Today we can say that we work in the attention economy. We are concerned about capturing people's attention and making our messages stand out in email inboxes saturated by hundreds of emails that arrive daily.
If we capture their attention and then get the message to be read and the recipient to execute the action we are looking for, i.e. that click, we can say that the mission we entrusted to the email has been accomplished.
Several studies point to low email marketing click-through rates as the biggest challenge facing marketers.
If you want to improve your click-through rate, we suggest you pay attention to the 7 actions below and put them into practice as soon as possible:
1. Calls to action
A call to action is defined as any type of image and text that gets a person to do what you want them to do. That is, it triggers a desired action.
To establish your call to action you should be able to satisfactorily answer the following questions: What are the real benefits to the audience? Why should they respond now?
2. Segment the list
Segmenting your list is one of the most effective measures, not only to increase your click-through rate, but also to improve your overall performance. Why does it work? Because it allows you to send more relevant messages to your subscribers.
Let's imagine you lead a staffing agency and you have two main types of clients: employers who offer and people who are looking for work.
If you send the same message via email to both groups, you should naturally omit information that is not relevant to both groups. Failure to do so will impoverish the results, including the click-through rate.
But if you send two messages, each designed specifically for employers one and workers the other, you can deliver much more relevant and valuable information. And your click-through rate will go up.
3. Customize messages
For most of us, when we think of message personalization, the first thing that comes to mind is putting the recipient's name in the subject line.
That's a good start, but personalization goes much further. Other ways include dynamic content, or using other information - job title, zip code or purchase history - to create a personalized message.
Depending on the characteristics of your list and how you apply the technique, any of these personalization methods can generate significant increases in click-through rates.
4. Test and optimize
There are other factors that affect the click-through rate of your messages:
- How long are your emails? 100 words? 1,000 words?
- What type of content do they include: Photos? Articles? Cartoons?
- What is the format of your messages: Text or HTML?
We assume you get the idea. There are hundreds of tactics you could try. Some will affect your click-through rate, but you'll have to apply some A/B testing to find out.
5. Use campaign triggers
Trigger campaigns include autoresponders, confirmation, welcome and transactional messages.
These types of messages tend to get an unusually high interaction rate and also a high click-through rate. They are triggered when a potential customer is interested in your business.
Because of this and because they are strongly targeted, these mailings perform extremely well.
6. Include follow-up links in social networks
The incorporation of social network icons increases the click-through rate of messages. Studies show that it can increase by as much as 160% (from 2.4 to 6.2%), compared to a message that does not include them.
7. Use of videos
Why use video in your email marketing?
Because it can generate a 19% increase in open rate and over 50% increase in click-through rate. Placing the video play button over a static image is the easiest and most effective way to link to content hosted on sites like YouTube or Vimeo.
Another alternative is to "embed" the video in the message, but keep in mind that email account providers do not support playing the video directly in the inbox, which can be detrimental to delivery performance.
In conclusion, if you follow these steps and maintain a constant evaluation and optimization strategy, you will see a significant increase in the click-through rate of your email marketing campaigns.
