Improving Your Email Click Rate

Content not relevant enough

Try segmenting your list, and sending offers that are more specific to different groups of recipients. Don’t send a discount offer for "bras and panties" to the men on your list (okay, their open rates would be high, but they won’t click).

Links aren’t prominent

Don’t "over-design" your emails so that links are tiny, black, or so stylized that people can’t see they’re clickable. Try using good old-fashioned "hyperlink blue."

Are you highlighting the correct words as links, so that people who skim and scan will recognize keywords they can click on? Don’t end your paragraph with a "click here for info." Try hyperlinking key phrases and words in your paragraphs.

Too many options

Maybe you have way too many links in your email. Try keeping the options down to just one (or a small handful of links).

Bad "scent"

The concept of "scent" is used a lot in the website usability and online conversion worlds (bookmark GrokDotCom because they're the experts). The idea is to create a "scent trail" using visual cues that guide your recipients down the path you want them to take. For instance, if your subject line says, "Special Year-end Discount On Mountain Bikes" you’d be wise to have a nice, big graphic of a mountain bike in the content of your email. You’d be surprised how many people fail to tie their subject lines to their email’s content like this. To go a step further, you should build a special landing page on your website, especially for your mountain bike promotion. Don’t link people from your email to your generic home page, and then expect them to hunt for your mountain bike. Use scent trails!