Email marketing is one of the well-known ways of reaching your target audience. After all, if you have their email addresses, that means they gave them to you willingly. And that means they’d want to hear from you often and always want to buy what you’re selling, right?
Well, that might be true, but as any full service email marketing agency will tell you, sending emails alone is not enough to successfully convert customers into paid ones. Even if you have a good email open rate, that’s not a good enough metric. What really matters is improving your email’s click-through rates or CTR.
And how do you do that? Keep on reading to find out.
What is email click-through rate?
First things first: what is an email click-through rate or CTR? It’s simply the percentage of your subscribers who click on at least one link in your email. There’s a formula for getting this:
(Number of subscribers who clicked on a link in your email / number of emails sent) * 100
Let’s say you sent out your emails to 100 subscribers. Then upon checking your statistics, you only got 10 people to click on your link. Here’s what the formula will look like:
(10 subscribers who clicked on a link / 100 emails sent) * 100
The answer here is 10% CTR.
Now why does the CTR matter? Because the higher your click-through rate, means your emails are resonating with your audience. Your email subscribers are finding your emails engaging, which is why they’re clicking on the links.
What makes a good click-through rate?
Here’s where it gets confusing. Good CTRs are varied, depending on the countries you’re sending the emails to, the industry you belong to, and even the device your email reader uses. One way for you to get a grasp on things is to compare your own data with that of your industry average. You can get your data from your email marketing service provider.
However, plenty of studies about emails and experts agree you’re doing pretty well if you get a CTR of around 7%. And if you’re getting rates better than that, you should probably stop reading this article–you already know what you’re doing!
But if you’re getting less than 7%, don’t worry. There are ways to improve your email CTR.
Ways To Improve Your Email CTR
Improving your CTR goes beyond writing better emails. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to improving your CTR, there are several proven tactics that you can implement to increase engagement, get more clicks from your email subscribers, and grow your business. In no particular order, here are five.
Get Your Email Sending Timing Right
The time you send your email can make all the difference between an email campaign that needs plenty of improvement and a successful one. For example, research has shown that Mondays are Tuesdays are the best days to send emails for better CTRs, while Sundays are the worst.
it’s better to send emails before people go to work and after people’s usual working hours. Sure, they might open it if you send it during their working hours, but they might not take action and click on your links because they’re busy. That would just make your email go to waste. If you send your emails before they start working and after they’re done for the day, your subscribers will be more relaxed and likelier to act on your emails.
The best way to find out the right time for sending emails is through continuous testing and research. Consider factors such as your industry and target audience to determine the true ideal time to send your email campaign.
Personalize For Your Audience
Get people to read your email longer (and click through it) by personalizing emails. One way to do this is by segmenting your emails and giving each segment relevant content. After all, your product can serve more than one audience, right?
Incorporate your audience’s names, ages, locations, interests, and purchase histories. You will really make your readers feel like you know them and that you’re paying attention to them.
The more you know them and can provide relevant offers, the higher your CTRs!
Optimize Your Email For Devices
You probably know by now, people don’t only open emails on their laptops and desktop computers. In fact, the number of people who open emails on mobile is growing! So the question for you is this: are your emails optimized for mobile devices?
If not, guess where your email is going? In the trash, especially if it’s a struggle to read. And if they throw your email in the trash folder, your CTR will drop quickly.
Consider what statistics say: plenty of people now open their emails first on their mobile devices BEFORE they get back to them on their bigger devices. And if they open it again on their laptops or computers, they’ll likely click through.
In short, make sure your emails are readable and hold the attention of your subscribers on mobile devices.
Be As Reputable As Possible
One reason you might have low CTRs is that your email might not look like it came from a reputable sender. How, you ask?
Check your email–does it look like it came from your brand/business, or does it look entirely like a different one altogether? Does it have your business logo? Does it sound like how you brand your business?
If not, you know what to fix.
Another way to get people to trust your email is to include your name in the sender’s name. If your business is not well-known yet, at least you can get them to trust you over time the more they see that you’re an actual person related to the business.
One more thing you can do is be consistent in sending emails. If you send three per week, stick to that as much as possible so your subscribers will anticipate when you send emails and trust your timing.
Don’t Forget To Have Call-To-Actions
Remember why you’re sending emails to people? It’s because you want them to do something, whether to click on a link or purchase what you’re offering. If you don’t include that in your email, they won’t know what to do next!
So make sure before you send out your email that you include a call-to-action (CTA). Of course, don’t include too many, either. You want your reader to be clear on what they’re supposed to do, not stop and think about it first–you’ll have fewer conversions.
Where you place the CTA is also important. Some studies say putting it on the left is better than on the right. This might be a good time to test the placement for your particular audience.
Finally, don’t use “Click Here” or another generic phrase for your CTA. Write what will happen as an effect if your reader clicks the button (i.e., “Lose 20 pounds in 1 week here!) and see how fast your CTRs rise!
Key Takeaways
Emails are still effective in reaching your audience and business conversions. But you need to have good email click-through rates or CTRs to do that. If you can get 7% or even higher, you can call your email campaign a success.
If you’re nowhere near that number, don’t lose hope. There are plenty of things you can do to increase it.
- Nail the correct time and day to send your emails, depending on your target audience’s behavior.
- Personalize your content to make it important to be read to your subscribers.
- Make sure your emails are optimized not just for laptops and computers but also for mobile devices, especially with more readers now checking their emails via their smartphones or tablets.
- Be consistent with your email-sending behavior and with your email content so that you’ll come off as more reputable to your subscribers.
- Always include a call-to-action or CTA so that readers will know what you want them to do after they read your email–and they’ll do it!
It’s still recommended to test these tips to know which ones will give your good CTRs. Track your email performance and base your next actions there. With effort and persistence, you can significantly increase your email click-through rates and achieve great results for your business!