Email open rates have the potential to consume marketers.
However, I contend that the click-through rate (CTR) on your emails matters far more.
If customers don’t respond, having astronomically high open rates is useless. After all, sending thousands of emails may grow costly. To get a return on your investment, you need sales!
For this reason, in this post, I’ll walk you through how to increase your email CTR. I’ll go over 18 of my best strategies for getting visitors to click, so you’ll have lots of choices to get your CTR above the 2.62 percent average.
Key Takeaways
- The percentage of recipients of an email who click on a link within it is known as the email click-through rate.
- Excellent layout and design are crucial. Create a clear, one-column layout that complements your website and identity.
- Provide a clear objective and call-to-action (CTA) in every email. Make your call to action (CTA) visually appealing and clickable by using HTML button elements, especially on devices without picture support.
- Make your emails mobile-friendly. Since mobile devices are likely to be used to see your email, make sure your design is responsive and your image sizes are reduced.
- Utilize scarcity and urgency to persuade others to act.
- Include a postscript and social media sharing links at the bottom of the email. While the latter offers you one more opportunity to reach readers, the former offers them other ways to learn about your company.
- Test and improve your emails. Before sending an email to your full list, use A/B testing to see which design converts the best. You can also experiment with sending times to find out when your readers are most likely to click.
1. Ensure that emails reflect the brand and website.
Being consistent is the key to increasing email click-through rates, so let me start with that advice. It is imperative that your emails reflect your website and identity. Customers may unsubscribe if they don’t recognize your emails.
Several strategies exist to maintain consistency in your emails:
- Put your logo there.
- Employ the same typeface and your brand’s colors.
- Maintain the same wording and tone.
Untamed, a cat food business, excels at maintaining brand consistency in its emails. This is one of their emails for marketing:
This is their website, as well:
2. Keep Your Layout Focused?
The way information is presented affects how readers respond. By carefully arranging the structure of your email, you can persuade recipients to click on your call-to-action (CTA).
The way this Airbnb email follows the F-pattern layout is excellent:
The email begins with a captivating title that runs the length of the body, and it is followed by an educational subheading. All of the email’s content is readable because to its left alignment; even the call-to-action button follows a F pattern. Many people read in the F-pattern, which consists of reading in a horizontal line first, then a lower horizontal line, and finally a vertical line to the right.
Stuff that fits this pattern ensures that the most crucial stuff on a page gets read because people read less and less until they start reading vertically.
3. Add Excellent Pictures Using Alt Tags
With stunning images that enhance the meaning of your text, your emails will stand out. They will draw the reader in and facilitate a quicker understanding of your content.
However, don’t just include pictures for the sake of it. Make sure they are pertinent, such as product images or visually appealing marketing copy like this Shake Shack example:
Shake Shack could still communicate the same message with a text-based headline, but it wouldn’t be nearly as visually striking or allow the company to use Pride colors or sprinkles. The adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” is accurate in this instance.
Lastly, include alt tags with your images so that people who are using an email client that blocks graphics can see what you intend for them to view.
Adding links to photos is another option; these are simpler to click on a mobile device than button or text-based call to action (CTAs).
4. Employ CTA buttons
We are as accustomed to flipping a light switch or twisting a doorknob as we are to clicking on call-to-action buttons.
Use buttons for your main calls to action (CTAs) as they are naturally pleasant. Clicking should be much more likely from readers.
However, that does not imply doing away with text links entirely. Whenever you wish to add supplementary CTAs, you should use text links instead of having two buttons that compete with each other.
5. Create Buttons with HTML
While we’re talking about utilizing HTML to make buttons, let’s talk about how they can increase email click-through rates. In other words, you should use the button HTML element in the code of your email, much like Wunderlist has done here:
If your call to action (CTA) is an image of a button, readers could not see it because most email clients don’t display photos by default. In the example above, the CTA button is still easily visible despite the pictures being obscured.
6. Provide Just One Call to Action
You should only write one offer or objective in each email you send.
Emails with dual purposes are unclear. Requesting readers to both read and purchase from your most recent blog article is not possible. There’s a good likelihood that your customers will select neither alternative if they are offered this choice.
As an alternative, provide readers with a single call to action that directs them to one destination and one action to do. Your click-through rates and customers will both appreciate it.
7. Sections with P.S. Pack a Punch
The most significant and captivating text in your email will always be the subject line and heading.
The next most crucial, though? That might be the last thing you write in an email.
A sentence or idea added to the bottom of your email after you sign off is called a postscript (P.S.). This final opportunity to reaffirm your point or persuade a reader to take action can be quite powerful in converting them due to its placement.
Another excellent strategy to target email readers is with postscripts. For example, the phrase in the email above that asks, “Are you feeling lucky?” was probably the third item you read.
Postscripts can halt scanners in their tracks and boost your email’s click-through rate since we are visually drawn to them.
8. Make It Smartphone-Friendly
A startling amount of individuals use their phones to read emails. Therefore, if you really want to boost the click-through rate of your email marketing campaigns, you need to tailor your emails for smartphones.
You can accomplish this in a few different ways:
- To guarantee that your email appears fantastic on small devices, choose a mobile-friendly design. Here, a single-column layout will be helpul.
- To make your emails easier to read, keep them brief.
- Make features easy to use. CTA buttons, for instance, must to be simple to click. Plus, a large text size is beneficial.
- Reduce the size of your image files to speed up load times.
Whether your readers are using a desktop, tablet, or mobile device, responsive design and other mobile optimizations ensure that your content will load quickly and look fantastic on all of them.
9. Offer Options for Social Sharing
Do you want to know how to increase the reach and click-through rate of your emails? Add social media sharing buttons after that.
You can provide recipients additional options to learn about your company by including links on your social media pages. They might want to follow you on Instagram even if they aren’t interested in shopping your sale right now.
But don’t stop there. Give recipients of your email the option to share it with their followers on their preferred social media platform by including a social sharing tool. When consumers who have never received your email click on your CTA, it can send your CTR skyrocketing.
10. Fulfill the Squint Test
Take a peek at this screenshot:
Even though you can’t read the email, you can probably point to the CTA button.
That is the appearance of passing the squint test. Even if they’re squinting, readers should be able to tell exactly where to click. This implies that there’s a good possibility they will click your CTA link to learn more, even if they only skim your email.
Simply add large, eye-catching call-to-action buttons to your email to ensure it passes the squint test. However, don’t undervalue the ability of headings and photos to provide your email organization and flow.
11. Employ Scarcity and Urgency
Scarcity is a strong incentive.
Nobody likes to pass on a fantastic opportunity. Thus, users will feel obliged to act if there’s even the slightest indication that a sale or product may be running low, and your email marketing’s click-through rate will skyrocket.
You may instill in readers a sense of urgency and scarcity in a few different ways:
- In your subject line, indicate that availability is restricted.
- Include a countdown clock in the body of your email.
- Draw attention to a deadline that is approaching.
- When stocks are low, send emails to customers.
- Offer subscribers pre-launch price
Even though the subject line of this PetSmart email isn’t the most attractive, you can’t miss the approaching deadline:
In whatever you do, avoid mimicking scarcity. If customers click on your countdown timer and discover there are still days left in your deal, they will feel let down and even deceived.
12. Divide Depending on Action
It’s not necessary to email every person on your contact list. Segmentation is the process of breaking up your email list into different groups according to different standards. That may be behavioral (like a recent purchase) or demographic (like where they resided).
Emails that are personalized and resonate with recipients are guaranteed when your list is segmented. They are more likely to click your CTA and far less likely to hit unsubscribe.
Cart abandonment emails, which are exclusively delivered to visitors who depart your website without completing a transaction, are a popular segmentation technique. Here’s a great example from Sonos that reminds customers that delivery is free and entices them to give a purchase another look:
Using an email marketing platform with built-in segmentation features, such as Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor, you can do the same. You may automatically segment customers based on their purchase history, website activity, and position in your sales funnel by integrating these technologies with your CRM and website. These technologies are becoming more and more predictive, able to segment lists automatically based on future customer behavior predictions.
Create rules-based segmentation to better automate your email marketing campaigns. This tactic adds people to a certain list automatically when they complete a specified task on your website, such as purchasing something or subscribing to your newsletter.
13. Test Your Emails A/B
One of the simplest methods to increase email click-through rates is to A/B test your emails, which compares two versions of the same email to discover which performs better.
After all, it’s impossible to know for sure how to create your email. However, A/B testing offers you two chances to test.
You can play around with a lot of different components, such as the following:
- Subject line
- Images
- Body copy
- CTA button color
- CTA button text
- Sender’s name
Additionally, creating an A/B email campaign is simple. Split testing features, which allow you to send two copies of an email to a subset of your audience and then distribute the winner to the rest, are incorporated into almost all major email platforms.
14. Maximize Transmission Durations
It may surprise you to learn that there is a proper time to send emails. However, this isn’t the case for everyone. The best dates to open will vary based on your industry, target market, geography, and a host of other considerations.
Consequently, the only method to determine the optimal sending times for your email click-through rate is to consult your data, even though tips like this one are a wonderful place to start.
To obtain baseline data, I suggest utilizing my instructions to select a specific day (Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday) and then sending emails at three different times over a few months (10 am, 2 pm, and 8 pm, for example). Then, you can test on other days of the week and at different times of the day by using these data as a control.
Conclusion
It’s not necessary for you to put up with poor click-through rates. Your click-through rates may increase dramatically if you just used one or two of these tactics.
However, avoid attempting to apply them all at once.
Start with one or two of the simpler techniques, like CTA buttons and postscripts, if you’re new to email marketing. Start A/B testing your emails and streamlining send times if your email marketing is currently automated.
Wishing you Best of luck!
