Email marketing is a great way to connect with your customers and can provide incredibly useful data that you as a marketer can use to your advantage. Click-through data can be used to generate solid leads and allows for deep segmentation, which means you can target content specifically to those interested in certain topics.
Of course, click-through data is useless if no one is clicking the links in your emails. Follow the tips below to improve your click-through rates, then get to work nurturing all your new leads.
The first and often overlooked step toward improving your click-through rate is to cleanup your email list. Throw out bad email addresses, double-check that the oldest emails on your list are still valid, and begin segmenting your list based on the data you already have.
You want your email list to be manageable, and this can be accomplished whether you have 50 or 50,000 emails on your list. Regular maintenance and segmentation allow for better list management. Whenever an individual signs up for your emails, you can ask that they indicate their interests, or they can sign up for a specific list.
Remember than open data is not always accurate, and many times recipients have opened your emails, but they didn?t view the images or click a link. These will show as unopened. Be careful removing email addresses simply because they never open your emails.
People can?t click on links in your email if they never open it. Your first impression is your subject line, and if it?s boring or spammyit will be ignored, deleted or sent to the junk folder. Make sure your subject line is informative, but also encourages opens. You may want to utilize A/B testing to try out a few subject lines, and then send the best performer to the entire list.
Preview content?the 50 characters or so that appear after or under the subject line?also needs to be given some thought. Not all email clients will utilize preview content, but for those that do, preview content can offer additional information and encourage more opens. Think of preview content as a subhead like in a newspaper.
We?ve all seen emails that are so riddled with graphics, call-to-action buttons and content that we don?t know where to begin. Emails with clean designs, easy to read content and only a few call-to-action buttons will encourage click-throughs and repeat opens.
You may need to narrow the focus of your email so you don?t feel the need to include everything. Only share information that is pertinent to your focus, and provide links to long articles. You can always send another email another time; so don?t feel as if you are holding back.
You email should be easy to read in all the major email clients as well as on mobile devices. You will need to test your design in several browsers and clients, as each handles the coding in emails just a little differently. These little changes can significantly impact your email?s appearance and readability.
Your email content and design can significantly impact the click-through rates of your emails, but obviously the most essential tool is the links themselves. Emails are generally full of links?links to articles, linked images, call-to-actions, social share functions, and more.
You can optimize your clickability by linking both the article headline, jump link and accompanying image. Utilize alt-text for images just in case your recipient doesn?t show photos. You should try to limit call-to-action buttons, or put more emphasis on just one.
Social share buttons are essential, and you?ll also want to include a forward and subscribe button for anyone who receives the forwarded email. You can also include links to your social media pages, but be sure to keep them separate from the share buttons.
Improving your click-through rate will also affect your open rate, as most email marketing platforms will count clicks as opens, even if they don?t download the photos. Click-through stats can also provide valuable analytics data that you can use to modify your email design and content. Most of all, clicks means your recipients are actually reading your emails.