Understanding & Improving Your CTR (Click Through Rate) In Your Email Marketing

by  Cassi Knight IF  you’re an email marketer, it’s likely that you’re constantly striving to drive up your click-through rate (CTR) ...

by Cassi Knight

IF you’re an email marketer, it’s likely that you’re constantly striving to drive up your click-through rate (CTR) on your campaigns. You want more opens and more conversions within the email that translate into sales, right? Don’t we all?

The thing is: Unless you have a solid foundation of knowledge about CTR and a great strategy in place, it can be tough to know what you need to do next.

That’s why we wanted to tackle this topic. In this post, you’ll learn about average CTRs, tips for increasing your click-through rate, and a few helpful resources that can put you on the right path.

What’s a Good CTR for Email?

Before diving into increasing your email CTR, you need to understand some basic CTR averages so you can set realistic objectives for your campaigns. The last thing you want to do is set yourself up for failure. Keeping a realistic benchmark in mind will help you aim for targets you can quickly and easily surpass.

So maybe you’re wondering, “What’s a good CTR for email?”

Mailchimp recently shared some big data from that shows average CTR based on company size. What’s interesting is that regardless of size, the average CTR across the board was in the 2.5-2.9% range.

But there are many factors that impact CTR aside from company size. Rates vary based on industry type (more Mailchimp data on that here), number of emails sent per month, subject matter (like a welcome email vs. a promotion/sales email), etc. Hubspot data indicates that click rate performs best in the 16-30 range for emails sent per month.

So what can you glean from these findings? A couple of important lessons.
1. Even the best performing campaigns only get CTRs within the 3-6% range. If you’re feeling down about not getting a 50% CTR, don’t be so hard on yourself–and lower your expectations. A solid performance benchmark is much, much lower than what you may previously have been hoping for.
2. Open rate clicks are usually much higher than in-email CTR, and that’s okay. Why? Because your first hurdle is getting the recipient to open the email–the second is getting them to click through. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t open all of my emails. If you’re getting a 20% open rate, you’re doing pretty well.
Now that we understand what realistic expectations look like, let’s move on to some tips for increasing email CTR.

Tips for Increasing Email CTR

Increasing email CTR is a matter of taking steps to make conversion easier. Here are some simple ways to do that.
Add social sharing buttons.
When you let your subscribers share your emails on social media, you increase your audience–and opportunity for clicks. Data proves this, too. Econsultancy reported that email messages including a social sharing option generated 30% higher click-throughs than emails without any social sharing links.

Be concise.

Data from Mailchimp shows URLs with 8-12 words were more effective than any other links when evaluating CTR. That proves that most readers want you to keep it short and sweet.

Use buttons.

If you’re not using a call to action button to drive conversions, it’s worth testing out. Often times buttons stand out more than text links do, and can be a more obvious conversion path for users. Make sure your button has compelling, action-driven copy (like Buy Now) and is a color that stands out from the rest of your email.
These three tactics are the tip of the iceberg for driving clicks, and there’s a lot more for you to learn. Next up, let’s look at some helpful resources.

Resources for Improving Click-Through Rate in Email

If you feel like you need more help and want a more well-rounded, educational approach to increasing your CTR for the long-term, it’s a good idea to check out some helpful resources that can get you up to speed. There are lots of great tools worth considering, but here are a few we can recommend.

1. ClickPerfect

ClickPerfect is a tool that’s been proven to help email marketers increase their click-through rate by as much as 33%. Within the tool, you can monitor and track your email clicks in real time–and focus on driving conversions, all while learning more about your subscribers.

2. Sendlane

If you’re working from a basic email account and managing your email marketing efforts alone right now, it may be time to upgrade to a better, more flexible and professional tool. Sendlane helps you send newsletters, design beautiful email campaigns, and build a strong relationship with your customers, while providing in-depth analytics so you can measure the success of your efforts.

3. Surveys

You need to gather feedback from you audience to ensure you’re delivering relevant, interesting content every time you reach out–as this will help drive up engagement and clicks. It’s a good idea to conduct regular email surveys (using a tool like SurveyMonkey or GetFeedback) so you can keep a finger on the pulse of what your subscribers need and want from you.

Start Boosting Your Email CTR

With the right benchmarks, tactics, and tools, you can start improving your email CTR at a pretty dramatic pace. It’s just a matter of following the right strategy and taking a focused approach to growth–and then sticking with it.
Remember to make your emails more engaging by adding social media sharing options, keeping copy concise, and by incorporating CTA buttons, while also leveraging tools that can improve your likelihood for success. If you can do these things, you too will be on the course to hit amazing benchmarks like a 33% click-through rate. And who doesn’t want that?
Now it’s your turn. What other tactics or tools have you found to be highly successful at increasing CTR? We’d love to hear from you, so let us know in the comments.
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