In email marketing, one of the best ways to find out the efficiency of your effort is to collect and analyze important metrics such as click-through rates (CTR). Having a complete understanding of CTR together with other key metrics allows marketers to assess the performance of your campaign, make data-driven decisions, and swiftly optimize strategy.
In this article, we’ll look into the impactful factors and the most effective ways how to improve click-through rates of your emails with examples.
How to increase click-through rate of email campaigns
CTR is one of the important metrics from emails that require to be carefully gauged. It allows you to define what calls to action (CTA) work to reach your audience and what designs or pieces of content need to be changed immediately. Naturally, after collecting all the data and seeing the performance analytics whether it’s good or not you’d strive to find ways for improvement anyway. Flowium’s team presents you with the most effective methods how to increase email click-through rate that are relevant with all the 2024 updates. Here they are along with the tips from our professionals.
Explore strategies for enhancing your CTR in our podcast
Strategic CTA to boost CTR
Since CTR is a specific measurement to determine the efficiency of call-to-action elements, let’s start with this rather sizeable topic and outline the most important points.
- One CTA per email
What I recommend from the start is to opt for a single call to action in your email to create a focal point. This makes it more likely that your recipients will understand your message. Furthermore, keep your emails free of website-style menus, which can divert attention and lessen the impact of your call to action. I advise focusing on one topic (product, service, etc.) in your email and using one distinctive CTA to spark curiosity and urge people to click your link without confusing them.
Remember that too many clickable options might result in no clicks at all.
- Strategic placement of CTAs
Of course, not all businesses can apply the recommendation above. Depending on the line of work and marketing strategy, some of them need to use several calls to action per email to effectively convey the message or present the offer. How do I increase CTR in this case? The solution is in the smart positioning of your CTAs. It’s important not to hide it at the bottom where readers could overlook it. Instead, think about distributing it thoughtfully throughout the email in a few different places. This can entail emphasizing it at the top where it is easily seen, repeating it in the center for emphasis, and adding it at the bottom of lengthy emails so that recipients can scroll through them. You can also use the reversed pyramid principle which means placing the main call to action at the top and a few secondary links at the bottom of your email.
- CTA hierarchy
If you use a few calls to action and want to grow your click-through rate email metrics, use the power of visual and informational hierarchy. Your primary CTA must be placed at the top where it’s the most noticeable while the secondary ones can be hidden inside text or among pictures. You can see in the Jones Road email example that the primary CTA “Shop nourishing skincare”, which represents the goal of this email, is a button located close to a focal point. There’s also a secondary CTA, a hyperlink placed in the text, which is less distinctive and located lower according to the rule of hierarchy. Such a combination of calls to action allows marketers to provide helpful information without distracting clients from the main point. This example also shows the utilization of different call-to-action formats which is another best practice to improve click-through rates.
- Creative calls to action
Let’s be honest, calls to action like “Shop now” / “Buy now” cannot spark interest. Yes, they definitely serve their purpose by providing clear instructions but that’s pretty much it. If you want to provide clients with a more distinctive experience and ignite interest in exploring your offers, be more creative about your CTAs. Instead of typical wording use popular catchphrases, short but striking slogans, and even wordplays or memes. This creativity will help you to adhere to another principle of how to improve CTR – no repetitive CTA.
Email personalization
Personalizing your emails based on the traits of your recipients is another effective strategy businesses can use if they aim for an increasing click-through rate. This entails using the collected data from your previous campaigns to modify the email content accordingly.
- Personalized CTA
The first thing you can do is, once again, work on your calls to action. For example, you can show more care and a personalized approach through your CTA for your current or regular clients to inspire them to make another purchase. At the same time, a clear “Buy now” call to action may work better for non-customers since it’s neutral and can appeal to anyone. The statistics also prove this practice. Last year Hubspot reported their analysis that shows a 14% increase in click-through rates with personalized CTAs. Email marketing platforms such as Klaviyo enable this type of customization by allowing you to include numerous calls to action and display the most appropriate one based on the recipient’s profile.
- Personalized content
Aside from calls to action, you can attune the content of your message. To do that properly and create individualized emails, make full use of the collected information about your clients e.g. name, age, gender, products they showed interest in, history of purchases, etc. Start by addressing your recipients by their names and add more context based on what you know about them. A perfect example of personalization is a well-known Spotify Wrapped email. Every year the click-through rate of this email skyrockets simply because people are curious about the type of content that regards them personally.
- Advanced segmentation
None of the previous practices will work if you don’t segment your contact list properly. Without strategic email segmentation, all those customized emails won’t find their target audience which can result in low CTR and overall campaign deficiency. The reason for such results is simple – people aren’t interested in your offer so they don’t click. For example, you sell street-style clothing for teenagers and young adults but send emails to everyone in your unsegmented list including the 40-50+ age segment. As you can guess, in this situation practically all rates will be decreased. Moreover, messages that are sent without the target audience in mind can often be flagged as spam.
Starting from February 1, 2024, Google and Yahoo put in action updated requirements for email senders including a new spam complaint rate of 0,3%. If you exceed this rate, more of your emails will go in a spam box. Read more about new regulations in our next article.
- Automated email flows
Another way to achieve personalization and one of the best ways how to improve click-through rates is the use of workflows. It’s a sequence of automated emails that are sent according to a subscriber’s contact details, activity, or preferences. One of the popular examples of personalization with workflows is a birthday email sent to your subscribers based on the info from their profiles. Use this and other types of workflow to establish a deeper connection with clients and encourage them to take action. You can set up these automations in Klaviyo and other platforms or turn to Flowium for assistance.
Mobile-responsive CTA
Making your call to action mobile-responsive is the next vital strategy to improve email click-through rate. Your email design and CTAs might look great when viewed on a desktop. However, without optimization, they become unreadable and extremely small when viewed on a mobile device. Naturally, your mobile CTR will be low as well as a bunch of other important metrics. Here are my recommendations on the matter.
- Ensure that your calls to action are mobile-friendly.
- Make sure the layout of your emails is correct as well to be fully displayed on mobile.
- For the correct placement imagine your email as a triangle pointing down, requiring the recipient to scroll down to reach the call to action.
- In the case of several calls to action, avoid using an excessive number of them in email headers or concentrating in one place.
- The best practice to improve CTR on mobile is to use one call to action per screen.
Call-to-action with GIFs
In one of our previous articles, we’ve already explored the importance of animated emails for marketing campaigns. Using GIFs for your messages not only helps make designs more distinctive and engaging but it’s also a proven method to achieve a high click-through rate. According to the results of split testing, animated CTAs win over static ones. They can help you increase click-through rate email results by 0,3%. Although it doesn’t seem much, for large enterprises with tens of thousands and more subscribers 0,3% is actually a lot of clicks. Even if you’re a small business, take this opportunity to increase CTR by utilizing animations. For more info listen to our podcast about personalized animations for CTR growth.
Time-sensitive emails
Creating urgency in your emails might prompt clients to click on your buttons and links. It’s a little psychological trick that marketers and designers often use to encourage engagement. After all, people tend to be more interested in all kinds of limited offers that promise uniqueness. Making your messages time-sensitive is a great way to reach the desired CTR in email marketing. Here are a few tips and ideas to implement this practice.
- Set up a countdown (sale period, special discounts, upcoming events, etc.).
- Use expressive words in call-to-action elements and throughout the text (available now, buy today, starts tomorrow, don’t miss, last chance, etc.).
- Use holidays as a special occasion (prepare themed emails like congratulations on Valentine’s Day or any other festivity while also offering your products).
- Don’t fake urgency (your special offers must expire on the designated date if you don’t want to make your customers feel tricked).
Gamification
One of the techniques to increase click-through rates is gamification. It boosts engagement by incorporating game mechanics into non-gaming circumstances, such as emails. Email marketers use game elements like spin-the-wheel, quizzes, riddles, interesting surveys, and whatnot to get users to interact with emails and earn prizes. This method produces an engaging experience that appeals to feelings and leads individuals toward common goals. Subscribers get immediate feedback on their choices and actions, which helps them take the next steps to achieve more.
Text-based emails
With the plethora of tools and services from design agencies enabling businesses to create eye-catching emails, many people make the mistake of fully dismissing text-based messages. Even without distinctive design and graphics, this type of email can fully convey the message and serve its purpose as a part of bigger email campaigns. I advise sending 2 or 3 text-based emails per campaign in between image-based messages. This strategy works for better CTR email marketing because it attracts attention by breaking the usual pattern. Moreover, some people comprehend text-based messages better than vivid designs with various visuals so you can make information more comprehensible for them and receive better results in general.
FAQ
What is an email click-through rate?
Email marketing click-through rate is one of the main metrics to measure efficiency. When evaluating how well an email campaign is engaging recipients, email marketers use the click-through rate as one of the criteria for successful performance. The total number of emails sent determines the proportion of recipients that clicked on at least one link or call-to-action button in the email. A greater click-through rate suggests that the calls to action and content in your emails are effectively engaging your audience and encouraging them to act. Find a more comprehensive answer to the question “What is CTR?” and the discussion about ways to grow this rate in our podcast on the topic.
How to calculate click-through rate for your email campaign?
When you have all the data and analytics from your campaign, It’s easy to calculate using the click-through rate formula. The following formula is used to calculate click-through rate email.
What is a good click-through rate for email?
Email marketing should aim for a click-through rate of between 2% and 5%, though this can vary depending on the target and sector. CTRs exceeding 5% are regarded as above average. Rates below 2% may point to areas where targeting or content strategy needs to be strengthened. Continuous improvement and campaign optimization require regular email performance analysis and CTR monitoring.
Conclusion
I hope this article gave you a total understanding of the best ways how to improve email click-through rate. To maximize the effectiveness of your email and boost CTRs, embed each of these crucial strategies within your marketing campaigns. If you need a professional team to take over this important task, our specialists are happy to assist your company.
Maximize the click-through rate for email campaigns with Flowium.
