Your email's CTA (call-to-action) is one of the most critical email marketing components to test because it's what generates leads and conversions!
The CTA is the equivalent of "asking for the sale" when you talk to a prospect on the phone or in person after a sales presentation.
You wouldn't dream of closing a critical call with "Great talking with you, Joe. Well, uh... have a good day."
No - you'd assume the sale. "So Joe, let's get you started. I'm going to ask for some information to get your Infusionsoft account set up. Ready?" And I just keep going until Joe stops me.
If that happens, I find out what his objections are and circle back and deal with them.
It might take several conversations to help Joe feel secure in his decision to move forward and commit to a purchase. Asking for the sale can be the most intimidating piece of the whole sales process. And the piece that is most neglected.
The key to moving your leads through your sales funnel using email marketing is to keep them engaged. Every action is a raised hand! Another step closer to a sale.
In a lead nurture campaign, your calls-to-action might be to download a free report or an e-book, fill out a survey, reply to the email sender with a comment, or register for a free webinar.
So as they say in the army...
1. IMAGE CTA VS. TEXT CTA
Start by testing whether you see better conversion rates from image/banner CTAs or text CTAs. Below are examples of both a text hyperlink and an image, both going to the same landing page.
2. CTA BUTTON COPY AND COLOR
If you find that image CTAs are pulling best, start testing the button copy and color. You'd test those elements for your website, right? Emails are no different. Orange and red button colors (or mixed if you feel a little crazy) have been tested and found to pull better than more subdued colors.
Go ahead and click the button below 🙂
3. LINK PLACEMENT WITHIN TEXT
If you find that text CTAs perform better than image CTAs (or you have the best conversion rates with both image and text CTAs), start to experiment with the placement of those hyperlinks within the email copy.
You might find anchor text gets clicked on the most when it's at the beginning of your email, near the end, or somewhere in between - it all depends on your reader's email scanning habits!
4. TEXT CTA IN BODY COPY VS. P.S.
Next to an email's first few lines, the next most-read part of the email is the P.S. It's prime real estate that can and should be used when appropriate. If you find that using a P.S. is getting some clicks, you might want to do a split test to see whether your text CTA gets the most conversions when it's included in the body copy of your email or in the P.S.
And if you decide to use the P.S. real estate for a secondary CTA, test whether it adversely impacts conversions for your primary CTA.
5. SOCIAL PROOF VS. NO SOCIAL PROOF
If you've ever made a purchase based on a product's reviews, you've been influenced by social proof. Have you ever wondered why tv recording studios use canned laughter or applause? If a crowd thinks something is hilarious, it must be.
Try including a few elements of social proof in your emails and test whether your conversion rates improve.
6.TYPE OF OFFER
The type of offer you're sending might also have an impact on conversions...especially if you're segmenting your lists based on age, sex, interests, sales stage, etc.
Test to see if reports, e-books, videos, webinars, physical books and/or CD's are more effective. It takes effort, but the results could be a total game-changer!
Rome wasn't built in a day - not all of these tests need to be tackled at once.
Small steps reap huge rewards!
Seize the day!
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