What are the best practices for improving email click rates?

Key findings

• Audience focus: The most fundamental aspect is delivering content that people desire, to an audience that has expressed interest, and with information they will naturally want to click.
• Clear CTAs: Calls to action (CTAs) must be clear, strategically placed (ideally above the fold), and compelling, leaving no ambiguity about what the recipient should do or why.
• Subject line integrity: Subject lines should accurately reflect the email's content. Misleading subject lines might boost open rates initially, but they ultimately harm click rates and long-term engagement.
• Strategic sending: Click rates can be improved by either increasing the appeal of links or by reducing the number of impressions, meaning sending to a more targeted, engaged audience.

Key considerations

• Beyond metrics: While open and click rates are important, the ultimate measure of success is return on investment (ROI). Emails should drive valuable actions, not just clicks for clicks' sake.
• Audience segmentation: Segmenting your email list based on user interest and behavior is crucial for sending relevant content. This practice also helps avoid low open rates which often precede low click rates.
• Content relevance: Do not send emails just to meet a schedule if the content is not highly relevant to the segment. Irrelevant emails disengage users and reduce future click potential. Mailchimp elaborates on ways to boost email click through rates.
• User experience: Ensure your emails are well-designed, easy to read, and optimized for various devices to provide a seamless user experience that encourages clicks.
• Deliverability impact: Email clicks improve inbox deliverability, reinforcing a positive sender reputation that further enhances click potential.

Key opinions

• Audience-centric content: A primary opinion is to only send emails that people truly want to receive, containing content they are genuinely interested in clicking.
• Clarity of purpose: Marketers stress the need for a clear indication of where to click and the reason for clicking, avoiding confusion for the recipient.
• Subject line honesty: Using subject lines that accurately represent the email's body content is vital for maintaining recipient trust and long-term engagement.
• Targeted segmentation: Effective segmentation based on user interest and behavior is a recurring theme, ensuring offers are relevant to specific user groups.

Key considerations

• Beyond vanity metrics: It's important to recognize that opens and clicks are not the end goal; the true measure of success is the business ROI generated from the email.
• CTA placement and testing: The placement of the CTA, especially ensuring it's above the fold, and testing its effectiveness across various email clients, is highly recommended.
• Userbase hygiene: Adhering to whitehat user acquisition practices and implementing sunsetting for disengaged users are crucial for maintaining a healthy list and improving resending emails to non-openers.
• Avoid clutter: Overloading emails with too much information can obscure the CTA and reduce click intent. Simplicity and focus are key.
• Analytics-driven campaigns: Leveraging sales and marketing analytics to ensure campaigns are highly focused on business objectives, beyond just opens and clicks, is paramount.

Key opinions

• Holistic optimization: Improving click rates can involve both increasing the appeal of links and carefully curating the audience to send only to those most likely to click.
• Engagement focus: The focus should be on building a list of genuinely engaged subscribers rather than chasing high volume, which leads to better click quality.
• Deliverability as foundation: Unless emails consistently reach the inbox, discussions about click rates are moot. Strong deliverability is the prerequisite for any click optimization strategy.
• List quality over quantity: A smaller, highly engaged list will yield better click rates and overall campaign performance than a large, unsegmented, or poorly maintained list.

Key considerations

• Reputation management: Maintaining a positive sender reputation is critical because it directly impacts inbox placement, which then allows for the possibility of clicks. Understanding what happens when your domain is on an email blacklist is a core part of this.
• Technical alignment: Ensuring proper email authentication, like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, contributes to deliverability and sender trustworthiness, indirectly affecting engagement. A simple guide to DMARC, SPF, and DKIM can assist with this.
• Measuring what matters: Experts reinforce that while CTR is a metric, it's a proxy for deeper business goals. Focusing on conversions and revenue directly tied to clicks is more meaningful.
• Feedback loop analysis: Analyzing recipient behavior beyond clicks, such as unsubscribes or spam complaints, provides critical feedback for refining email strategy and list health. SpamResource offers insights into email deliverability factors.

Key findings

• Authentication standards: Proper implementation of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is fundamental for email authentication, which influences inbox placement and recipient trust, setting the stage for clicks.
• Reputation management: Documentation often stresses the importance of monitoring and maintaining a good sender reputation, as poor reputation can lead to blocklisting (or blacklisting), preventing emails from being delivered at all.
• Compliance with regulations: Adherence to anti-spam laws like CAN-SPAM and GDPR ensures that emails are sent legally and to willing recipients, reducing complaints and improving engagement.
• Mobile optimization: Technical guides frequently highlight the necessity of responsive design to ensure emails render correctly on all devices, which is critical for user experience and clicks.

Key considerations

• Avoiding spam traps: Documentation on email hygiene emphasizes avoiding spam traps and maintaining a clean list, which directly impacts deliverability and, by extension, clickability.
• Link structure: Technical documentation may detail best practices for email link cloaking and click tracking, ensuring links are secure, trackable, and do not trigger spam filters.
• HTML and CSS best practices: Following recommended HTML and CSS coding standards for emails ensures consistent rendering across various clients, which is crucial for visible and clickable content.
• Feedback loops: Signing up for ISP feedback loops (FBLs) is often recommended to monitor spam complaints. High complaint rates can lead to reduced deliverability and, consequently, lower click rates.
• Throttling and sending volume: Providers like Google and Yahoo offer guidelines on appropriate sending volumes and rates. Adhering to these prevents throttling or temporary blocks, ensuring emails reach the inbox promptly.