How to Write Emails that Pave the Way Towards Action

What does it take for an idea to register? The challenge is that information alone isn’t enough to convince or teach. The way you deliver information matters.

When Melissa Studzinski joined General Mills as a brand manager for the product Hamburger Helper, she got binders of data, market research and surveys, and briefs to help do her job. These “death binders,” as she called them, overwhelmed her with information in the abstract. What clicked for Melissa and her team was when they started visiting moms cooking in their kitchens. She says,

“I’ll never forget one woman, who had a toddler on her hip while she was mixing up dinner on the stove. We know that ‘convenience’ is an important attribute of our product, but it’s a different thing to see the need for convenience firsthand.”

Chip and Dan Heath tell this story in Made to Stick to illustrate the power of concreteness, how decision-making can be easier when guided by specific experiences. For Melissa, actually seeing moms in their homes delivered insights into the value of predictability and convenience for mothers and the kids they were feeding, over the extensive variety the company had been pushing. After simplifying the product line and adapting the ads, sales of Hamburger Helper increased by 11%.

In email marketing, it’s easy to deliver death by confusing abstractions or to take haphazard stabs at what we think will motivate. Instead we can educate, nurture, and convince much more effectively by using concreteness.

How Concrete Language Motivates

Concrete things exist in the real world. You can reach out and touch them, or stub your toe on them, and that vividness provides an entry-point into your audience’s reality. By doing some of the mental work in how your message is presented, people don’t have to expend extra brainpower unpacking fuzzy abstractions and figuring out exactly what you mean.

Whether it’s Aesop’s fables or a punchy elevator pitch, concreteness makes messages easier to understand, remember, and even believe. Concrete language is easier for the brain to parse and recall, and as psychologists Jochim Hansen and Michaele Wänke found in a 2010 study, the mind takes speedily processed and recallable information as more true and believable.

Take this pair of sentences used in the study:

• In Hamburg, one can count the highest number of bridges in Europe. [concrete]
• Hamburg is the European record holder concerning the number of bridges. [abstract]

Even when meaning and level of detail are the same, as in these Hamburg bridge descriptions, subtle linguistic framing makes a meaningful difference in how the information is digested.

“Linguistic concreteness makes the described situations more imaginable,” Hansen and Wänke write. “Increased imaginability, in turn, causes people to believe the statements with greater likelihood.” Framing the information as an experience that the reader is performing instead of plainly stating the fact that Hamburg has the most bridges in Europe feels more concrete, and so, adds credibility and persuasiveness.

Concrete language also paves the way for easier judgment calls and decisions. Because people can imagine and believe concrete statements, they can also envision outcomes and feel more comfortable making decisions towards those outcomes. For instance, researchers found that using more concrete language like “one share of IBM stock” rather than a generic “asset” in disclosures increased investors’ willingness to invest in a firm.

The researchers also found that highlighting concrete language reduces feelings of psychological distance. If you’re not familiar with something, confusing jargon, vague generalities, and abstract ideas end up becoming reasons to lose interest. In email of course, those are immediate reasons to unsubscribe, delete, ignore, or even spam.

Concreteness offers a bridge of believability and affinity to cross over and explore new things.

Applying Concreteness In Your Emails

So what does communicating with concreteness mean in practice? Present your message in a way that’s easy to imagine, visualize, and even feel as a reader. That may involve:

• vivid storytelling
• specificity and contextual details
• images, graphics, and photos
• illustrative examples, like testimonials and case study details
• language of the senses
• personas and personalization, speaking to the experiences and needs of specific people (or types of people)
• describing a shared experience, like coming together to solve the same problem

You’re using details, but not just any old details either. They have to be specifics that take into account the audience’s point of view. That way, they can inhabit, imagine, and absorb.

As the Hamburg bridge examples shows, word choice and framing matters too. Here’s a brief primer from psychologists Gün Semin and Klaus Fiedler’s “Linguistic Category Model” which categorizes types of words from concrete to abstract:

• Descriptive action verbs describe specific behaviors in specific situations, with little room for interpretation. They’re less likely to have positive or negative connotations. e.g., count, crouch, kiss, run
• Interpretive action verb describe general behavior in a specific situation and requires some interpretation. These verbs also tend to have positive or negative connotations. e.g., help, cheat, threaten
• State verb describe emotional, mental, or feeling states that have no clear beginning or end. e.g., believe, love, admire, envy
• Adjectives are the most abstract type of word and require a lot of interpretation. e.g., creative, impulsive, reliable

To aim for concreteness, then, use more descriptive and interpretive action verbs and hold off on the adjectives.

Since concreteness helps close gaps with psychological distance, it’s especially useful when you’re dealing with newness — new users or audience members, new features, and other types of new situations. Concreteness, funnily enough, is your welcoming, pillowy soft landing for your readers' minds.

Let’s look at a few email examples:

Close.io

About a week after a new app signup for Close.io, a sales CRM tool, they trigger a very long email from CEO Steli Efti.

Click for full, epic email

Why does this message clock in at over 1,000 words? It’s sharing many stories, all designed to build a bridge to the reader and hopefully ferry them over closer to activation and engagement.

Instead of saying something like “Get started because Close.io is the best!” — Steli shows you why with a resonating origin story. You learn that the Close.io team is solving a pain they had experienced firsthand. That’s why the specific descriptions of existing solutions that turn people into “manual data-entry-monkeys” feels magnetic. They’ve walked in your shoes, their product started out as their own secret sales sauce — this is Close.io’s version of showing that they’ve been in moms’ kitchens and understand their needs.

After testimonial quotes from real-life happy customers, Steli brings the focus back to you. Envision your future — you’ll make better calls and emails, escape the data-entry monkey zoolife, and gain sales data insights — and here are all the details on how that all comes into existence.

Casetext

Casetext is a handy platform for legal writing, research, and publication. Their mission is to make legal knowledge and resources free and understandable. Here’s an email Casetext sent out about one of its contributors Leah Litman, who has written about retroactivity of a law affecting convictions.

Click for full email

The message describes how Leah’s Casetext piece was cited in a legal brief to the Supreme Court, providing a concrete example of the reach and impact that publishing your work on Casetext and being part of its community can have. Your words can go all the way to the top!

Instead of listing out cool, snazzy features or even a bunch of abstract benefits, Casetext succeeds in making all that come together in telling Leah’s story.

The call-to-action button is a great concrete touch, too:

Instead of something generic like “learn more” or “sign up” — it’s a specific and relevant direction: start writing!

Appcues

Appcues, a user onboarding tool, unsurprisingly has put some thought into their triggered activation emails. A few days after you sign up for the product, you get an email with the subject line “Honestly, I was blown away…”

Click for full email

The email highlights one specific company, StoryboardThat, and the specific successes — 112% increase in conversions! — they had using Appcues.

This is a story that will resonate with Appcues’s target audience: here’s a real-life small team that has to deal with many competing priorities but wanted to make their user onboarding more effective. Here is what actually happened after they starting using Appcues, including this impressive A/B test result that blew the customer away.

Their call-to-action button copy is on point too. Even though the link simply takes you into the app, the message is not about signing in or checking Appcues out. Instead, it’s about the very clearly defined goal that the reader has: increase your conversion rate.

Finally, the Appcues team includes the picture of the person featured in the story, which makes it easier to see and understand who was impacted. Aaron is a real person, very much like you, who wants to increase conversion rates without having to wrangle a bunch of code.

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Telling relevant stories, showing specific examples, and using concrete language is simply part of good writing and effective communication. Still, concreteness is a remarkably helpful principle that keeps you thinking about your reader and customer’s experience. It battles against your curse of knowledge, the fact that your product or business takes up such a large part of your mind compared to a visitor or prospect, or even loyal customer, and often gets in the way of getting your actual point across.

Our emails and messages shouldn’t be death-by-information but helpful bridges and balloons that bring people up and over to where they want to go.

Do you have an example of super concrete or super abstract language in an email? Share with us in the comments

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11 Essential Ingredients Every Cornerstone Content Page Needs [Infographic]

Cornerstone content is the foundation of your content marketing plan.

It will help you establish a clear picture of the specific problems you can solve for potential customers.

As I said in Your Cornerstone Content Blueprint: to 9 common questions, it can also help you achieve some even bigger goals, including:

• Getting links to your website
• Finding new readers
• Attracting subscribers
• Ranking in search engines for competitive keywords
• Highlighting archived material

Accordingly, cornerstone content is vital for both seasoned bloggers and anyone launching a brand-new website.

In this article, we’re going to explain the 11 essential ingredients of a cornerstone content page and present everything you need to know in a handy infographic.

If you want to work on your own site’s cornerstone content with the help of the Copyblogger team, sign up for our Content Challenge below the infographic.

1. Keywords

The first step is keyword research. 
A cornerstone content page will help you rank for keyword phrases in search engines.
Select 8 to 12 keyword phrases and create a cornerstone content page for each one.

Your group of keywords will also loosely define your area of expertise, which helps you build authority.

2. Headline

The headline for a cornerstone content page is built around a keyword or keyword phrase. Look at these examples from our own cornerstone content pages:

• Content Marketing: How to Build an Audience that Builds Your Business
• Keyword Research for Web Writers and Content Producers
• Landing Pages Turn Traffic into Money

Each keyword phrase begins the headline, but remember that the rules of good headline writing still apply.

Also, the headline that appears on the cornerstone content page can be different from the headline that appears on search engine results pages.

Let me explain.

3. SEO Title

Your headline is also a title tag that appears on search engine results pages.

Search engines want to offer relevant results, so write an additional SEO Title using language the searcher would use to find your content.

You want to speak to the prospective reader in his or her own chosen words.

Most content management systems, including the Rainmaker Platform, allow you to fill out an SEO Title tag.

4. Introduction

The top of your cornerstone content page should immediately draw in your visitor — and keep her reading.

Use short, engaging sentences that could:

• Tell a story
• Ask a question
• Share a metaphor, analogy, or simile
• Invoke the mind’s eye
• Quote a statistic

5. Body copy

The body copy of your page should contain a blend of educational content and links.
The educational content gives your reader a broad understanding of the topic.
The list of links highlights other articles that expand on the topic in very specific ways.

This mix of information also gives search engines more content to filter and index.

6. Subheadlines

There are two types of subheadlines:

1. An extension of your main headline.
2. Mini-headlines sprinkled through the page.

Underneath your main headline, you can add a subheadline that provides another incentive for the visitor to keep reading, as well as more copy for search engines to index.

Additional subheadlines inserted throughout your text break up the copy, entice the reader with more benefits, and help search engines determine the topic of the page.

The same writing rules that apply to headlines also apply to subheadlines.

7. Media

A strong cornerstone content page will include other media formats like images, videos, and infographics that fascinate readers and encourage them to share the page.

Investing in a professional designer for certain types of media could make the difference between a winning cornerstone content page and a flop.

8. Bullet points

Bullet points are a killer way to draw the visitor’s eye to meaningful and persuasive copy.

They can serve several functions:

• List benefits of an offer
• Arouse curiosity to keep the visitor reading
• Explain data and proof
• Tease what’s coming next
• Dish out the chapters in a book or modules in a training course
• And more!

9. Conclusion 

An effective conclusion feels like the click on a box being shut. There are no loose ends. 

In addition, a good conclusion culminates in a persuasive call to action. All the copy that precedes the conclusion was driving towards this appeal. So craft it carefully.

And don’t be afraid to repeat the call to action more than once.

10. Call to action button

Every cornerstone content page you create has a goal: to get people to act.

You may want to drive traffic to your cornerstone content page to ask visitors to:

• Join a content library.
• Subscribe to an email newsletter.
• Start a free trial.
• Download an app.

Remember: you don’t have to wait until the end of the content to include a persuasive call to action. 

In fact, include call to action buttons early and often to show readers what you’d like them to do.

11. Social share buttons

You can’t only rely on search engines to drive traffic to your cornerstone content pages. Particularly if a page is new, you’ll need to jump-start the process.
Post your cornerstone content on social media and encourage people to share it.

Add big and bold social share buttons at the top and bottom of the page or use a scrolling sidebar that moves down the page as the user does.

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How to Craft an Effective Call to Action

Anyone running an online business is familiar with the classic Call to Action (CTA). Often filled with active verbs enticing us to “Buy Now,” “Download Our Whitepaper,” or “Sign up for Our Newsletter,” CTAs are a critical part of any online marketing strategy.

However, as your site grows and you have more content to promote, it’s easy to abuse the call to action. We’ve all seen this turn ugly—the cluttered marketing sites with twenty different calls to action clamoring for your attention as soon as you hit the page. Multiple brightly colored buttons each begging you to “Click Here” aren’t doing the site or the business any favors. These sites are like pushy used car salesmen whose eagerness and enthusiasm comes off as desperate and spammy.

Conversely, a strategically-placed CTA will attract interest and yield a radically higher conversion rate, giving visitors just the right prompt at just the right moment. If a site with multiple calls to action is the pushy used car salesman, a site with a strategic CTA is the seasoned sales professional, who builds a relationship and rapport with the consumer before moving to close the deal.

Consider Context

Call to action text is one of the most often tested ingredients of a landing page, and for good reason. Upgrading a vague, generic CTA to one that communicates value and prompts action can yield huge increases in conversion rates, so optimizing your CTA textis well worth the time and energy. But even a perfectly-worded call to action can be improved by considering it within the broader context of a website’s design.

A great sales pitch isn’t made by the closing line—it’s everything that leads up to the ask. The same is true of the call to action on your website. Even if you nail the verbiage on the button itself, if the aesthetics and content of a landing page aren’t designed to support and lead into the CTA, the conversion rate will suffer. A great call to action will fit seamlessly within the flow of a landing page so that when a visitor reads (or scans) the page, the CTA provides a clear and compelling next step.

A common practice is to ensure that the call to action is placed “above the fold,” and there is certainly still value in showing important information near the top of the page. However, studies have shown that when the CTA is placed precisely at the point where the visitor has the information they need to make their decision, rather than placed above the fold, ityields a higher conversion rate. So rather than arbitrarily forcing a CTA higher on the page, look at the page from a visitor’s perspective, and see where the call to action best fits in the overall flow of the content and design. Finding the right position for the CTA requires an understanding of the visitor’s expectations and an anticipation of their state of mind.

Understand Your Audience

So how do we understand our websites’ visitors? A/B testing and analytics give us valuable data about where visitors are clicking and which content is converting at a higher rate, but they don’t tell us about our visitors’ needs and motivations. The needs and motivations of our visitors are qualitative, as opposed to quantitative data such as analytics and A/B testing. The only way to get this qualitative data is to talk with your visitors. Spend time building a relationship with your audience and talking with them about why they do what they do.

Here are some ways to gain a deeper understanding of your audience:

1. Talk face-to-face. Emails, phone calls, and Google Hangouts can provide a backup option when it’s not feasible to meet with members of your audience in person, but there’s just no substitute to sitting down and talking in person. Being physically present helps nurture the relationship and will create a sense of trust and openness that you won’t get from a phone call. This feeling of openness will allow your customer to speak more freely, and you will gain a better understanding as a result.
2. Have a conversation, not an interview. Rather than grilling your audience trying to extract information from them, have a genuine conversation with them. Allow them to tell you about the problems they’re trying to overcome, struggles with their job, and the motivations behind why they do what they do.
3. Watch your audience use your product—even if that product is a blog. Ask them to go through some of their common tasks and talk about what they’re doing while they do it. Ask why they do things the way they do. The great thing about observing is that you can spot telling behaviors that your audience may not even be consciously aware of—things they wouldn’t be able to tell you themselves.

Use this new understanding of your visitors to optimize your content and call to action for what motivates them. Instead of focusing on a list of features, speak to how you’re going to solve their problems and meet their needs. When visitors understand the larger value of your solution and how it fits with their specific needs, they’re ready to take the next step. That’s when they should see your clear, compelling call to action.

A Truly Great Call to Action

A great call to action is more than just the words within the button. It’s knowing your audience well enough to know where the CTA should be on the page—the right moment when they’re ready for that prompt to take the next step.

To get to this level of meaningful understanding, you need more than just A/B testing and analytics data. Take the time to talk and listen to your audience, and you’ll be more fully equipped to create content—and a call to action—that resonates with their needs.

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4 Tips For Creating An Effective Call To Action

If you work in marketing or digital operations, the call to action (CTA) is something of a rock star. We test it. We revere it. We understand that a small lift in click-throughs for it can mean significant gains for the business. 

And yet a quick Google search for CTA will pull up results for the Chicago Transit Authority, the California Teacher’s Association, the Cherenkov Telescope Array, and a slew of other results, while our little rock star—the call to action—is nowhere to be found on page 1.

The reality of the call to action is that while there’s now more attention paid to it compared to, say, 10 years ago, we could still be thinking about it and optimizing it quite a bit more.

Below are four tips to help you go beyond just testing your CTA button color:

1. Contrast

The first lever that you can turn when testing versions of your CTA is contrast. Note that we’re not specifically talking about colors. Colors are absolutely a factor, but even if red tests better than green, that doesn’t mean red converts better in a general sense. Red may have more contrast against the colors used in your theme.

It’s important to have mostly a color-neutral presentation—benign and boring works quite well for most sites, and you’ll have more leeway to make the CTA more distinctive when using a “bland” page.

2. Choices

The second lever almost does not need to get mentioned: for your CTAs to be found, you need to limit choices. Limit the potential actions of your visitors. One is ideal, and two potential actions can be forgiven if you absolutely need the second choice.

Any more than that and you’re just confusing your visitor. Remember: if you prioritize everything, you prioritize nothing.

3. Affordance

Contrast and choices (or the lack thereof) will help visitors spot buttons. Visual affordance tells visitors what they can do with those buttons.

For the latter, you have several options available:

• Shape: rounded objects call a little more attention and convey a little more interactivity
• Size: greater sizes typically help give buttons more attention and hierarchical “weight”
• Position: negative space around buttons help visitors understand that the area can be interacted with

For your CTAs to work, two things need to happen. First, visitors need to be able to spot them without any effort. Second, visitors must instantly know what they do—affordance, limited choices, and contrast are required, but they are the bare minimum. You need more.

4. Intent

Don’t underestimate the importance of matching intent. This sounds complicated (and it often is) but there are simple things you can start with. At a bare essentials level, that means making sure your calls to action are indeed actions. For instance, there’s a difference between “Free Trial” to “Try it Free.”

You might be surprised at the difference in click-through rates between the passive versus the more action-oriented one.

If you want to dive deeper, you can go through the usual tools you have for crafting emotional messaging. In an example case for the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, just changing the form CTA from “Submit” to “Support Haiti” increased dollars donated per visitor by 15.75%.

Yes, emotions matter a lot in conversion.

Making it Count

Optimizing web sites often call for tests on the CTAs, and that’s absolutely required. But once you know that you need to test, and once you actually have the tools required to test, there’s still the matter of knowing exactly which levers you are turning for your tests.

With contrast, choices, affordance, and intent, you have a complete set of tools to test to make your CTA count.

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