxes (unless your business is newsletters!). That’s why most emails are sent with the intent to get users to take some type of action like shop, book, or reserve to persuade them out of their inboxes.
Email Marketing CTA Examples By Industry
While the email CTA examples below can be used by any industry, it’s important to understand your audience and how they best respond. Different methods work better for some types of businesses than others. Retail clothing brands can send emails with product images and “Shop Now” buttons, but that wouldn’t work too well for tech companies.
Be mindful of your customer’s needs and the trends in your industry. B2C businesses offering a product directly to consumers would see more conversions from images, urgency, and buttons. B2B businesses offering services or software don’t (usually) have beautiful lifestyle images to share. Luckily, their customers respond really well to simple text links and buttons.
As always, when trying anything new in email marketing, it’s important to test against your standard templates and take note of what’s working and what isn’t. This helps make sure only the most engaging CTAs are being used in your strategies.
10 Email Calls-to-Action to Start Using Now
1. Text CTA
Every call-to-action doesn’t have to be a button or an image! Sometimes we forget about the good ol’ text link. Email marketing is a great conversion tool because it gives us the space to sell. For some businesses, laying out the problem before offering a link to the solution is key to landing the sale.
Text links also add value to letter-format emails without seeming pushy. Adding something as simple as “If this sounds interesting to you, please send me an email at xyz@company.com and let’s chat” is a gentle way to ask your leads to take that next step into your buyer’s journey.
Example email: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/tips-to-increase-remote-collaboration
2. Image CTA
People will click on images. Especially because most people clear out their inbox on their phone, your images might be the biggest and easiest thing to click in the email. Making sure all images are linked to helpful and relatable landing pages can increase engagement and site traffic.
Things like the company logo should link back to the homepage, employee headshots can link to an about page, and images used with content should link to the content pieces.
Example email: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/-our-best-titles-of-the-year-
3. Button CTA
We can’t talk about email marketing without talking about buttons! These have long been the standard for increasing conversions and engagement in emails and they’re not going away any time soon. When planning button CTAs it’s important to keep in mind best practices like keeping copy short, maintaining a good contrast between font and button colors, and making font sizes legible.
Testing buttons across desktop and mobile is another important step to ensure that users have a seamless experience. This is especially important to consider if the buttons being used are part of a graphic instead of built into the email.
Email example: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/5-destinations-open-for-travel-right-now
4. Nudge Forward CTA
Yes, some people will forward emails on their own, but it helps to jog people’s memory if you want them to share your emails. This can be as simple as a text link that reminds the reader to forward to a college or a button that stands out reminding readers to send to a friend. Including these reminders strategically can be a great tool for driving engagement.
Around holidays and other gifting occasions, another great use of this type of CTA is to let a loved one know that something is on their wishlist.
Example email: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/forward-this-to-a-friend
5. Social Sharing CTA
Want to encourage even more engagement? Add in social sharing buttons to the emails that would be perfect for sharing on social media. These types of emails can include discount codes or referral codes, new product drops, or sales and promotions.
Social sharing buttons are also very useful for B2B businesses, especially those that offer content like webinars and eBooks. That content is extremely valuable so make it easy for people to share with their colleagues by adding social sharing buttons in the signature or after key content pieces.
Example email: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/-cha-ching-youve-earned-10
6. Testimonial CTA
Reviews and testimonials give huge credibility and are an amazing selling tool for businesses. It’s time to leverage that power in email! Include a customer review, testimonial, or expert opinion in your email as the CTA to customers who are a little further down the funnel. These types of CTAs can help push customers who are already familiar with your brand further down the funnel.
Don’t forget that UGC can count here too! If your company already collects user generated content, put it to work in your emails as living testimonials from happy customers.
Email example: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/small-leather-accessories
7. Encourage a Purchase CTA
Well, yes, purchase is the ultimate goal, but there are so many other ways to say buy now. Think of how many emails you’ve seen just today with some version of “shop now”. Customers can get fatigued by this language too. Try changing up language especially when there are multiple buttons leading to the same place.
Some options to test are:
- Shop now. Get 50% off.
- Save today
- Yes I Want One
- Order Now
- Repeat Your Order
- Get Free Shipping
- Try for Yourself
Example email: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/both-flavors-are-absolutely-
8. Actionable CTA
If your business isn’t selling a product directly, you still have to be creative with your language! Use varying action-based language when it comes to content like articles and webinars.
Test these in your buttons and links:
- Learn more
- Read more
- Curious? Read on
- Download the eBook
- Download now
- Keep reading
- Read the full story
- Get the app
Email example: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/new-video-about-big-sur-viral-junkman-prank-useful-reads-and-more
9. Benefits Oriented CTA
We all know that successful businesses solve problems for their customers. If your email is presenting one of these solvable problems to your customers, make sure the CTA is benefits-oriented so that they know immediately that there’s a solution on the other side.
Test using language like this:
- See How Easy!
- Yes, I Want More Traffic
- Start the Free Course
- Learn How in 5 Minutes
- It Only Takes 3 Steps
Email example: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/5-reasons-to-try-hbo-max
10. Inspire Curiosity CTA
If you think of your subject line as your bait, then your email CTA is your hook. Use your subject line to intrigue your reader by connecting with them on one of their pain points. Once they open the email, don’t lay out exactly how you’re going to solve the problem for them. Instead let them know that a solution is available and they can get to it through the call-to-action.
Your business is constantly solving very unique problems for your customers. Use those as the lures to get your prospects where you want them.
Some examples include:
- What’s making your customer’s leave? > Show Me My Heat Map
- Need a good night’s sleep? > Find Your Sleep Number
- How losing our biggest client led to our biggest ROI. > View the Report
- Denim doesn’t fit? > Try Our Virtual Size Guide
Email example: https://reallygoodemails.com/emails/create-and-upload-your-first-video-in-an-instant
Key Takeaways
Now that you have a ton of options for email CTAs in front of you, it’s time to test! The options for calls-to-action are endless when it comes to email, but at the end of the day understanding what works best for your audience is going to generate the best and most lasting engagement.
If you’re looking for a tool that can help you send emails, track engagement, segment audiences, and personalize the customer journey, maybe it’s time to take a look at SharpSpring. Contact us to set up a demo today!
