Email marketing and call to action: how do I get people to the landing page?

Allow me to introduce you to yet another contributor and his first post. I’m convinced that all email marketers out there will love the stuff Pieter Wuyts writes.

Why? Because Pieter is one of the founders of 8Seconds, that very quickly became the market leader in real time email testing. The company is market leader in real-time multivariate testing in email marketing campaigns. So no big theories but real-life tips and tricks to boost conversion rates and efficiency of your email marketing. In this first post, Pieter immediately gives a bunch of tips. The question he answers is how to get people to the landing page. Think call to action, buttons and read these excellent tips!

How do you get people to the landing page? 

Or when I rephrase this question into a more official style, it would sound like this: “How can we increase engagement, involvement and interaction with our subscribers?” 

However, let’s be honest, in the end, we use emails to sell things, so allow me to ask simple questions, so that I can formulate simple answers.

Now, in the email we make an offer to the recipients, and then we motivate him or her to click a link and continue the process on a landing page.

So, let me first show you the worst button or call to action that you can use:

This button is too small and has a color that does not convert well. This button worked 10 years ago  when a lot of people spent their first moments on the internet and when we needed very clear clues on where to look, where to click and where to push…  “CLICK HERE, BUY NOW, BUY,…”  
 
A few reports mention that the best color is green, but the reports themselves are 6 years old, so forget them as soon as possible!

Let’s improve this button:

First of all, change the color into a very bright orange, which is the best color to increase click through. Red or yellow work well too.

 

Then add an arrow to this button, apparently the human mind needs help to find the exact place where one should click and make the button a little bigger so that people who are interested do not have to search for it.

  
 
Well done, on average you will now increase your click through rate by approximately 23%, by simply following the 3 suggestions I just gave you.

Let’s stop treating email subscribers as idiots

Now it’s time to fine tune and make it really worthwhile!

Let me ask you a question first. Suppose you enter a shop to have a look at the clothes they have for sale, and suddenly the shop owner approaches you, and he shouts “BUY NOW!!!”. What would you do?

 You turn around and you leave of course!  It’s exactly the same on the internet. Let’s stop treating subscribers as idiots, and let’s treat them politly, or as is often said on this blog: like real people instead of a bunch of email addresses.

Why don’t we ask people to have a look  inside, invite them and tell them what they will get when they enter the shop? It will look  like this:
 
 

  
  
I said fine tune, but these last 2 tips increase your click through by 10% to 420%!   Might be worth trying out, no?

Also, don’t hesitate to repeat the button a few times. The more opportunities a reader has to go to the landing page, the easier it will be for him to click through…

The author of this post, Pieter Wuyts, is a no-nonsense entrepreneur and conversion freak. He’s one of the founders of 8 Seconds, that very quickly became the market leader is real time email testing. Pieter inspires people to grow, email campaigns to perform better and plants to flower. 8Seconds is market leader in real time multivariate testing in email marketing campaigns. Clients use the email optimization services to find out in real time what converts well and what does not, based on statistical algorithms. You can follow Pieter on Twitter here.

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