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MAKE IT POP!: The Bulletproof Button

Last July, the EEC community voted on which call-to-action treatment performs best: buttons or links? 72% of respondents agreed that buttons are more effective.
-->See the Survey Results

While every email is unique, the tests we’ve run since the vote confirm the results. They’ve also informed the development of a very specific button treatment that consistently outperforms others.

We call it The Bulletproof Button.

How to Build The Bulletproof Button:

(1) Pick a Color that Pops
A saturated color like red attracts attention and clicks. Just make sure to use it only when you mean it: for your primary call-to-action. Buttons are subject to the law of diminishing returns; including too many can dilute focus. Try underlined links for secondary calls-to-action.

(2) Use HTML Text
Create your call-to-action text using HTML instead of graphical text. Float the HTML text over a colored background cell so your text is legible even when a recipient’s images are disabled.

(3) Get Fancy
For a more custom button, create a graphical flourish—like a gradient—and pop it behind the HTML text as a background image. Add a carat to emphasize the action.

Bonus! After all that tech talk, here’s some button fun.

Are you a Button Buff?
How many email button styles can you match with their associated retailers? Post your guesses by commenting below.

I’ll announce the answers—and the winner—in next week’s “Make it Pop!” post. Enjoy!

Until then,
Lisa Harmon
of Smith-Harmon

-->Read other Make it Pop! posts.

Posted on March 12, 2008 2:58 PM | Permalink

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Comments (6)

Amy Evenson:

Very interesting and informative information! :) I'll take a stab at the guessing game - I won't even cheat by peeking in my inbox, I know I'll be way off. (I'm only sure on one) :)

1-E
2-F
3-C
4-G
5-I
6-H
7-A
8-D
9-B
10-J

Posted by Amy Evenson | March 12, 2008 6:44 PM

Posted on March 12, 2008 18:44

Chad White:

Here are my guesses. I don't track all those retailers, but clearly I should do well. If not, I wonder what that says about the uniqueness of these retailers' button designs. Some of the buttons like Amazon's and Harry & David's were instantly recognizable to me, while I was very iffy about Staples' and Sephora's.

1 - J
2 - F
3 - C
4 - I
5 - G
6 - H
7 - A
8 - E
9 - D
10 - B

Posted by Chad White | March 12, 2008 11:01 PM

Posted on March 12, 2008 23:01

Sarah Milsow:

Alright I'll take a crack at it. I subscribe to most of these so this should be interesting :)

1- J
2- F
3- C
4- G
5- I
6- H
7- A
8- E
9- D
10- B

Posted by Sarah Milsow | March 18, 2008 2:18 PM

Posted on March 18, 2008 14:18

Kimberly Snyder:

Lisa, this is a very effective email marketing element that deserves to have more attention paid. Great post:

1- J
2- F
3- C
4- G
5- I
6- H
7- A
8- E
9- D
10- B

Posted by Kimberly Snyder | March 19, 2008 3:02 PM

Posted on March 19, 2008 15:02

Lisa Harmon:

Congratulations to our winners, Sarah Milsow and Kimberly Snyder! Amy and Chad laid a strong groundwork - Chad had only one mix-up between the Sephora and Kmart buttons. Sarah was the first to crack the code and is the ultimate button buff! Thanks all for participating :)!!!

Posted by Lisa Harmon | March 26, 2008 3:04 PM

Posted on March 26, 2008 15:04

Kimberly Bower:

Great post Lisa. I'm having the button vs text link debate at my company right now, so this was very timely and helpful!

Here are my guesses:

1- J
2- F
3- C
4- I
5- G
6- H
7- A
8- E
9- D
10- B

That made me want to shop.

Posted by Kimberly Bower | March 26, 2008 3:05 PM

Posted on March 26, 2008 15:05

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the voices of email

The Email Experience Council's membership includes many of the brightest and most committed email marketing experts. We're pleased to have some of them share their insights here on these pages. Our blog contributors include:

Elie Ashery is the president and CEO of Gold Lasso, and is responsible for the company’s vision and strategy execution. Before joining Gold Lasso, he co-founded Newsletters.com in 1997, selling it to The Tribune Cos. in 2000. He then worked for IncenSoft, focusing on email marketing while there. Read more.

Amy Bills is the senior manager of field marketing at lead optimization company Bulldog Solutions. She is responsible for lead generation and the go-to-market execution of Bulldog's new products and initiatives. Amy was previously the editorial team leader of Freescale Semiconductor’s internal creative agency and a senior editor at Hoover’s Online. Read more.

Nicholas Einstein is director of strategic and analytic services at Datran Media. Specializing in email and CRM strategy, he helps some of America’s top brands leverage online channels to communicate more effectively with their customers and prospects.

Lisa Harmon is a principal at Smith-Harmon, a creative services consultancy dedicated to email marketing strategy and production. She works with marketers to increase clickthrough, maximize revenue, and infuse delight into their email creative. Lisa is also the blogger behind edm.smith-harmon.com, an ongoing commentary on the best (and worst!) in email marketing creative. Read more.

Chip House is ExactTarget's VP of marketing services, leading the teams responsible for client success. He was named to BtoB Magazine’s 2005 “Who’s Who in B-To-B,” for being a vocal proponent of legitimate commercial email and an active lobbyist regarding spam and privacy issues. Read more.

Spencer Kollas is the director of delivery services at StrongMail, helping maximize customers’ email deliverability rates. He was previously director of deliverability services for Premiere Global Services. Spencer is an active member in the Email Sender & Provider Coalition, Messaging Anti-Abuse Work Group, the Anti-Phishing Work Group and, of course, the eec. Read more.

Stephanie Miller is VP of strategic services for Return Path, the leading email performance company. She works with marketers to earn a higher ROI and response from their acquisition and retention email programs—developing content, contact and segmentation strategies, along with testing, measurement and production programs. Read more.

Erick Mott is the director of marketing and corporate communications for Habeas, the leader in email reputation management services. He has a rich background in marketing and communications strategy and execution for such companies as Nokia, MarkMonitor, GlobalFluency, Cisco Systems, Creator Connection, Sun Microsystems, Philips NV, Elm Products and CBS Television. Read more.

Jeanniey Mullen is the Email Experiene Council's founder and the global EVP and CMO of global online publishing company Zinio. She is a thought leader and visionary in the email and digital marketing field. A columnist for ClickZ, she has published numerous papers and is a frequent speaker. Read more.

Charles Stiles is the VP of worldwide business development at Goodmail Systems. In his role, Charles is focused on helping generate a better understanding of the email environment and potential solutions for a better consumer experience. He currently serves as the chairman for the Messaging Anti-Abuse Work Group. Read more.

Jeremy Swift is director of client relations for email service provider BlueHornet. He helped form BlueHornet’s founding team in 2000 and has been responsible for client services and marketing strategy since the company’s inception. Jeremy is known for his ability to articulate technical information in ways that clearly resonate with today’s online marketer.

DJ Waldow is an account manager at Bronto Software. He works with Bronto’s largest clients to help them achieve and surpass their marketing goals. An active member of the email marketing community, DJ posts regularly on the Email Marketer’s Club, publishes a bi-weekly email marketing best practices newsletter, and films BrontoFire.

Chad White is the Email Experience Council’s director of retail insights and editor-at-large. He founded and is the author of the Retail Email Blog, a blog dedicated to tracking the email marketing practices of the largest online retailers. Chad regularly writes major research reports on email marketing and is an Email Insider columnist for MediaPost. Read more.