7 Pro Tricks to Improve Your Email Click-Through Rate

Are you worried because your own subscribers are not listening to you anymore? Don’t you hate when your email click-through rate is stuck below average while others are roaring about the success of their email marketing campaigns?

Emails are the gold of internet marketing.

You can see experts and gurus giving away their valuable e-books, courses, and secrets for free in exchange for your email addresses.

They do so because they recognize the importance of email marketing. Email marketing is the king of all other kinds with a 3800% ROI. And the larger your email list is, the more email marketing pays off.

You know how beneficial it is when you get an overwhelming response because you sent an email to all of your subscribers informing them of your latest post or upcoming product? Remember that feeling when you see your efforts are making someone’s life better?

Except…what if no one responds?

What if your dear subscribers have become immune to your words? What if you just get a few dozen clicks, despite the thousands of people on your list?

To prevent this situation from happening, I’ll share with you seven proven techniques that will improve your email click-through rate.

1. Craft a Compelling Subject Line

Let me ask you a simple question.

Out of the dozens or hundreds of emails you get every day, how do you decide which ones to read and which ones to skip?

By reading the subject line. Right?

We all decide the same way. After reading the subject line, we make our decision. And we do so within two to three seconds.

Your subscribers are no different. They are busy and have many other important responsibilities. They’ll try to ignore your emails, but you’ve got to catch their attention.

Always take your time and come out with a compelling subject line before sending an email. You’ll only get one chance. If you fail to get people’s attention within those two seconds, you’ll lose the game, even if the message you’re sending is great.

Writing a good subject line isn’t that difficult. You just need to keep two goals in mind:

1. Keep it short. You’ve got limited space. Any words exceeding a 25-30 word limit will be cut off from the screen, particularly on mobile devices. So write succinctly and clearly.
2. Arouse curiosity or urgency. Nothing in this world is more powerful than curiosity and fear. If you somehow succeed in appealing to either of these emotions, you’ll get the hit.

2. Delete Inactive Subscribers

At first, this sounds like terrible advice.

Why would you delete subscribers you’ve worked hard to earn throughout the years?

I thought the same until one day I got the following email from Natasha:

There are two main reasons for taking such an extreme step:

1. People often give you their email addresses because of the bribe you’re offering at the time, but some of them will never open your emails again. They’re simply not interested any more. Those people add no value, and they’ll never eventually turn into your customers. You’re just populating your email list by having them.
2. Though your inactive subscribers aren’t reading your emails, you’re still paying for them. Almost all the email service providers charge according to the size of your email list. The bigger the list, the higher you’ll pay.

Of course, you shouldn’t delete inactive subscribers right away. There might be some followers who are inactive for some reason, but are still interested in your words. You should give them a chance—just like Natasha did with the above email.

3. Save Your Email from Landing in the Spam Folder

Did you know that more than 200 billion emails are sent every day and almost 60% of them are spam?

What if your emails are mistakenly being lumped into that 60%? What if they are landing in the spam folder. and your readers are not even aware that they are?

Your email click-through rate will go down drastically if spam filters love your emails. You can get clicks and impress your subscribers only when people see your emails. No visibility means no chance.

Here are some tips that will help you avoid being labeled as a spammer.

• Ask your subscribers to add your email address to their contact lists. If your email address is present in the receiver’s contact list, the email program will treat your emails as important and won’t put them in the spam folder.
• Use your words carefully. The spam blocker looks for obviously “spammy” language. Avoid words such as “free,” “earn money,” “get rich,” etc.
• Use reliable and reputable email service providers (ESPs). Low-level ESPs are flagged as spammers. If you use them, all your emails are destined for spam folders.

4. Keep Your Emails Short and Personalized

Like I said before, people are busy. They will try to avoid your emails. Writing long, boring emails is a sure way of pushing them away.

Holding someone’s attention for a long time is difficult. By writing short and personalized emails, you’ll save time and keep your user base interested.

In fact, a study from Experian found that personalized emails had 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click rates than emails without any personalization.

Again, writing personalized emails isn’t rocket science. If you’ve studied your audience and understand it, being personal will be natural for you. Here are a couple of tips to help you craft informal emails:

1. Address your subscribers by their names. Doing so makes a connection, and the people on the other side feel you’re talking to them directly.
2. Talk like a friend. To make things easier, understand your subscribers’ language and mimic the words they use in their daily lives.

5. Add a Clear Call to Action

All emails you send have a motive.

Sometimes you want your subscribers to read your latest post. Another time, you might want them to respond to your upcoming webinar or survey. Some other time, you’ll want them to buy your product.

No matter what, you want them to take an action. The action should be something that can enhance their knowledge, perceptions, or lives.

After all, enhancing their lives is the real conversion, right?

That’s when call to action (CTA) elements come into place. Calls to action are basically about telling your subscribers what exactly is inside the email for them. A CTA looks like:

• Read this blog post
• Reply to this email
• Download this guide
• Sign up for this webinar
• Check out our pricing and more

By including a call to action, you direct your subscribers toward taking a next important step. Here are a couple of points to consider while including a CTA:

1. Your CTA must be clearly visible in the message. Write it in a separate line and capitalize or bold the text.
2. Spread your CTA throughout the message multiple times, especially if your email length is a little longer.

6. Use Plain Text Instead of HTML

As you know, HTML emails are beautiful and interactive. You can experiment by putting your content in different formats and styles and making it more visually appealing than it would be otherwise.

But the important question is: will your subscribers read and respond to your HTML emails?

An A/B test by Hubspot found that HTML versions of emails had a 21% lower click-through rate. Combined with the open rate, the email had 51% fewer clicks.

Though humans are wired to appreciate visuals and like to see attractive designs, visuals don’t work with the email medium. Plain text emails have high click-through rates and are more preferred by users.

Let’s see some reasons why plain text emails surpass HTML emails.

• HTML emails need to be coded properly and carefully. One broken tag can completely ruin the design and throw your email right into the spam folder. Plus, you’ve got to design these emails in such a way that they’re compatible with different devices and with different screen sizes. On the other hand, these problems don’t exist with plain text.
• Some ESPs strip out HTML elements from incoming emails to protect users from viruses. In these cases, such emails display improperly on the screen. In contrast, there is nothing to strip out of plain text emails.

I wouldn’t say you should completely reject the use of HTML. But keep those emails minimal and beautiful. For example, you can use an HTML button to show off your CTA.

7. Find Your Perfect Timing

Okay, this is pretty straightforward. Send emails when your subscribers are most likely sitting in front of their computers. In other words, send emails during working hours.

But is this advice feasible? Is it possible to find the perfect timing?

Actually, finding the perfect timing is very difficult, if not impossible. Your subscribers might belong to different countries. They might prefer checking emails at different times. If you target one group, you’ll definitely miss another one.

However, you can find an ideal time at least by studying email campaign reports and your subscribers’ lifestyles. For example, young, tech-obsessed users are very active at night. People interested in the entertainment industry check emails on the weekend.

A study also says that emails sent from Monday to Friday have higher open rates. So basically, by finding your ideal reader’s nature, analyzing email reports, and a bit of split testing, you can find the best time to email. Then you’ll remarkably enhance your email click-through rate.

I know that expanding your email list is a big fight. But encouraging your followers to keep reading and loving you is part of that battle. And you’ve to fight it. So keep working, and keep your subscribers happy and engaged.

Share your views in the comment box, and let me know what you do to improve your email click-through rate.

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Munender Singh

Munender Singh is a B2B freelance writer and blogger for hire. He specializes in digital marketing, productivity, and WordPress. When he isn’t writing, you can find him looking up at the sky and fascinating by our existence.

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• 7 Pro Tricks to Improve Your Email Click-Through Rate - January 4, 2017