Cold emails can be a cost-effective way to generate new leads and, if done right, can be the underlying strategy of a very successful B2B outreach campaign.

In a recent HubSpot demand generation report, 53% of marketers said that email has been the most effective channel for their early-stage lead generation efforts.

The goal of any outreach campaign is to close more deals. The stage at which that deal closes will vary considerably, depending on who you target and what you sell.

If you’re in the B2B industry, getting your prospect to sign up for a free trial might seem like the most obvious choice for a CTA, but that too has its pitfalls, for example educating your customer on the “why” and “how.” it’s just as important as getting them to try your product or service for the first time.

The more complex your solution, the more difficult it will be for the operation to sell itself.

You’re more likely to close a B2B deal during a terminus than in an email, landing page, signup form, or free trial, even if those elements were all touchpoints that drew attention to your brand in other words strong CTA can be incredibly beneficial to your clickthrough rate.

It pays to create a good one, and to continue to improve it over time. 

If you’re not sure how, don’t worry – we’ll go over exactly what to do to make excellent calls-to-action, particularly for cold email.

Placement is Key

Just because it looks like a button doesn’t mean people are going to pay attention to it.

I’ve seen emails with CTAs in very odd places. For example, I recently received one with a CTA that was in the top right corner of the email.

Your CTA should be somewhere prominent in your email. A good place is directly below a sentence or paragraph in which you give the reader a reason to click it. Something like “You can download the case study below” with a button beneath it that reads “Download Case Study” makes it very, very clear.

Place your CTA button somewhere prominent but not too early, or too late. You want to build a strong case for your contact to click before you provide a CTA, and you also don’t want to leave it too late. If your CTA is at the bottom of a wall of text, nobody will read that far.

Learn more about How CTA Placement Matters.

Context is Also Key

Don’t put a CTA button in just for the sake of having one. A CTA button should underscore a point you’re making in your body copy, namely whatever action you want the reader to take.

Your goal is to make it as easy as possible for your contact to convert. A strong, clear CTA is a big part of that, making it crystal clear what their next step should be.

Your CTA text is another opportunity for clarity. Avoid using something general like “Click Here”.

Here’s why: the first thing someone’s going to do when they open a cold email is scanned it and see what it’s about. A nice colorful CTA button is guaranteed to catch their eye. If it just says “Click Here”, that doesn’t tell them anything, or give them a reason to actually read the email.

If, instead, it says “Get a Demo” then they know right off the bat that there’s a demo up for grabs. That could pique their interest already, and tells them at least a little about your message on its own.

Learn more about How to Understand Email Campaign Key Metrics.

Design a CTA That Pops

Although your CTA text and the context surrounding it are more important, your button should also look nice. If you’re not sure how to design one, following your brand style guide should get you started with color options.

It doesn’t need to be terribly elaborate, either. A simple rounded rectangle with text in it will do just fine. In fact, keeping it simple is a very valid strategy. You need to strike a balance between eye-catching and distracting.

Learn more about Email Design Tips to Make Your Campaigns Stand Out.

Aim at a Good Landing Page

Your CTA’s entire purpose is to drive contacts to your landing page. That means you need to have a landing page.

Don’t make the mistake of just directing people to your home page or product page. That’s cutting an important corner.

A dedicated landing page for each of your campaigns is an important piece of the puzzle. That way, you can message-match your page’s content exactly to what your email campaign was about.

You can only fit so much information in a cold email and expect people to read it. Use your landing page to reinforce and expand on your email content. Give them everything they need to convince themselves to convert.

Another benefit of using a dedicated page is that you can place your form above the fold, exactly where you want it. There’s no question of where they should go to get that demo, case study, or whatever conversion you’re looking for.

Follow these tips and your CTAs will be better than ever.

Speaking of CTAs, we’re going to put one right here. No pressure, but feel free to click it if you want. It’ll let you get a demo of our email lead generation software – perfect for delivering your cold campaigns right to inboxes.

o pressure, but feel free to click it if you want. It’ll let you get a demo of our email lead generation software – perfect for delivering your cold campaigns right to inboxes.