When it comes to email marketing, I think you’d agree that the most important metric is the click through rate (CTR).
Yes, we all want high open rates, but the end goal is to get the subscriber to take action (i.e. click on a link in our email).
There are a few basic principles that will ensure you maximize the click through rate of your emails every time. And then there are a few “seasonal” tricks — if you use them sparingly, they will give you nice spikes in the click through rate when you need it most.
In this post, you will learn strategies from both categories, so let’s dive right in. There is also a special (downloadable) bonus at the end, including the most useful click-through rate benchmarks and a do-it-yourself checklist, so keep reading.
How To Get A High Email Click Through Rate — Basic Principles
1. Have only ONE call to action in your email
The more you ask people to do, the less they will actually complete.
You know this is true from your life. If you ask a friend for 10 book recommendations, you’ll have to wait much longer than if you had asked them for just one.
So when you’re asking your subscribers to take action, ask them to do just ONE thing.
Taking out the choices makes decision making easier and increases your click through rate.
Here’s a good example of a focused email with a single CTA:
2. Repeat your single call to action multiple times
It might look like this contradicts the first principle, but it doesn’t.
Still ask your subscribers to do just one thing, but ask multiple times.
That means you can have your call to action as a button and as hyperlinked text. Or maybe as two buttons that are spaced out in the email, if it’s long enough. Or link all your images to the same page as your call to action.
You get the point.
Here’s a good example of using multiple CTAs that all link to the same action from DataEngConf (click on the image to enlarge it):
3. Be clear about what you’re asking subscribers to do
“Click here to watch the video”
“Reserve your spot”
“Read my awesome post here”
Be clear and straightforward about what you want subscribers to do.
Unlike blog posts, where you need to have hyperlinks for ranking purposes, but you don’t actually want to take people away from your post, in 90% of the cases you WANT to take people away from your email. That’s the whole purpose.
So make your calls to action explicit and clear.
Here’s an example of CTAs that are not clear at all:
4. Call to action sandwich
I love using this one.
If you use buttons as the main call to action in your email, add a line of text directly above and below the button. The copy should reiterate the main benefit (for those who didn’t actually read your email), highlight the urgency, or provide social proof.
The goal is to bolster your call to action and make it much harder to say ”no” to it.
5. Use social proof to increase trust
If possible, use social proof in your email.
How can you actually do this?
- include quotes from your customers / subscribers;
- mention facts about your partnerships or collaborations with recognizable brands / individuals;
- share results driven for your other customers / clients.
In other words, use every opportunity to *show* (vs. telling) that you’re the real deal.
The most strategic placements for social proof in your email: the first paragraph, the space around the main call to action, and at the end of the email (such as a P.S. section – more on this later).
Look at how Infusionsoft used social proof in their email:
6. Place your CTAs strategically in your email
Two best places to put your call to action in an email are above the fold and in a P.S.
It’s quite simple; those are the two most viewed parts of an email, so if you want to get your call to action seen and clicked, put it there!
Optimizing the P.S. in an email will increase your click-through rate dramatically. Even those subscribers who scroll through your email without reading will stop at the P.S. for a few seconds.
If you’re able to grab their attention there, it’s a win.
Ramit Sethi does it brilliantly:
7. Buttons vs. text-based call to action
When it comes to email click rates, this is the question I get asked most often: “Should I use buttons or text for my email call to action?”
On average, buttons get higher click through rates, but that’s not end of the story.
If you send HMTL emails, definitely use buttons for your main calls to action. Supplement that with a few hyperlinks as well (pointing to the same page, as per rule #2).
If you send text-only emails, you need to experiment with buttons vs text-based calls to action. If you have a highly engaged audience and write in a very personal tone, your audience might respond better to text-based calls to action, especially if that’s what you’ve been doing for a while.
In most cases, though, you are safe using buttons and text in tandem.
Just please don’t use JPG images as your buttons. Images don’t get displayed for 5-10% of your subscribers (if you image doesn’t get displayed, you lose your call to action completely). Plus, with every additional image you’re increasing your chances of getting into the Gmail Promotions tab.
A great free tool for creating unfailing HTML-based buttons is Bulletproof Email Buttons.
8. Optimize your emails for mobile
I honestly want to scream when I read that sentence in blog posts.
WTF does “optimize for mobile” actually mean?
When we’re talking about email click through rates, it means making sure your emails are readable on phones:
- the text size is comfortable;
- buttons are not buried too low into the email;
- buttons are easy to click with a finger;
- and especially if you use text-based links, those are easy to click as well.
Hacks and Tricks for Increasing Email CTRs
Now that we covered the basics — things you should always be doing in all your marketing emails, let’s talk about a few cool tricks you can use when you need a little CTR boost.
Include a P.S.
P.S., or a postscript in an email is a very valuable piece of real estate. As I mentioned above, even people who scroll through your email without reading it will stop for a few seconds at the postscript — especially if you make it stand out.
Here are best practices for using a P.S. in a marketing email:
A) Use them sparingly and make them count.
If you add a P.S. with an ask at the end of each email, you’re conditioning your readers to perceive it as a hard sell, so its effectiveness will dwindle.
So either only use it in every other email, or, if you use it every time, add something cool and valuable.
Tim Ferriss is great at it. He send a weekly email called “5-bullet Friday”, which natually consists of 5 bullets, and then he adds the most interesting part of the email in a P.S.
And then once in a while, during a book or a project launch, he’ll use the P.S. section to ask his readers to share, review, or buy something. But because most of the time he provides value in his P.S., I’m now conditioned to look there every time.
B) Make the P.S. area stand out in your email.
What does that actually mean?
- Space it from the body of your email.
- Bold the P.S. part.
Mariah Coz is great at maximizing the value of the P.S. section in her emails:
Use urgency to dramatically increase your click through rate
People act when they feel urgency.
That’s why we procrastinate.
That’s why we miss deadlines that don’t involve a punishment for missing it.
When you give people a deadline, and make it clear what they lose by missing it (or what they gain by making it), you’ll see higher conversions.
Here’s how you can add urgency to your emails:
- Deadlines on the open-cart period or the deals you’re promoting (after the deadline, they can’t get it at all)
- Price increases
- Emphasize that the quantity of what you’re promoting is limited
- Use a timer
Adding a timer to your email might give you that surge in click through rate that you need, but only if you use it sparingly.
Great tool for email countdown timers: motionmailapp.com
Personalize your emails and calls to action
There’s been a lot of talk about email personalization, and for a good reason. The more personalized a message is, the better it converts, across the board.
On an email level, personalization doesn’t just mean using their first name in the greeting.
It means using relevant keywords, timezones, relevant content and calls to action.
If you have multiple customer personas, segment your list based on persona and personalize keywords and content.
If you can segment by the subscriber’s stage in the customer lifecycle, personalize the call to action based on that. Don’t offer a demo to a brand-new subscriber, and don’t offer a high-level “list of tips” blog post to someone who has almost converted and needs more in-depth content.
Segmenting your list based on interest and sending differentiated emails based on that interest will always result in higher click-through rates.
Resend your emails to unopen’s
Finally, this is one of my favorite tricks in the email marketing toolbox.
After you sent an email, wait 2-3 days.
Then clone that email, change the subject line and preview text (actually work on those to optimize them for higher open rate), and resend the email to anyone who didn’t open the original email.
This gets more eyeballs on your email, and also more clicks on your call to action.
Here’s an example from one of the clients I helped:
As you can see, the re-sent email got virtually the same open rate and click-through rate as the original email, doubling my total clicks and impressions of that email.
And the best part?
It didn’t cost me anything to do it, and literally took 3 minutes to set up.
Viola.
The Best Strategy For High Email Click Through Rates
In the end, the best strategy for keeping your email CTR high is simply to know your subscribers really well, and offer something of value.
If your subscribers see a benefit in the action you’re asking them to take (a benefit for THEM, not for you), they’ll take it.
The strategies and tricks in this post will help, but at the core, your value proposition and your knowledge of your customer persona trump everything else.
What’s a good email click-through rate?
The answer is “it depends”. It depends on your list size, list age, sender reputation, and industry.
I’ve prepared a collection of the most useful benchmarks to look at (because let’s be honest, there are too many benchmarks and most of them are benchmarks for the sake of benchmarks).
Grab the PDF below which includes the email click-through rate benchmarks, as well as a CTR checklist for each email you send. Enjoy ; )
Now I turn it over to YOU — please go to the comments section, and let me know:
- What is the most effective CTR-boosting strategy you’ve ever used, or
- Your favorite tip from this post.
Comment below and let me know!
