So, you’ve created your editorial calendar, drafted your content—both regular content and special offers—and are up and running like a well-oiled marketing machine. Yay! Go girl (or guy)! Your open rates are up and your unsubscribe rates are down. Give yourself a big pat on the back!
Time now to focus on click-through rates. Why? Well, that’s how we know when your audience is engaged, how we test offers and products, and, the big reason, how we can have our audiences self-segment. Self-segment? How cool is that! The tip of the artificial intelligence iceberg! Way cool…but more on that later.
Depending on the goal of your email marketing, a high click-through rate could mean more people visiting your website, redeeming your offer, or registering for an upcoming event.
Want to know how to increase the click-through rate of your emails?
Let’s take a look at a few, tips, tricks, and best-practices that could help you boost your email click-through rate.
Create a scarcity effect
Creating a sense of urgency (the scarcity principle) is the best way to persuade your leads to engage with your emails. Urgency works because when you put a deadline on a specific action like the purchase of a product before an offer ends, people automatically lean towards taking that action by engaging with your email.
There are two types of urgency you can make use of in your email marketing campaigns: time-based urgency and scarcity-based urgency.
Time-based urgency entices prospects to engage with a campaign by providing only a limited timeframe. Whereas scarcity-based urgency capitalizes on scarcity to make it work.
Keep your emails short and have a clear call to action
Emails with three or fewer images and approximately 20 lines of text result in the highest click-through rates from email subscribers.
Why? Well, in today’s increasingly mobile world, consumers want to be able to read content anywhere, at any time, and from any device. By keeping your emails straightforward and your content clear, you can craft emails knowing that your subscriber can read them with equal ease at their office desk, while waiting for the train, or at home.
Send personalized emails
The best way to improve email click-through rates is to send more personalized emails to your leads. And, I am not just talking about “merging” their name in the content or subject line (that can get a little spammy, don’t you think?) When emails are personalized on the basis of your individual subscriber’s unique behavior and interests, they are more likely to engage with your emails.
This is where segmentation comes in.
Email segmentation allows you to classify your leads on the basis of common interests and behaviors. This way you can send targeted emails to each individual group addressing the needs of their concerns and behaviors.
Much more on segmentation to follow… stay tuned!
Just straight out ask for email preferences
If you are not sending your emails to the right people, with the right content, at the right time, emails can be annoying to your potential customers, which makes them unsubscribe from the list. To keep your list active and to boost click-through rates, it is essential to know your subscribers’ email preferences. Although you may have segmented your audience to near perfection, sometimes folks can get a little “wishy-washy” (yes, that’s a technical term) about what they think they want to receive. Hey, maybe they’ve had a bad day and don’t really want to opt out altogether.
This is why it is vital to set up your unsubscribe or email preferences. Don’t just let your audience opt out of everything. Let them choose the frequency or subject matter before you lose them.
And, if they’ve really had a bad day and click that unsubscribe button, it’s time to…
Create a win-back email campaign
You need to take the last step to make your leads re-engaged with your emails by creating a win-back email campaign. According to a study, an average open rate of win back emails is 12%. This rate is respectable since all leads were identified as inactive before.
One of the best ways to persuade your inactive leads to engage with your emails is to make an offer they can’t refuse—a complimentary service, a discount, a special item of value—are all winners here. A successful win-back campaign is a HUGE an opportunity to continue to nurture that wonderful prospect (hint, hint, make sure to place them into an automated campaign that treats them extra special!)
As always, test, test, test and find out what works for you! There are lot of ways to increase your click-through rate!
Want to learn more about rocking your email marketing game? Don’t be shy, give us a shout!
