Much attention has been given to the importance of having a catchy subject line, readable copy and the crucial steps for mailing list management but I feel the need to point out something that is just as important as the above mentioned which can impact heavily on your email marketing conversion rates.

I'm talking about your call to action - or CTA. Your call to action is your tool to get people to take the next step towards actually buying something or in some instances it is to buy something, so I am amazed that many email marketers fail to give more attention to its design.

Below are a few tips to create better calls to action and achieve better conversions from your email marketing:

Give Me a Reason to Click: Just stating click here and making it a link will not really draw people to do what you say, and when you think about it why should they when they don't know why they should?

If you want people to click on your links and do what you want them to do (download, trial, buy etc) then let them know why its a benefit for them to click. eg. Click here for FREE White Paper

Clearly Express your CTA: Tell your readers exactly what you want them to do and what will happen when they click on your link. If the link will take them to a landing page with images of all the different colours your lamps are available in then "click here" will again not explain your intention thoroughly. A better call to action would be "See all 25 Fantastic Colours Here".

You can Call More than Once: Your CTA must be a clickable link obviously however don't make this the only way that your readers can be directed to your landing page. The natural curiosity of human beings moves your readers to click on names, images, headlines etc so make certain components of the body of your email clickable also which will increase the chances of your readers going to your landing page.

The key to drivcing conversions from your email messages is making it simple for the reader to understand what you want them to do and most of all what benefits they will recieve if they do it. Putting a little more time into designing your calls to action will improve the effectiveness of your email messages.