Email marketing is a powerful tool for engaging your client base, and getting them accustomed to the idea of taking action based on the information you send them. The simplest form of response is the clickthrough, which affirms the reader’s perception that you are offering something that is valuable to them.
Increase Email CTR
These 8 simple tips will help you to substantially increase your email clickthrough rate.
1. Keep the layout clean and simple.
Complicated layouts with navigation links and large header images draw attention away from your links and calls to action.
2. Include only snippets of each article or section.
Link to the full version on your website. This will not only increase clickthrough rate, but also make it easier for readers to scan through your messages.
3. Add video links.
People love to click the “play” button on embedded videos. Take a screenshot of your video as it looks embedded in a web page, and include this in your email message. Link it to the page with the actual video, so that when the reader clicks through, the video will play for them.
4. The best content should come first.
Most people read all their email in the preview pane of their email client, and many won’t bother to scroll through your newsletter to see what’s in it. That’s why your most compelling content or call to action should be located at the very beginning of your message.
5. Remind the reader to act at the end of the message.
If your message is interesting and useful, your subscribers will be likely to forget about your call to action by the time they reach the end. A great way to remind them is by included a “P.S.” line at the end of the message.
6. Increase the scarcity of your offerings.
Any good salesman will tell you that people want things more when they’re tough to get. You can increase your clickthrough and conversion by limiting offers to a certain time-frame, or to a certain number of respondents.
7. Send more targeted messages by breaking up your lists into smaller segments.
You can divide your lists based on location, demographics, or interests. An especially powerful trick is to segment your lists based on subscribers’ responses to your previous messages.
8. Create a few different versions of each message and test them against one another.
Since the factors contributing to reader response can be unpredictable, the best way to improve clickthrough is to test different subject lines, calls to action, and visual layouts to see which one your particular mailing list responds to better.
Guest author David works for ActiveCampaign.com, makers of the industry-leading Email Marketing software package with advanced split testing and segmentation features. You can also guest blog on QOT and join the benefits enjoyed by 200 guest bloggers.