16 Tips To Improve Email Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Did you know that the average conversion rate for B2B companies stands at 2.23%? If this benchmark seems unreasonably high, it is time for you to buckle up. Evidently, having a low email click-through rate fetches fewer conversions. It is a common cause of concern in the sales scene.

That reminds me of our client James. He runs a successful accounting software firm and until last month, he was constantly mulling over why his email CTR is low. We reached out to him and shared our tips to improve CTR organically. And after a month, he is a happy man enjoying a 40% increase in conversions.

If you too want to achieve similar results, we are there to help you with our inputs. 

But let’s understand the basics before jumping on to the tips. 

What Is Email Click-Through Rate?

The email click-through rate refers to the number of recipients taking action and actively clicking on the links in your email after they finish reading it. In fact, it is one of the most important email metrics to track. 

There are two types of email CTRs: TCTR (total click-through rate) and UCTR (unique click-through rate).

TCTR measures the total number of clicks a link gets. On the other hand, UCTR measures the number of unique clicks an email link gets. 

For instance, if someone opens the same email on a desktop as well as their phone the TCTR count is two, and the UCTR count is only one. Similarly, if someone clicks on the same link twice, it would mean 1 count to UTCR and 2 counts to TCTR. Hope you get the idea!

Why Is Email CTR (Click-Through Rate) Important?

Email click-through rate (CTR) is an important metric in cold emailing because it measures the effectiveness of your email campaign.

Here’s a closer look at why it is important:

1. Engagement Measurement: CTR shows how many recipients were interested enough in your email content to click on a link. This is indicates how well your email resonated with your audience. A low CTR could indicate your message or call-to-action wasn’t compelling or clear enough.
2. Content Quality: If you’re providing value in your emails, reflected by relevant, high-quality content, your CTR is likely to be higher. This metric can help you gauge whether your content meets the audience’s needs and interests.
3. Email Deliverability: Email service providers (ESPs) track engagement metrics, including CTR. If your emails have low engagement rates, ESPs might flag your emails as potential spam, which can harm your email deliverability. A higher CTR can improve your sender reputation and increase the chance of your emails landing in the recipient’s inbox instead of the spam folder.
4. Conversion Rate: Ultimately, the goal of cold emailing is often to convert recipients into customers or clients. A higher CTR is a step towards higher conversion rates, as it means more people interact with your content and potentially move forward in your sales funnel.
5. Testing and Optimization: CTR can be useful for A/B testing different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, email body content, call-to-actions, etc. You can optimize your emails based on what drives a higher CTR.

How To Calculate Email Click-Through Rate?

Calculating email CTR is quite easy. 

Firstly, divide the number of subscribers who clicked on your email by the number of emails sent. Now, multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage. 

Here’s the formula,

Higher click-through rate indicates more relevance for your readers.

What Is A Good Email Click-Through Rate?

After knowing what email CTR means, it is time to know what a good email CTR is. According to a study, the average CTR for most marketers is 7%. If your rate is higher than that, simply pat your back and forget about this post! We’ve got your back if this seems a bit difficult to achieve, nevertheless. 

Now, there cannot be click-throughs without opens. So, you must be eager to know what a good email open rate is, right? Though it varies across industries, the average email open rate is between 15% and 25% in email marketing. 

What Impacts The Click-Through Rate?

Here are several factors that can significantly impact your email CTR:

1. Subject Line: This is what your readers see first. They will only open your email if it’s compelling and interesting. Therefore, make sure your subject lines are engaging, personal, and accurately represent the content of the email.
2. Email Content: The content of your email must be relevant to your prospects. If the content is not engaging or doesn’t meet the reader’s expectations set by the subject line, they are unlikely to click through.
3. Call to Action (CTA): Your CTA should be clear, concise, and enticing. It should tell your readers exactly what you want them to do next. The placement and design of your CTA can also impact your CTR.
4. Email Design: A clean, professional design can make your email more engaging. Too much clutter can distract from your message and CTA.
5. Personalization: Personalized emails tend to have higher engagement rates. This can be as simple as mentioning the recipient’s name
6. Segmentation: Not all of your subscribers are the same, so your emails shouldn’t be either. Segment your email list to send more targeted, relevant emails.
7. Timing and Frequency: The time you send your email can impact your CTR. It would be helpful if you found a balance that works for your recipients.
8. Mobile Optimization: Many people read emails on their mobile devices. If your email design is not responsive or doesn’t look good on mobile, you may miss out on clicks.

16 Tips To Improve Email Click-Through Rate

Now that you have an idea of the email CTR, let’s see how to improve the email click-through rate.

1. Send relevant content

It is quite obvious that you can generate higher clicks only when the recipient finds your content relevant. 

For instance, a civil engineer will relate better to an email comparing the top 3 construction software  than one about a website offering accounting services. It means that your email must resonate well with the prospect. Only then can you expect a positive response. 

2. Test your email subject lines

Since the subject line is the first thing your recipients see in an email, it is essential to get them hooked.  So, optimize it before you start aiming for a higher email CTR.

Quite often, salespeople try to create catchy subject lines that have no relevance to the email copy. While this can fetch you good open rates, it does so come with a risk of being marked as spam. In short, deceiving your recipients is a grievous mistake. Plus, this can adversely impact sender’s reputation!  

It is recommended that you test your subject lines and ensure that they resonate well with your recipient. There’s a simple way to do it:-

• Step 1: Write two versions of your subject line (marked as SL1 and SL 2).  
• Step 2: Split a fragment (preferably 10%) of your email list into 2 equal parts (marked as Group A and Group B).
• Step 3: Send SL1 and SL2 to Group A and B respectively. 
• Step 4: Compare the email open rates for Group A and Group B. 
• Step 5: The group with better open rates definitely has the most suitable subject line. 

Coming up with effective subject lines can be tough. You can use our free subject line generator to get better ideas. 

3. Make the most of pre-headers

Salespeople often use pre-headers to give a sneak peek into their emails. It helps in grabbing the reader’s attention. Plus, you can get a reasonable click-through rate by keeping your pre-header relevant with the links inside your email. 

Here’s an example of a pre-header,

4. Use personalization

If you send an email to a prospect named Paul, which of the two openers are more likely to get his attention?

A: Hello prospect, thank you for your interest in our product….

Or

B: Hey Paul, it’s great that you stopped by….

Don’t you feel that B is a clear winner here? It is because it has the prospect’s name. 

Hope you get the point!  

Add as many elements of personalization to your email content as possible. The example shows that using their first name once in the subject line (and a couple of times in the email body) works like magic. It makes them feel special and the email exclusive. As a result, they are encouraged to open it. 

It is essential to know the prospects you are targeting. Learn everything including the details of their company, their role, the pain points, the product or software in use. Apart from that, find personal details, such as their preferences, interests, mutual connections, and anything that you can use to build a rapport with them.

Gaining enough knowledge about prospects will help you provide relevant offers. As a result, it will fetch you more click-throughs. The prospects would also be glad to see that you made an effort to learn about them before reaching out. 

Many B2B sales teams have increased their click-through rates using this tactic. 

5. Optimize emails for mobile devices

The device used to read your email also decides how recipients respond to your email. In simple terms, when a sender doesn’t optimize an email for a mobile device, the recipient has to struggle to read it. Where do you think such an email will land? Most likely in the trash folder, thereby, dipping the click-through rate.

On the contrary, emails that are optimized for mobile devices have 15% higher click-through rates. Isn’t that an eye-opener? 

6. Send emails at the right time

Are you aware of the best email sending time? You can either trust the popular opinion of email marketers or count on the survey statistics to get your answer. However, you can’t blindly go by the timing you find there. There are several factors to consider such as your industry and your target audience.

It’s great to find a time that works for them. You are likely to get more clicks when your emails reach recipients at a time when they are in the right frame of mind. 

7. Include a social sharing button

Studies indicate that emails with just one social sharing button can generate a CTR 30% higher than emails without it. There is a 55% higher jump in CTR when there are more than three sharing options. The point is that even if the recipient doesn’t find your email to be helpful to  them, they can share it with a friend or colleague who will find it relevant. Having a social sharing button makes it easier, and you can improve your email click-through rate.

8. Add only one CTA in an email

Have you ever added a zillion CTAs (call-to-action) to an email? Don’t feel guilty if you have! We understand that it is tempting to do so. You might be under the impression that the recipient will at least click on one when there are many options. Well, sadly, that is not the case. Instead, it can backfire on you as the recipient will get overwhelmed by too many CTAs. They may not click on any, leaving you out in the cold. 

Add only one CTA to your email so that the recipient focuses only on one action. Also make sure that your email copy drives the reader to take action mentioned in the CTA. 

CTA placement also matters in fetching a high CTR. By placing the call-to-action on the right side of the emails, you can see an increase in the rate! Did you know about this trick? It’s great if you are using it already. 

Note: You can improve your CTAs by using an active voice. Let your CTA reveal what will happen upon clicking on the button and see how email click-through rates increase. 

9. Cover only one topic in an email

Make sure that your emails focus on one topic. When there are multiple topics in an email, it distracts the reader, and they don’t click on any link. The attention span of individuals is relatively short, and they tend to lose focus easily. Forget about emails, you know how tough it is to even make a person engage with Instagram reels! 

10. Consider carrying out segmentation of mailing list

Try to consider your recipients’ interests. If you email individuals on your mailing list who are not interested in your offer, your click-through rates will dip considerably. Therefore, it is better to segment your mailing list. Doing so will help you send customized emails to prospects based on their interest. Recipients will naturally engage with emails that they find relevant. In short, provide what people need and see how your CTR booms!

11. Use FOMO

You can use FOMO or the fear of missing out to your advantage. Create a sense of urgency by offering them a time-limited deal that gives them a now-or-never kind of a feeling. Make your CTA so enticing by using the right words that they can’t wait to grab the offer. 

For instance, when you say ‘Join the event’ in your CTA, the number of clicks would be less when compared to the clicks on a CTA saying – ‘Limited spots for the event.’ 

When prospects learn that there are a limited number of seats for an event they are interested in, they try to grab the deal. That is the impact of FOMO. It does the trick every time! 

12. Add interesting and clickable HTML buttons

Use a good mix of plain text and graphics in your email. A big button with right color combinations would draw the prospect’s attention better. 

Using an HTML button instead of an image button is a good idea as the former resizes based on the device the prospect uses. Also, images may not load for some subscribers, which can put you in a tough spot. As the prospect can’t see the CTA, you will see a dip in click-through rates. Another advantage of using an HTML button is that your email will load faster and fetch you better results. 

13. Add social proof

People tend to do what others are doing, especially when they see profit in it. Simply put, the actions of one person influence another, and this phenomenon works well in sales. It is called social proof. You can use it in your email copy to give prospects a nudge to click on the CTAs. Try using reviews, customer testimonials, and even success stories as social proof in emails.  It builds trust. Additionally, it shows the prospects what your existing customers feel about your product or service. 

14. Place a video

Videos help you connect with prospects at a different level. You can build better relationships by adding videos as they are fun to watch and do an excellent job of grabbing your prospect’s attention. Even GIFs can give your CTR a boost.

15. Add P.S.

Think of how you get drawn to the P.S. in a letter. Well, you can try that in emails as well as it is a sure-shot way of getting the prospect’s attention. Psychology says that the last element draws as much attention as the first element. Thereby, adding a P.S. in your email works in your favor. It gives the chance to reiterate your offer and get the recipient to take action. 

16. Use images

Email campaigns with images in them have 42% higher click-through rates. Visual content is way more effective in capturing readers’ attention and helps them understand your message faster. However, it doesn’t mean that you can just add images and get excellent results. The choice of images has a huge role to play in CTRs. They have to be relevant to your message and look visually appealing. Hope you get the point!

Finally, to sum up, these are the 16 tactics that will help you when you think how to increase email click through rate.

Get Ready To Improve Email Click-Through Rate!

As you can see, the email click-through rate is an essential metric for any email campaign. After all, you can get things moving when prospects take action! Try using our tips and witness a tremendous increase in your numbers like most of our users. 

However, not all tips can get you the desired click-through rates. Certain tactics won’t work for your industry and therefore you should use the trial-and-error approach. The ones that work well and fetch you great click-throughs are worth keeping. Do A/B testing and watch your metrics closely to know how your email campaign is faring.

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