Ask any email marketer and they’ll confess: boosting email clicks is the biggest challenge they face. While increasing open rates seems to be easier to achieve, getting people to click on your email content isn’t easy.
If you feel the same, you’re not alone. Inboxes are jam-packed, and you’re competing with many other senders for your subscribers’ attention. They don’t have time to read entire emails, let alone click an external link to access more content. Did you know that people spend an average of only nine seconds looking at an email?
How to boost email clicks
The stat above adds to your pressure to create emails that engage, keep subscribers scrolling, and yield higher conversion rates. Before you let that pressure discourage you, read on to see what simple tactics you can implement today to boost your email clicks.
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First, assess your open rates
Open rates used to be the number one metric email marketers would use to measure their success. Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection feature changed that in 2021, by blocking senders from collecting user data. Open rates became deceiving as they don’t paint a clear picture of your performance, but that doesn’t mean you should dismiss them altogether.
So, if you’ve seen a dip in your open rates in the past three to six months, that’s cause for concern. Identifying the reason is key to getting people to open your emails and click on your content.
- Start by determining any changes you’ve made in these past months. Has your content been different? If you’ve been drifting away from your niche, that could cause subscribers to tune out and stop engaging with your emails.
- If your content has been consistently high-quality and on-brand, your open rates could have plummeted because people aren’t seeing your emails. Your newsletters and campaigns may be going to the spam folder.
Of course, when your open rates decline, your click-through rates take a hit, too. Next, let’s see how you can address these issues and make every email count.
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Prune your data consistently
The lack of data quality is often the reason why email click rates decrease. In their ongoing quest to eliminate spam, Internet service providers (ISPs) block senders with high bounce rates. So keeping outdated email addresses in your list is risky – you don’t want your bounce rate to be higher than 2%. If it passes that threshold, your emails can start landing in spam or can end up being blocked altogether.
On average, almost a quarter of an email list degrades annually due to people changing jobs or choosing a difference email provider. Checking your contacts regularly ensures that you only have active and active email addresses, which leads to:
- Fewer bounces and spam complaint rates
- More confidence in getting your emails into the inbox
- Better chances to connect with your audience and boost click rates.
Aside from validating your contacts quarterly, continue to build your email list organically and never add any email addresses to it without permission. It’s better to have a smaller but more engaged database.
Scrutinize your content
Fixing potential email deliverability issues is the first step to increasing your click rates. Once you’ve made sure your email list is healthy, it’s time to give your content a closer look. Here are a few questions worth asking yourself:
- Is my content on-brand and useful to my audience?
- How could I improve my copywriting to make it more compelling?
- Does the layout of my emails make for a good user experience?
Keeping your content on-brand matters because that’s why people signed up for your emails. With every email, strive to deliver – and overdeliver – on that promise. Your subscribers want to hear from you because you’re their go-to source for relevant info in your niche.
Expressing your thoughts in a compelling, easy-to-read manner is equally important. If you don’t feel confident in your copywriting skills, consider hiring a professional that can give you feedback and even write a few of your emails. Measure your clicks and notice any differences – did the copy get more people to click?
Lastly, don’t forget your layout. Sometimes, people will even forgive not-so-great content if it’s laid out in a pleasant design. Don’t be afraid of one-sentence paragraphs and using buttons that stand out.
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Optimize your timing and frequency
Great emails that land in the inbox can get engagement at any time, but what if you could reach your subscribers right when they’re scanning their inboxes? Getting your sending time right isn’t that easy, but try this:
- Use the features available in your email service provider to determine the different geographic locations where your prospects reside.
- Schedule your email to go out at the time of your choice, depending on location.
- Run a few A/B tests to see if picking a different time – such as early afternoon instead of morning – makes a difference in your click rates.
Aside from adjusting your sending time, also think about fine-tuning your frequency. As a rule of thumb, send emails regularly and stick to a schedule.
If you have a weekly newsletter, send it on the same weekday. This helps your email deliverability (ISPs like predictable behaviors) and builds brand awareness. But avoid fixating on a certain schedule as decreasing the number of emails you send could help your click rate. A bi-monthly newsletter may perform better than a weekly one. Experiment with the timing and frequency of your emails to find the best schedule for your audience.
