As we bid farewell to 2022 and enter 2023, email marketing continues to be a dominant force in the marketing realm. Millions of businesses rely on email marketing for a myriad of reasons including enhancing brand awareness, lead generation, staying connected with their customers, and more. But how do companies gauge the success of an email marketing campaign? While there are plenty of parameters to examine, the email open rate and click-through rate are fair indicators of how your campaign is performing.
Imagine investing hundreds of hours into an email campaign that has an impressive open rate but a below-par email click-through rate. Pretty demotivating right? Your email should tempt users to make those clicks and engage more with your emails.
Wondering how to do that? You have arrived at the right place. We have listed a few tips and tricks that will help you improve your email click-through rate and open rate.
But before we get to that, take a look at our email marketing services and how we help our clients in effective email marketing.
Now, let’s understand what email click-through rate is.
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What is email click-through rate?
An email’s click-through rate, also known as email click rate is a parameter that evaluates how many people have clicked on the different elements of an email. The different elements of an email include the call-to-action (CTA) button, hyperlinks in the email, and a particular video or image. An email click-through rate is calculated by taking into account the total number of clicks an email receives and dividing that number by the total number of delivered messages.
Here is a simple equation for better understanding:
An email’s click-through rate is a fair reflection of the engagement of your email. In contrast to the click-to-open rate, it takes into account every activity of each recipient, providing valuable insights into the percentage of your recipients that are genuinely interested in your content.
General guidelines for better email click-through rate
By now, we hope you understand what an email’s click-through rate is. Now, let’s move on to the interesting part and i.e., your plan of action to attain the desired level of an email click-through rate.
At the end of the day, the more clicks you receive could ultimately mean more traffic to your website, more people taking action on offers, and more event registrations.
Here are a few general guidelines that will help you get more clicks.
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Every email should have an objective
This is probably the most basic, yet underrated rule. You need to define your goal each time you decide to send an email. Whether your goal is to drive more traffic, increase event registration, or encourage people to buy your products, you need to be crystal clear about how you approach email marketing. Besides, it is also critical to put your message across with a purpose. Your audience should know what exactly you want from them.
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Your email should reflect your goal
After setting a goal, the main body of your email should reflect the goal you are trying to achieve. Your emails should include text and graphics that urge users to take an action. Limit words to the bare minimum. If you wish to go into detail, structure the data in your email in such a way that you are adding a link in the beginning. This way, your readers who typically avoid scrolling all the way to the bottom, will view the link at the beginning of the email.
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Give people a reason to take an action
Your readers will only take action when your email adds value to them in one way or the other. If your goal is to increase sales, you should consider offering a small discount. If your aim is to increase event registrations, it is a good idea to provide information about the event along with a CTA to book or reserve their spot.
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Do not confuse your readers, simplify the process
Always remember that your users are likely to open your emails on different devices. Therefore, your design, structure, and layout should align with the dimensions of different screens and be more responsive.
It is important to ensure that your text size is in proportion with the screen. Besides, your links should be easily viewable and easy to click. If you decide to include images with heavy text, it may not load for every reader. Thus, it is a good idea to add information below your images, avoiding clutter.
These are the four general guidelines that will help you improve the email click-through rate. Now, let’s take a look at some more ideas that play a key role in facilitating smooth, streamlined, and effective email marketing.
Tips to improve email click-through rate
Apart from these general guidelines, here are a few other ideas that will help you improve your email click-through rate.
1. Write a compelling subject line
The subject line of an email is the most important factor that will impact the click-through rate of your emails. Your customers will only engage with your email when they open them. This is how you can take your copywriting to the next level.
You cannot afford to have long subject lines as you have around 50 characters to play with. Remove the fluff, be clear, and generate curiosity. Tingle the emotional side of your readers and urge them to take an action. Create a sense of urgency. Spare a thought on how you want your readers to feel when they read your subject line. Perform A/B tests with the same email content but two different subject lines to determine which one performs better.
2. Mobile-optimized emails
Ask yourself a very simple question. Where do you open your personal emails from? A mobile or a desktop? Today, around 81% majority of emails are viewed and read on smartphones [1].
It won’t help your case if your emails look amazing on the desktop but incomplete, unprofessional, and cluttered on mobile. There are high chances that your readers will not bother going through your email. What can be done to address this issue? It’s simple. You need to create emails with a responsive design. Besides, you also need to create a layout that prompts readers to take an action easily. The bottom line here is that your emails should be visually appealing across all devices.
3. Do not beat around the bust, get to the point
Email copies work like magic when they are written correctly. Besides, as mentioned before, keep in mind that a large chunk of your audience is reading your email on their phones. Therefore, the onus is on you to convey your message without beating around the bust. If you think you do not have the right skills to write compelling email copies, you can get in touch with agencies that have a dedicated team of seasoned copywriters.
4. Call-to-action (CTA) is a must
The objective of sending an email to your readers is to urge them to take an action. Whether you want them to attend an event, make a donation, renew an expired subscription, or add a review, you need to ensure your CTA is not at all confusing.
For example, if you want your readers to make a donation, add a simple “Donate now” text on the CTA button. It is a good idea to include another CTA again toward the end if your email is very lengthy.
5. Consistency is very important
Consistency in the sender name and subject line can help improve recognition and trust, leading to higher email open rates. Further, consistency in the layout and formatting of emails can make them easier to read and navigate, leading to higher engagement. When you are consistent with your messaging and branding of emails, it helps to build a cohesive identity for your business, which can increase trust and credibility with subscribers.
6. Add videos
If you have consistently delivered emails with only images and text, you might want to mix things up a little. Consider using videos in your upcoming campaigns and see the magic unfold. A Forrester report stated that adding videos could potentially increase the email click-through rate by as much as 200-300% [2].
7. Timing matters
Sending emails at the right time can play an important role to increase your email click-through rates.
Here are a few factors to consider while determining the best time to send an email:
- Time zone: Take into account the time zones of your subscribers. If you have a global audience, you may want to consider sending your emails at a time that is convenient for the majority of your subscribers.
- Day of the week: Some studies have shown that certain days of the week have higher email open and click-through rates. For example, Tuesdays and Thursdays are often considered to be good days to send emails.
- Time of day: The time of day can also impact email engagement. For example, sending emails early in the morning or late in the afternoon/evening may be more effective than sending them during the middle of the day when people are busy with work.
Final notes
We hope these ideas will help you boost the open and click-through rates of your email campaign. While there is no hard and fast rule, these guidelines and ideas will help you strike gold in the long run.
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Sources:
[1] (2022) “THE SCIENCE BEHIND EMAIL OPEN RATES (AND HOW TO GET MORE PEOPLE TO READ YOUR EMAILS)” SuperOffice [online] Available from: https://www.superoffice.com/blog/email-open-rates/ [accessed January 2023]
[2] (2009) “As Seen In The Inbox Assessing Video Email Opportunities” Forrester [online] Available from: https://www.forrester.com/report/As-Seen-In-The-Inbox/RES54235 [accessed January 2023]
