Email CTAs: How to Write Calls-to-Action That Get Clicks
One ask per email, the verb that matches the destination, and what happens to click rate when you add a second button.
On this page
The short version
- One ask, repeated. Repetition of a single action raises clicks; a second competing action lowers them.
- The verb has to match what happens next. "Learn more" that opens a pricing table is a small broken promise, and readers price it in.
- Buttons beat text links for a primary action and text links beat buttons inside prose, which is why most emails need both pointing at the same place.
The call to action is where the most measurable copy decisions in email live, and where the most careless ones tend to be made. It is common to find an email whose body was drafted three times sitting above a button that says Submit.
Three things decide whether it gets clicked: whether there is only one thing to do, whether the words describe what happens, and whether it is visible to someone scanning rather than reading.
One ask, said more than once
Repeating a single call to action is not nagging, it is accommodating the fact that readers reach their decision point at different places in the message. A four-hundred-word email usually wants the action available in three places: an early text link for people already convinced, a button after the case is made, and a closing line for people who read to the end.
That is the opposite of adding a second ask. All three point to the same destination and use the same words. Changing the wording between them is a small thing that makes them read as three different offers.
The verb is a promise
Button copy sets an expectation about the next page, and a mismatch is the most common cause of a healthy click rate with a poor conversion rate. "Learn more" implies reading. "Get the checklist" implies a file. "Start free trial" implies an account.
The test is simple: read the button, then look at the page it opens, and ask whether the page is what the button described. If not, change one of them — and it is usually cheaper to change the button.
Verbs and what they commit you to
| Button says | Reader expects | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| Read the guide | An article, no form | The destination is content |
| Get the checklist | A file, possibly a form | There is a download |
| See the pricing | Numbers on a page | Pricing is public |
| Start free trial | An account signup | No card required, and say so |
| Book a call | A calendar | A human is genuinely available |
| Submit | Nothing in particular | Never |
"Submit" describes what the form does, not what the reader gets. It is the clearest example of interface copy written from the system's side of the screen.
First person, second person, and what the evidence supports
There is a long-standing claim that first-person button copy — "Get my checklist" — outperforms second person. The original tests behind it were on landing pages, the effect sizes were modest, and replication has been mixed.
Treat it as worth testing rather than as settled. What is more consistently true is that specific beats generic in either person: "Get my deliverability checklist" beats "Get my free guide" regardless of pronoun, because it names the thing.
The line above the button
The sentence immediately before a button is read more often than the paragraph above it, and it is usually wasted on a transition. It is the right place for the thing that removes the last objection — what it costs, how long it takes, whether a card is needed.
"No card, and it takes about two minutes" placed directly above the button does more than the same information in the body copy, because it arrives at the moment the reader is deciding.
CTA check
- One destination, appearing two or three times with identical wording
- The verb describes what the destination actually is
- The button renders as a clickable block with images blocked
- Tap target is comfortably large on a phone
- The line above the button removes the last objection
- Link colour is distinguishable from body text for a reader with low vision
- The destination has been opened from a phone, from the real send
Frequently asked questions
How many links should an email have?
As many as point at the one destination, plus navigational and legal links. The count that matters is destinations, not links — three links to one page is one ask, one link each to three pages is three.
Do buttons hurt deliverability?
No. A single image-only email with a link on the image is a different matter — heavy image-to-text ratios and image-only content are patterns filters weigh. A text-based bulletproof button is invisible to that concern.
Where should the primary button sit?
Directly after the argument is complete, wherever that falls. Placing it above the fold by default puts the ask before the case in an email that needed one, and after the case in an email that did not need much of one.