First, Let’s understand what is CTR?
CTR (Click Through Rate) is a metric that measures how many subscribers click through with respect to the number of delivered emails. The Click rate is a percentage that explains brands how many emails successfully achieved one click from a user.
Email Click Through Rate = No. of Clicks/No. of Emails delivered*100
Further, it’s also important to understand what is CTOR?
Click Through Open Rate – It is calculated as the Number of users who have opened an email and then clicked on any link.
Click through open rates – No. of Unique Clicks/No. of Unique opens *100
Why brands need to measure Click Through Rate?
The major goal for tracking Email Click through rate is to measure user engagement and overall ROI. A high Email Click through rates means that multiple users are clicking on the executed EDM but it doesn’t confirm the brands about the number of users who actually registered and made a final purchase. For this brand the use conversion rate which means the percentage of click through that leads to the final purchase. The main objective of any brand is to know the Return on Investment.
As you are aware Email is the most effective and preferred communication channel for Online Brands as the potential is as high as 36X. The brands must focus on better Email Click Through rate in order to get the maximum ROI.
Best Way to Improve Your Email Click Through Rate (CTR)
A. Timing is everything in the success of email marketing programs. It’s critical for every marketer to understand what the best time and day is is to send the Email campaign to a specific segment. Every segment has his own preference and basis on the past historical action’s brands can target the audience accordingly. The Email Click through rate can significantly boost if the brands trigger the campaign with end users preferred timings.
B. Subject Line and Keywords are the Game changer. Brands can use the best subject lines so that the users become more curious. An Innovative and Unique Subject line encourages users to quickly open the email.
For E.g. We are working with a securities brand; Market update is a daily campaign on a working day for them. We have used Your daily market Analysis, to stay ahead in the Stock game to get better open rates and Email Click through rate. However, we keep changing the subject lines to get the better engagement.
Further, An IPO launch is a critical campaign for the Securities brand. Subject lines like Meet your new IPO, you can’t miss the IPO, High potential IPO is waiting for you. Such Subject lines can even touch 70%++ open rates and more than 1% email Click through rates. Brands can also use emoji which make emails stand out in your inbox.
C. Best Practices and Guidelines: It’s important to add a clear FROM NAME, Pre-Subject line, and Preview Text. Before sending the campaign, kindly test the same on internal IDs and check the layout in advance. The click through rate uplift when the brand is following all the Gmail Best Practices.
D. Personalization: Personalize your emails with First Name and do a proper segmentation. The personalization must be at product, offering and segment level.
- A significant 72% of consumers exclusively engage with personalized messaging.
- 60% of consumers are inclined to become repeat buyers after enjoying a personalized shopping experience with a retailer.
- A substantial 70% of millennials experience frustration when brands send them irrelevant emails.
- Personalized calls to action demonstrate a remarkable 202% better conversion rate than default or standard calls to action.
Personalization plays a major role to uplift the email click through rates.
E. Clear CTA: The Call-to-action button must be in the Centre of the template so that the maximum user can click the links and the brand can get the maximum engagement. The CTA must be visible. The brand can try different creative/HTML layouts to try and test which layout is working best for which segment. Image slashing is critical for the boost of email click through rate.
- Are you sure all the links working and pointing to the right places?
- Are the font sizes legible as per the Gmail guidelines and best practices?
- Are your brand colors showing up correctly?
- Is the email template designed for accessibility?
- Are the videos and images loading quickly and displaying as required?
Advance Testing is critical to monitor the email click through rates.
F. Social Media Handles Brands can include social media handles along with tracking URL while executing the campaigns. This helps in boosting the user confidence and authenticity. The Social media handles can contribute in increasing the Email Click Through rate.
G. Infrastructure: It’s important to track the Domain and IP reputation. 41% of the marketers don’t even track their domain and IP reputation. A brand must monitor Spam, Unsubscribe, and abuse complaints. If in case the Domain or IP reputation is low, this will lead to spamming which will be impacting the email click through rate.
H. KISS Principal: Cut down on jargon in your email copy, write as if you’re talking to a friend. Please follow the KISS (Design principal) practice which means Keep it simple and stupid. If we keep the copy as simple as possible, we will get better engagement and email click through rate.
I. Data Validation: Clean your Email Contact list on a regular basis and make sure that you can target the Opt-in/Confirmed users. Every Email ID matters as the Hard Bounce/Soft bounce can impact the IP and domain reputation which leads to lessor engagement and Email Click Through rate.
J. Content is always the King when it comes to Email Marketing success in all the metrics. A good content can lead to higher Email Click Through Rate, Click Through Open Rate and conversions. Please give proper spacing, in spacing between paragraphs and titles. Avoid multiple CTAs in a single creative as the user will be confused or click on an unnecessary link led to loss of a user as well.
K. Sense of Urgency Create a sense of Urgency within the campaigns and encourage users to engage with your brands, say Reply based campaigns, Spin campaigns, or Videos where users engage with the brand and take necessary actions. It is important to trigger the fear of missing out, say Timer campaigns. Please try to write a conversation tone which encourages users to spend more time and click the Call-to-Action button. More Email Click through rates means more conversions.
The main objective of any Electronic Direct Marketing (EDM) is to grab the attention of the end user and build anticipation that would motivate the user to take an action. Testing is super important as once you click the send button it’s impossible to make any changes, Iterate, and repeat.
Are you struggling with your email performance?
Do you know what percentage of your emails are landing in spam?
Do you really want to improve the Inbox placement rates?
Do you want to achieve the maximum Email Click Through Rate and ROI from the most effective communication channel?
I am sure the Answer is Yes.
Conclusion
At EnR, we have domain and subject matter experts who are currently working with multiple brands across industry and understand the game of Email Marketing. A high Click through rates indicates more conversions, consistent MAU, better DAU and best possible ROI.
We are Happy to assist in case boosting Email Click Through rate is one of the critical KPI for your brand.
Also Read- Know How to build Best Email Marketing funnel in 2024
Written By – Amit Bhateja
Amit Bhateja is the co-founder of enrcloud and helping brands and Unicorns from the last 15+ years and overachieve their Engagement and Retention goals. He is passionate about solving customer problems with modern technology, new age solutions, and consultancy approach. Besides Building ENR, He enjoys reading books, spending time with his family and Teammates, traveling, meeting new people, learning new things, and love to close the business deals.
