Email marketing has a wide range of benefits for businesses and organizations. It allows you to reach a broad audience with your messages, build stronger relationships with your subscribers, and drive leads and sales.
However, to make the most out of your email marketing, it’s important to measure and analyze the key metrics that help you understand the performance of your campaigns and how they can be improved.
One of the most important metrics in email marketing is your click-through rate, which measures the percentage of email subscribers who clicked on a link within your email.
A high click-through rate is a good indication that your subject lines and content are resonating with your audience.
On the other hand, if you have a lower than anticipated click-through rate, it’s a sign you might need to take action to improve the quality of your email list, or the relevance of your subject line and email copy.
In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at what your email list click-through rate is, how it’s calculated, and share some tips to help you improve it.
What is email click-through rate?
When people talk about email click-through rates, it can sometimes lead to a bit of confusion.
This is because there are two different metrics, click rate and click-to-open rate, that people use interchangeably when they actually measure different things.
Click rate
This metric measures the percentage of recipients who received your email and clicked on any link within it.
Because it measures the engagement level of all recipients, regardless of whether they open the email or not – it’s best used to give you an insight into the overall performance of your email activity – from list health, to subject lines, as well as your content.
Click-through rate (email CTR)
Sometimes referred to as the click-to-open rate (CTOR), this measures the percentage of subscribers who opened your email and then clicked on a link within it.
This is a better indicator of how engaging your email content is since it only considers those who actually opened the email and chose to click.
For this article, we will focus on the definition of ‘click rate’ to keep things simple.
You might already be wondering how your click rate stats compare to average email CTR benchmarks.
Frustratingly, defining a benchmark click rate can be challenging, as it varies by industry, whether your business is B2B or B2C, and the types of email you’re sending.
However, Campaign Monitor has a handy list of typical click rates for a selection of different industries to give you an idea of how your current metrics compare.
Key tips to improve your email click-through rate
If you’re looking at the industry benchmarks and realizing your email click rate is a little behind other businesses – there’s no need to worry. We’ve got you covered.
We’ve put together a list of actionable and easy-to-understand strategies to help improve your email click-through rate, which you’re able to implement on any email marketing platform.
By following these strategies, you should be able to improve email click-through rate and get better results from your email marketing activity.
1. Optimize your subject lines
Your email subject line can significantly impact the number of people choosing to open your email.
If your subject line doesn’t grab attention, your subscribers are unlikely to open the email, let alone click through to your website or landing page.
When it comes to optimizing your subject lines, it’s generally best to keep them short and sweet – aiming for around 50 characters or less so they are fully visible on all devices.
Another best practice tip is to create a sense of urgency to encourage subscribers to open your email right away, or ask a question to create a sense of curiosity – making them open your message to find the answer.
Using numbers and statistics in your email has also been proven to positively affect email opens, with studies suggesting it can increase the open rate of your emails by up to 2%.
But perhaps the most important thing to consider is adding email personalization to your subject lines. The simple act of including a subscriber’s name has been shown to improve open rates by 26%.
By taking the time to craft compelling and engaging subject lines, you increase the likelihood of your emails being opened, which is the first step towards achieving higher click-through rates.
2. Use clear, concise messaging
Another great tip to increase your email click-through rate is making sure you have clear, concise email copy that communicates your message simply and effectively.
Making the content of your email easy to understand helps your audience understand what you want them to do and encourages them to take action.
Some top tips include using short paragraphs to break up your text, making it easier for your audience to read.
The use of bullet points can also help readers to scan your content quickly and pull out important information.
When it comes to tone, a lot depends on your brand and industry – but a conversational tone that talks directly to the reader can make your email more relatable and engaging, which can also lead to a stronger click-through rate.
And if you talk about your products or services in your email, try to focus on the benefits to the user rather than your features. By highlighting how your business solves a problem in your subscribers lives, you give yourself the best chance of securing that all important click-through.
3. Email personalization and segmentation
We’ve already talked about personalising your subject line with subscriber names, but there’s a lot more you’re able to do in the main body of your email to improve your email CTR.
Email personalization, combined with effective segmentation, can be incredibly effective in increasing email engagement and is a great tip for increasing your email click-through rate.
To provide a quick overview of both strategies, segmentation involves dividing your email list into smaller, more targeted groups based on criteria like demographics, interests, or how they have engaged with previous emails or on your website.
By segmenting your audience into groups, and delivering customized email content based on their needs and preferences, you’re able to make sure your emails are more relevant to your subscribers – improving your click-through rate by as much as 8%.
The personalization of your email content goes a step further – rather than email customization for groups of subscribers, you can customize emails based on the information you hold about each individual subscriber.
Including the subscriber’s name is a basic (yet still effective) form of email personalization, but depending on the nature of the data you hold about your customers, you could tailor email content based on the products they have bought from your store or the categories they have browsed on your site.
Simplelists allows you to create unlimited email lists, enabling you to get as granular in your segmentation as you need to. And with support for dynamic fields in your emails, it ticks the box for email personalization capabilities too.
4. Mobile optimization
With recent estimates suggesting we spend almost 4 hours a day using our smartphones, it’s perhaps no surprise that more than half of all emails are now opened on a mobile device.
So, if your emails aren’t optimized for mobiles, you could be missing out on a significant number of valuable click-throughs from people opening your email on their phones.
Some best practice tips for email customization for mobiles include using responsive design, which means your email template dynamically adjusts for different screen sizes, making it display perfectly no matter which device it is viewed on.
When you’re deciding how your responsive email will display on smaller mobile devices, it’s best to use a single-column layout and a legible font size to make your content easily readable without zooming in.
The previous advice about breaking up text into short paragraphs to make your email easy to scan and understand is even more important for mobile users, who may be more easily distracted than those viewing your email on a desktop machine.
The final point to remember when it comes to mobile optimization is to make sure your call-to-action (CTA) buttons are large enough to tap easily on a touchscreen, taking care that there’s enough space around them to avoid accidental clicks.
5. Effective use of CTAs
Clear calls-to-action (CTAs) in your emails can help guide your subscribers towards the action you want them to take – whether that’s clicking through visiting your website, clicking through to a landing page to sign up for a webinar, or clicking through to your store to make a purchase.
To create an effective CTA, it’s important to be clear and direct, using concise, action-oriented language that tells your subscribers exactly what you want them to do.
Some common examples you’ll see in emails are CTAs like "Shop Now," "Learn More," or "Sign Up Today," which are straightforward and effective.
Making sure your CTAs stand out visually is also important. Consider using colors that contrast with the rest of your email for your CTA buttons, to make them distinctive and capture the attention of subscribers.
As an additional tip to increase your email click-through rate, it’s also worth strategically considering where to place your CTAs within your email.
Ideally, your main CTA should be ‘above the fold’ – meaning it’s visible without subscribers having to scroll. Including another CTA at the end of your email after subscribers have read your full message is also a good idea.
If your email is particularly long, you might consider including multiple CTAs throughout to encourage subscribers to click through at different points.
6. Incorporating visual elements
Images, illustrations, and videos can make your emails more appealing and engaging, helping to capture attention and improving your email click-through rate.
However, it’s important to make sure that any visuals you include in your emails are of suitable quality, and relevant to your content. The overuse of stock images or low-resolution images can detract from your message and make your emails look unprofessional.
You might also consider the strategic placement of images within your email.
For example, by placing an eye-catching image next to your CTA, subscribers’ attention might be drawn to the action you want them to take. This technique should be used carefully, however, as any images shouldn’t overpower the strength of your CTA.
7. Communicate trust
For a subscriber to choose to click through from your email, they need to be both interested in what you’re offering, and also have a sense of trust in your brand.
An effective way to build trust is by using social proof, such as customer testimonials, reviews, and examples of awards and accreditations your business has received.
A lot of businesses have a tendency to include their social proof elements towards the end of their email – or even in the footer of their email, which can be effective for anyone that reads your full message.
However, it can be worth experimenting with strategically placing social proof elements in areas of your email where they are able to support your key messages and CTAs.
For example, you might include a customer quote or testimonial near your CTA button to reinforce the value of taking the next step and clicking through.
8. Create a genuine sense of urgency
This final tip to increase your email click-through rate is one to be used sparingly.
Assuming you’re taking a long-term approach to your email activity, it’s worth noting that overusing urgency as a tactic can lead to a sense of fatigue amongst subscribers and can actually reduce the performance of your emails over time.
However, used intermittently and with the right offer, creating a sense of urgency with limited-time promotions or limited-quantity deals can significantly boost your click-through rates.
If you choose to use urgency in your emails to help boost your click-through rate, you might consider including visual elements such as countdown timers to communicate more clearly that an offer is expiring soon – prompting recipients to click through before it’s too late.
Looking for an email platform that makes it easy to improve your email click rate?
If you’re looking to get the most out of your group email or email marketing campaigns, it’s important to measure and improve your key metrics like email click-through rate.
Improving your click-through rate can lead to more website traffic and conversions and allow you to build more effective cross-channel relationships with your subscribers.
There are a number of techniques you’re able to use to boost your email click-through rate, such as optimizing your subject lines, using clear and concise messaging, segmenting your email lists, personalizing your emails, making sure your emails display correctly on mobiles, and incorporating effective CTAs.
But to implement these techniques and strategies successfully, you need the right email software.
Simplelists is an email platform that makes group email and email marketing easy, with all the features you need to optimize your email campaigns for success.
With Simplelists, you can benefit from unlimited lists for granular segmentation. Our built-in email personalization features help make your emails more relevant to each subscriber. We even enable you to use your own domain for your emails.
Ready to see how Simplelists can enhance your email marketing?
Sign up for a free one-month trial today.