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What’s wrong with this email?

Kim Arnold

Updated: 1 day ago


I need a sense check, please.


A couple of weeks ago, my son’s drama school sent me this email:

I didn’t reply.  I skim-read it, assuming they’d go ahead and charge my card. 


But a few days later, I received a chaser email for payment.


Looking at it now, I can see the phrase:


‘With your permission, we can take payment’


actually meant:


‘Please reply to this email and confirm you are happy for us to charge your card.’


But it was so ambiguous I just glossed over it.  Did you gloss over it too?


I call this sort of request a ‘Cloudy Call-To-Action (CTA)’ – nebulous, vague and open to interpretation. 


Cloudy CTAs are an absolute no-no if you want to get people to reply. 


A surefire way to avoid them?  Use questions, not statements:


‘Are you happy for us to charge your card?’ would have straight away shown me I needed to reply. 


Or perhaps I’m just being pedantic.  What do you reckon?


And have you received any Cloudy CTAs recently?  If so, I’d love to see them!

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