7 Things You Can Do to Significantly Improve Your Email Click-Through Rates

 7 Things You Can Do to Significantly Improve Your Email Click-Through Rates
It’s no secret that email marketing is great way to connect with customers, prospects, and everyone else important to your business or organization.
But do you ever wish that your emails did a better job of engaging your audience?
Hopefully you’ve taken steps to get more people to open your emails, but are people also clicking and engaging with the content you send out?
Still not using email marketing? Sign up for Constant Contact and get a free 60-day trial!

Click-through rates are a great measure of engagement for your emails.

They measure the percentage of clicks that links in your email receive based on the number of people who open your email.
The importance of click-through rates is they show you how many subscribers are not only opening your emails, but are also engaging with your content and taking a desired action.

How can you tell if your click-through rate is in good shape?

Average click-through rates vary a lot from industry to industry.
To help you see where you stand, Constant Contact regularly gathers and examines data from 200 million emails from our customers to give you insight into how your results compare to similar businesses.
Check out our Comparison by Industry Chart to see how your business compares to others in your industry.

What can you do to get better results?

Now that you have a little more information about your click-through rate, you’re probably interested in the steps you can take to deliver even better results.
After all, more clicks could mean more traffic to your website, more registrants for your events, and more people acting on the offers you include in your emails.
Getting more clicks starts with understanding a few important principles:
  • Every email must have a goal: Every time you send out an email you should have a goal in mind. Are you trying to drive traffic to your website? Increase event registration for an upcoming fundraiser? Encourage people to fill out an online survey? Make sure you’re communicating with a purpose so you can get your message across to your audience loud and clear.
  • Your email should reflect your goal: When designing your email, make sure that the content and layout of your message reflects the goal you’re trying to achieve. Keep your email focused on the action you want readers to take. Keep text down to only the essential. If you want to go into detail in your email, prioritize information so that you’re providing a link early on. That way, readers will see the link even if they don’t scroll through the whole message.
  • You need to give people a reason to act: The best way to inspire readers to take action is to provide something of value. If you’re sending an email to drive sales, including a small discount can go a long way. If you want to drive donations, offer a case study so your subscribers can see exactly what their contributions are working towards.
  • You need to make it easy to take action: Test out your email on multiple devices. Many of your readers will be opening your emails on a mobile device, so be sure that the text is large enough to be readable on a small screen and the links are easy to click. If you’re adding images with information, be aware that images might not load for everyone; include relevant information in plain text below your images so no one is missing out.
Once you’ve got these four principles down, you may still be on the lookout for new ideas to drive better results.
Let’s take a look at seven ideas that have worked well for other Constant Contact customers:

1. Cut down to just the essentials

Constant Contact customer - orange cycle
Constant Contact customer - orange cycle
Click-through rate: 22 percent
Bicycle shop, Orange Cycle, does a perfect job of keeping information down to a minimum, while still including all the essentials. Their logo and contact information appear right at the top, then they utilize a fun image that supports their brand. Next, they emphasize the sale and include a link to specific prices. Lastly, they provide social buttons to at the bottom to encourage subscribers to connect with them in multiple places.
Takeaway: Try a super simple approach, similar to this example, so readers can take in your information in a matter of seconds.

2. Motivate your readers

Constant contact customer - fluent city
Click-through rate: 15 percent
If you want your readers to engage with your content and take action, it’s your job to motivate them. In this email, Fluent City inspires readers to share their feedback by showing enthusiasm and personality in their language. Their request appears right in the first paragraph and they also include an edited image right at the top to reinforce their request and the urgency.
Takeaway: Motivate your readers by providing deadlines and using language that encourages them to take action.

3. Include the same link multiple times

Constant contact nonprofit customer - swsg
Click-through rate: 30 percent
While promoting their 10 Year Anniversary event, mentoring organization Strong Women Strong Girls included the same links multiple times to drive people to register. By providing the link twice they’re increasing the chance that someone skimming through will click through for more information.
Takeaway: After including a link once, don’t be afraid to add it later in the email as well. Some people might want more information before taking action.

4. Follow-up quickly

Constant Contact customer - Door County
Click-through rate: 24 percent
One great way to inspire readers to take action is to send an email as a follow up from another interaction. Door County Coffee & Tea does a phenomenal job of this in the email above. After a customer places their first order, they immediately follow up with a thank you message including a $10 off coupon for their next order. This is a great way to drive repeat business and click-through rates.
Takeaway: Follow up with your subscriber right after they interact with your business or organization. This could inspire them to connect with you again soon.

5. Include a video

Constant Contact customer - town of enfield
Click-through rate: 28 percent
With so much going on every quarter in the Town of Enfield, keeping the community informed of news and updates is no small feat. Rather than asking their subscribers to scroll through a long email with a list of updates, the town decided to include a video update. This is a great way to get information out to their community and increase readers’ email engagement.
Takeaway: Consider including a video in an upcoming email. You might be surprised how engaged readers will be if you present information in a new format.

6. Announce something new

Constant Contact customer - Galuppi's
Click-through rate: 39 percent
Have something new going on at your business? Let your email subscribers feel special be making them the first to know. In this email, Galuppi’s restaurant offers their contacts a first look at the new menu. They also add a promotion of an upcoming event right below the announcement. This gives readers a specific date when the might want to come in and try out the new menu offerings.
Takeaway: Generate excitement and drive action by providing your email list with an exciting update.

7. Use Buttons

Constant contact customer - gorilla doctors
Click-through rate: 30 percent
If your readers aren’t clicking on links as much as you’d like, consider adding buttons to your email. Buttons are often especially useful for mobile-friendly emails, so that readers can click links easily on smaller screens. In this email, nonprofit Gorilla Doctors, encourages people to engage with their content and donate to their cause with brightly colored, attention-grabbing buttons.
Takeaway: Try out buttons in your next email and see if your click-through rates are higher than usual. If you notice a difference, look for more opportunities to add them to upcoming emails.

With these tips in mind, you’re ready to create emails that are more engaging than ever before.

Get started today and use one of the examples above as inspiration for your next email. Try it out and come back to this post to let us know if you notice any changes in your audience engagement.

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