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“Can you hear me now?” It’s a joke that’s funny in mobile phone ads, because with phones, there’s an easy answer: either you hear someone, or you don’t. With email, the line can be less distinct. Colors and a great layout may spur click-throughs (they “hear” you), while lines and lines of incomprehensible prose may halt any chance at revenue, but if you don’t have a call-to-action, it’s difficult for customers to know what to do next.

The call to action

Since these are emails, customers won’t be taking any final action from that screen. Instead, it’s your responsibility to get them from where they are (their own personal inbox) to where you’d like them to be (on your site). Rather than hinting around an issue, tell your customers directly what you’d like them to do. Those in a rush aren’t going to want to have to figure out how to get to your site, or where their desired information is, or how to weed out discount items from the rest. Telling someone to “BUY NOW” with a hyperlink attached is a great way to encourage them to do just that. So is “VIEW ALL SALE ITEMS”. If you can, tell people what will happen when they follow your link – “CLICK HERE” is not nearly as effective as “LISTEN TO A SAMPLE,” since customers know exactly what they’re getting into with the latter.

Imperatives or instruction words such as “buy,” “view,” or even “share” (as in, socially) can be powerhouses when it comes to driving customers to your site. It’s true what they often say about customers being lemmings – a bad trait for them, but good for you! If you can tell them what to do, they’ll often follow through, and getting them to your site in the first place is half the battle.

Reading vs. seeing

Just having action words isn’t enough, though. Even the most compelling direction means nothing if consumers can’t READ it. Many best practices have evolved out of this concept:

• Bigger is often better (buy now versus buy now). Just be sure not to make it too big! You don’t want your customers to think you’re shouting at them.
• Words in color are often more noticeable than those in black (just be sure the colors don’t blend in or get lost in the background colors)
• Place action words and calls to action above the fold in emails; customers should not have to scroll to make a decision (many won’t)
• Keep your call to action short and sweet

Your CTA may even “pop” more if you place it on an image “button” (colored background “button” with a word on top). Using properly-labeled alt-text will allow users to see your call to action if the email client blocks images (for more information on this, see “Marketing automation tip: the image/text debate”).

So what?

The bottom line? If your customers can’t hear you, they sure won’t be buying. But with eye-catching visual instructions, even the most distracted reader would be hard pressed not to understand where they should click.

So…can your customers hear you now? Good.