The next email analytic to check is reader response. First, ask yourself whether or not you asked your readers to do anything. Sending an email campaign without a direct call-to-action is the second fastest way to burn your marketing budget. (The fastest being actually burning money.) If you send out campaigns that inform, but do not request or offer an action, studies show you’re missing out on significant return on investment.

If you do have specific calls-to-action in your email marketing, how many are in each issue? What did you ask of the reader? To buy, buy, buy? Or to explore? Sometimes it takes mental momentum to result in a sale. Research also shows single, direct calls-to-action result in consistently higher interaction rates. Check your analytics. Do you see a difference in open rates and click-throughs? To thoroughly study this, you’ll need to divide your messages into those that called for emotional engagement and those that called for a specific call-to-action.

For those requesting a specific call-to-action, the call-to-action should focus on three things: ease, value, and direction.

1. Ease. Instead of asking the user to “sign up,” consider changing the call to “sign up in seconds.”
2. It’s also been suggested that changing the possessive determiner from “your” to “my” will increase action. Consumers will always want to know, “What’s in it for me?” When something is mine then I have ownership.
3. Too often, our calls-to-action are “Submit” or “Click here.” Not only are these phrases difficult to track in analytics when used repeatedly, but they also don’t tell the user what they will gain by taking this step. Even though you’re asking for a single call-to-action, you should focus next on what follows that action.

Remember, if you can’t decide on the best call-to-action verbiage, you can let an A/B test determine the highest potential yield.