7 Best Practices To Improve Click-Through Rates

Posted on the 21 February 2013 by Butterchicken @vivekkrishnan

With dozens of commercial newsletters hitting the reader’s inbox every week, it’s quite challenging to make your emails stand out. Even though open rates are essential, click-through rates may help drive much traffic to your site. To encourage subscribers to click and convert, try the following marketing practices implemented by dotMailer specialists into email campaigns.

#1. Get to the point

With quality content, less is more so try to create informative and useful copy that doesn’t take much time to read, or you may lose the recipient’s attention in no time. Bored readers are a missed opportunity so no beating about the bush, please.

#2. Target your emails properly

Avoid sending irrelevant messages to your subscribers if you don’t want to end up in the spam folder. To segment your audience according to their interests and preferences, run a simple online survey after welcoming new subscribers. You can even offer a giveaway or discount for completing the survey. After dividing your audience into segments, send messages that might be of interest to specific recipients.

#3. Use social media content

Social platforms can give you a hint about what content is the most popular with your targeted audience. Depending on your business, it can be merchandise, special offers, videos, articles, blog posts, polls, tips, upcoming events, industry news, etc. Choose what works best for your subscribers.

#4. Personalise emails

Use all the data you have to personalise emails including website activity, last purchases, last views, download history, satisfaction score, etc. Start with personalising subject lines as it’s essential to force the recipient to open your email first.

#5. Include links

Don’t include too much copy/images into your emails; go for relevant links, instead. Your subscribers can always turn to your website for more information, while newsletters remain sharp and clean.

#6. Add social sharing options

According to Econsultancy reports, emails with social sharing options generate 30% higher click-throughs. The more social sharing options you include, the higher your click-through rates will be.

#7. Make calls-to-action visible

Remember that your call-to-action should be impossible to miss the second the reader clicks open. Be specific about your call-to-action and try to create a sense of urgency. Words like “Only Today” and “Register Now To Use The Offer” force subscribers to take action quickly. Make sure your call-to-action is easy to understand by keeping directions clear.

After using these tactics, track the results of your email campaigns. Even a modest increase in click-throughs can make a difference for your revenue.