It's your call to action. Or more often — the fact that you don't really have one.
I see this constantly. Business owners putting genuine effort into writing an email update, sharing useful things, being consistent — and then closing with something like "hope you found this helpful!" and signing off. That's a newsletter-shaped dead end. The reader enjoyed it, closed it, and moved on with their day. You got an open. They didn't do anything.
"Every email you send should have one job. Not two. Not a list of things. One clear thing you want the reader to do next."
What a call to action actually is
A call to action (CTA) is just the one thing you want someone to do after reading your email. Book a session. Buy the product. Read the blog post. Fill in the form. Reply to this email. One thing.
The mistake most small businesses make is either having no CTA at all, or having five of them and hoping something lands. Neither works. No CTA means nobody knows what to do. Five CTAs means the reader has to make a decision, which is effort, and effort is the enemy of action.
What "no CTA" actually looks like
Here's a real example of the kind of email I see all the time. The business owner wrote this themselves, it's warm and genuine — but read it and notice what's missing:
Hi lovely,
March has been such a busy month here at the studio — we've added two new Tuesday morning classes, updated our timetable, and we're so excited to be getting new equipment in next week!
We've also been working on some exciting things behind the scenes that we can't wait to share with you soon. It's been a whirlwind but the best kind.
We hope you're all doing well and enjoying the start of spring. Thanks so much for being part of our little community — it means everything.
Lots of love,
Kaz x
It's a lovely email. Kaz clearly cares about her clients. But what does she want them to do? Book a class? Check the new timetable? Nothing in the email tells them. So they read it, feel warm about Kaz's page, and close it. No action taken. Kaz gets a 42% open rate and zero bookings from it.
What the same email looks like with a CTA
Hi lovely,
We've just added two new Tuesday morning classes to the timetable — 7am and 9:15am — and they're already filling up faster than I expected.
If Tuesday mornings work for you, grab your spot now before they're gone. We also have new equipment arriving next week, so the timing couldn't be better to come and try something new.
Book your Tuesday spot →See you on the mat,
Kaz x
Same warm tone. Same genuine voice. But now there's a clear reason to open it, a specific thing to act on, and a button that makes it dead easy to do so. The subject line alone tells you what's in it for you before you even open it.
The rules I'd give every small business sending emails
- One email = one job. Pick the single most important action and build the whole email around it.
- Say the action out loud before you write. "I want them to book a class." "I want them to check out this product." "I want them to reply and tell me X." Then write toward that.
- Make the CTA a button, not a sentence. "Click here to book" buried in a paragraph is invisible. A button is impossible to miss.
- Put the CTA where people will see it — near the top if it's urgent, at the end if you need to build up to it first. Either works. Both is usually too much.
- The subject line should hint at what's inside. "March update 🌟" tells me nothing. "Two new Tuesday classes — book before they fill up" tells me exactly why to open it.
- Don't be afraid to ask. People do not act unless they're asked. Asking isn't pushy — it's clear.
What if I just want to send an update with no specific action?
That's fine sometimes — but be honest with yourself about whether it's actually adding value. A genuine story, a behind-the-scenes update, or something useful and interesting can absolutely work without a hard CTA. But even then, a soft one helps: "Hit reply and let me know what you think" is still a direction. It keeps the relationship warm and gets people engaging.
The ones to avoid are the emails that are essentially just noise — "just checking in to say hi!" with nothing behind them. Your subscribers' inboxes are busy. Give them a reason to be glad they opened yours.
The bottom line
Open rates are vanity. Click-throughs and bookings are what actually matter. If your emails are getting opened but nothing is happening, read back through the last three you sent and ask yourself: what did I actually want the reader to do? If the answer isn't obvious from the email itself, that's your problem — and it's an easy one to fix.