To improve your call to action don’t click here

In the infancy of the World Wide Web certain terms of reference were used to guide those that had ventured into the purchase of a 56k modem.

Direct instructions such as “click on thumbnail to view larger image” and the most commonly used “click here” statement were implemented to show this first generation of web surfers how the browser took you from one page to the next.

It is now a given to even the most green user that clicking on a small picture will, 9 times out of 10, give you a larger one.

The use of the internet and web based applications has now become common place and with this allows the ability to drop old habits and encourage new ones.

It’s all relative

Information driven sites such as Wikipedia and the majority of news publishers has opened the way to contextual linking, providing guidance to other reference material within a sentence.

The term “click here” doesn’t give the reader any indication of why they might be clicking on this link or where it is going to take them next. Providing the command for a user action can be delivered in a statement providing context of where the reader can go to next.

“For more information on Product A click here” can be presented with better description by applying the statement into a logical sentence.

“To find out more about Product A, visit the Products page.” A descriptive action gives us more confidence if we know where we are going rather than clicking into the abyss.

Keep it clean

It would be all too easy to over saturate the body of your message by utilising contextual linking on every other word, deterring the reader’s interest.

Referencing a product name with a link to the page relating to it e.g. contacts, latest news, offers and so on encourages the reader by giving them a choice. If it doesn’t seem like you are strong arming the reader into doing something they’re not sure they want to, they will be more inclined to investigate on their own.

It’s all about balance

Your main goal of the email should be emphasised at the beginning and end of the message. The enticement to click through to your site can be different allowing you greater chance of capturing the attention of the many different reading patterns that people have.

Skim readers for example may only be interested in the first line of a message and not read anything else, others may zig zag through the whole content looking for the end goal.

If your message is only providing a snippet of the information you want the reader to see, using the statement “Read More” provides a solid guide to the users options at that point. They also remember that they can go back to that point later, be it a few seconds or a day, and read more on that particular article/statement/offer.

I can’t see you

Using images in emails is becoming more and more common place as techniques improve and bandwidths increase. There are still, of course, pitfalls and it is far too often that even the biggest names fall foul of utilising images for their crucial call to action statements.

By default most mail readers disable images, partly to do with bandwidth allowance and partly for security.

It is not too uncommon for companies to block images full stop, so applying your all important end goal target in an image is a reader lost, maybe never to be seen again.

Summary

Calls to action within emails are no different to those in the printed word, in that legible, well written content is vital.

The main advantage to its electronic brethren is that rather than needing the motivation of somebody having to go out to a shop to buy your product, you can direct them straight to it online.