What is the click rate?

Your email click rate (aka click through rate) is the percentage of people who click on a link in your email, taken from the total that received the email.

Click rate is probably the most important measure of how successful an email is. Conversion rate will differ according to whether you are sending an editorial email vs a promotional email, but your click rate is a constant measure of how engaging your content is and how well your email is designed.

Here are ten ways you can improve your click-through rates:

1. MAKE EMAILS MOBILE-FRIENDLY

Let’s get started with the most important one. Most of your audience will be viewing your email on a mobile device, so make sure it is designed with this in mind. This means easy to read copy, bold call to action buttons and thinking about what appears before they scroll.

2. HAVE ONE CLEAR OBJECTIVE

It’s more effective to have a single objective within each email. Too many competing call to actions can leave readers confused as to what you want them to do next, resulting in them doing nothing.

Decide on one action you want recipients to take and then work your design and copy around that.

3. HAVE AN EFFECTIVE CALL TO ACTION

Having decided on one clear objective, create a compelling call to action that helps you achieve it.

To do this:

ensure the content of your email builds up to a single call to action
write compelling copy using language that resonates with your target audience
test button style, size, text, and colour

4. VARY THE DESIGN

It’s important to keep your email marketing fresh, and not bore customers by sending the same format every time. Either have a variety of templates, or one master template with a variety of blocks in it that you can drag and drop to create different layouts.

If you’re stuck for inspiration, visit sites like @milled.com and @reallygoodemails.com

5. USE SOCIAL PROOF

Popularity is powerful. Use this to your advantage by including social proof in your emails.

Adding product reviews and testimonials alongside product recommendations builds trust. This makes recipients feel more confident to click through.

6. CREATE A SENSE OF URGENCY

Another way to improve your email click-through rate is by creating a sense of urgency.

This can be done in your copy, across subject lines, titles and call to actions.

7. KEEP COPY SHORT & SWEET

To have maximum impact, your copy should be digestible at a glance.

Test the length of your copy and ensure your message scans well. This is the smart way to ensure your words compel that click.

8. TEST SEND TIME

It’s important your email reaches your audience at a time when they are not only likely to open it, but also click through and act on it. So think about testing early morning vs early evening to see which works best for you. Also test different days of the week to see if this has an impact.

9. SEGMENT YOUR AUDIENCE

If you are going to engage your audience, your email needs to be relevant, and an effective way to achieve this is via segmentation. This ensures you’re sending relevant messages to the right people.

There are a number of ways you can segment your email list including:

demographics
online behaviour
purchase history

10. INCLUDE VALUE-ADD CONTENT

Your recipients won’t look forward to receiving and opening your emails, if you aren’t genuinely bringing them value via your content, rather than just trying to sell to them all the time. Make sure you are giving them advice, information and inspiration, and that they are treated with priority because they are your subscribers. Offer them early access to promotions or events, exclusive behind the scenes content and more.

What should your click rate be?

Your click rate should be above 2%, but this does differ slightly by industry. For a full breakdown of click rates by industry view the table below:

Any more questions on improving your click rate? Please get in touch.

10 Ways To Improve Your Email Marketing Click Rate