Improving Email Click-Through Rates
With the help of an effective email marketing strategy, companies get the opportunity to strengthen their brands, engage with both current and potential consumers, and move them on to the next stage of their buying journeys. With email campaigns, companies can stay at the front of consumers’ minds, and since email is one of the more personal touchpoints, companies can also build better rapport with their customers. Due to its effectiveness, low cost, and ease of use, email marketing has maintained its popularity from the start.
In fact, according to researchers, most companies would rather give up their social media channels instead of their email channels when communicating with consumers. There are plenty of different ways that companies can determine the performance of their email marketing campaigns, and one of the most popular ones is the click-through rate (CTR). The email CTR is the percentage of email subscribers who have clicked on one or more links inside of an email. And in pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, the CTR is the number of clicks an ad gets relative to the number of impressions.
Average Click-Through Rate
According to research from marketers, across industries, the average email CTR is about 2.9%. Some of the industries that have higher click-through rates include hobbies, government, home, and garden, as well as media and publishing.
Improving CTR
Once a company knows its click-through rate and has compared it to its industry standards, it can take certain steps to improve it, and therefore, create more successful email marketing campaigns. The first step in this process is to look at the statistics of the old email campaigns and place the emails in two categories: campaigns that performed well and had a relatively high CTR, and those that didn’t. Then, it’s important to examine the ad copy, the call to action (CTA), and the design of both types of emails in order to see whether any of those things can be improved in future campaigns.
Ad copy can be changed to make it more personable or easier to understand so consumers resonate with the messages. The design of the emails should be inviting and visually appealing and should make it clear to the subscribers regarding the next step that the business wants them to take. Lastly, the CTA should be clear and concise. Businesses should avoid putting too many calls to action in a single email because if consumers are presented with too many choices, they can get confused or overwhelmed.
Testing
When looking for ways to improve their email CTR, businesses should step into the minds of their target audiences. Just because a company has managed to create an impressive email marketing campaign, it doesn’t mean the consumers are going to find that appealing. That’s why it’s important for companies to test out different email formats with variations in the design, ad copy, and calls to action. Testing out different emails means companies can compare the CTR of various emails and learn which of those details perform better with the consumers.
Ronn Torossian is the CEO and founder of NY based PR firm 5W Public Relations. Torossian is also the founder of the Ronn Torossian Foundation, and a life long New Yorker.
