Single Call to Action in Busy Inboxes

Email from the DMA

MS Outlook

• 8% Market Share of global inbox use

• 75-80% share of the corporate email market

• Calendar

• CRM Integration

• Work Email

• Personal Emails

The Busy Inbox

Outlook is busy, you need to work hard to get past this screen

This is an email from the DMA about an event. It’s a good solid email and I’m sure everyone who would want to go

This is what our customers have to compete with, what can we do to help?

Inbox View

1. From Name

2. Subject line

3. Snippet Text

4. Preview Pane

Inbox View consists of 4 main sections

Outlook Preview

Outlook 2007 with Auto-Preview On

This is Outlook 2007 with Outlook’s ‘Auto Preview’ on to give us the snippet text in the inbox, it is off by default. As you can see here the DMA have cleverly put text in the header.

The snippet text has grabbed the top 3 lines from the plain text version. That’s Outlook for you!, Gmail will grab from HTML.

We then get the top 3rd of the email with no images and no visually obvious links.

Purpose of the Email

• What do you think they want you to do with this email?• Can it be achieved from what we can see?• Why would you load the images?

Fully Loaded

Would you have converted from this...

Where is the Call to Action?

Where is the Call To Action

The call to action appears twice:

Right at the bottom & Tucked over to the side

• What are the pros and cons for this decision?

• What could make it better?

3 Levels of Single CTA

1. Immediate Conversion• Someone will click through from the top third, possibly even

from the reading the subject line - like twitter.

2. Post Context Conversion• Engaged but not sold from the subject line but will need to

read the first paragraph in order to commit to the click.

3. Elaborative Conversion• Subject line caught their attention • Intrigue not interest• First paragraph could upgrade intrigue to engagement but• Still need more context in the email before committing.

Immediate Conversion

Can we immediately convert from this?

No - An extra level of engagement is needed.

Post Context Conversion

So we know that there was no immediate conversion?(Unless your screen cold fit in the side CTA)

What about conversion after a bit of context & Images

Yep - If I decide that I want to convert,

there is a button on the right…

I want to buy! But how?

Is the button loud enough?

Interruptive Closing

How about now?

We don’t want to interrupt the engagement with a sales pitch, however we need to present the opportunity to convert during the process of engagement.

More Subtle maybe?

Subtle but presents the option within the flow of the content?

Post Elaboration

So where is the other one? - There it is right at the bottom

Conclusion

• Pretty Email• Renders Well• Requires a lot of commitment to engage• Possibly relying on the brand too much• Needs the call to action higher?• Needs better preheader text?