Tourism Internet Marketing U

The Email Advantage: A Call to Action

When you give your readers a call to action, it’s amazing how often people will do as they’re told. I’ll give you an example of something we did. We ran a series of ten Internet marketing workshops for a large organization. Their staff and selected clients were invited to participate in any, some or all of the workshops. Their clients could include up to three employees. Because the workshops extended beyond noon, lunch was included.

Because we were responsible for organizing and managing the project, we needed to know the approximate number of people who would be attending each of the workshops to organize the luncheons. When we contacted each company’s representatives be e-mail looking for participation RSVPs, we conducted an experiment. We sent half the representatives one version of the message and the other half a slightly different version. The only difference between the two messages was that in one we included a call to action. In the message we asked: “RSVP before Wednesday at noon indicating if you will be attending as we must make arrangements for lunch,” and in the other, this same line read: “Please let us know if you are planning to attend as we must make arrangements for lunch.”

There was a 95 percent response rate from the group who received the first message. This is because we gave people a call to action and a deadline and they felt obligated to respond more promptly. Meanwhile, fewer than 50 percent of the people in the second group responded to our message. What does this tell us? To improve your response rate, give your readers a call to action when you sent them email. People respond when told to do something: the act with more urgency when there is a deadline.

Want even more ways to make your emails stand out and shout? Read through the email chapter of my book, 101 Ways to Promote Your Tourism Business Web Site! It’s got everything you need to know!

-Written by Susan Sweeney