Define: Click Through Rate
Measurement system used to determine the success of a online advertising campaign using the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions. Once your customer opens up your email, how do you get them to click through to your website? Increasing your email click through rate can be done in a variety of ways. Here are a few ideas to get your campaigns moving in the right direction.
1- Appeal to Your Customers’ Curiosity
Most people are curious in one way or another. Offer a surprise offer with a one-time use promotion code. This could be an offer such as: “Special Savings Lotto! Save up to 15%, 20%, 30% or even 40% on your next order.” This type of offer requires the customer to type in the promotion code on your website first before they find out what their special offer is. Brick and mortar stores use this method using actual scratch off tickets. It brings more customers in to see if they’ll receive a large percentage off or a special gift with purchase. Sparking your customer’s curiousity or surprising them with a special gift can be te big ticket to increasing your click through rate.
2- Give Them Solutions to Problems
When representing your products or services, don’t just slap them on the email and call it good. Why should your customer give you their hard earned money? This method is especially effective if your selling a general good that they can find in other stores. What is it about your craftsmanship or quality of materials that will solve your customers troubles? Let’s say your trying to sell a cat toy on a string. Point out the fact that the stitching holding the stuffed fish together is stitched with heavy duty string so it doesn’t fall apart right away. Or maybe it comes with additional stuffed fish that you can switch out or even through in the washing machine! Now those are some great features that would keep a customer from having to buy new toys constantly because of poor craftsmanship.
Don’t just sell products, sell solutions.
3- Think Seasonal
What season is coming next in your customers neck of the woods? If your selling seasonal items such as holiday decorations or a patio set, you might want to consider your timing when mailing your customers. Many people tend to plan ahead, when it comes to making bigger purchases. Depending on your target market, you might want to consider sending emails for Springtime towards the end of Winter.
Let’s say your selling a patio set to folks in Virginia… The weather starts to heat up in early March. Why not try marketing your patio set towards the end of February? You could show people enjoying the warm weather on their new patio set. It’s intriguing because it gives them something to look forward to (warmer weather) and it solves their problem of entertaining outdoors with friends.
4- Call to Action Above the Fold
Make sure your main call to action button is above the fold and stands out from the rest of the content. Don’t bury your buttons at the bottom of your email. Customers scan emails and quickly decide if it’s trash or click-able. Make sure that when they are intrigued, they know how to get to your website. This is very important for those customers of an older demographic. Be obvious what you want them to do next. The easier it is for them to get to your website, the better.
5- Segment Your Email Lists
Segmenting your email file into different segments is a great way to give them the information they are actually interested in, thus increasing the chances for them to click through to your website. If you sell a variety of products, offering different emails focused on particular categories is a great way to do this. But how do you segment your lists?
Old Navy Subscription Options
When asking your subscribers to sign-up, you can ask for a variety of information that can help segment your email file. Typically, I suggest asking for as little information as possible initially. The reason you don’t want to ask too much of your customer is that they will end up not signing up for your emails because it takes too much of their time. Some retailers will ask preferences upfront by using simple checkboxes based on the type of products of newsletters you offer. This is a great way to segment your list by their interests. Here are a few examples of different ways to approach email preferences in a successful, simple manner:
6- Freebies
We all love to hear the word free. Free gift with purchase, kids eat free on Tuesday, free checking account, the list is endless. Why not offer something free to your customers to get their attention. Make sure it is something that could be valuable to them or would be the deciding factor to get them interested in what your trying to sell them. For example, you could offer a free subscription to try your online services for a month, no cancellation necessary to get your customers to love your product or services. Using this technique in your emails can bring more interest to click through to your website. Especially if you don’t announce the free offering until they get to the website.
Whole Foods Enter to Win
7- Keep Image Sizes Down
Don’t showcase more than you need to in your emails. Image size is extremely important. If you are sending emails that are predominantly image based, you might want to consider optimizing for mobile devices too! The longer it takes to open an email, the faster you can say goodbye to your potential customers. Try to keep each image down to 25k. If you’re using a large image, break it up into smaller images so the customer sees that the email is in fact loading, rather than a blank space.
8- Create a Sense of Urgency
Give a sense of urgency to your email promotions. If it’s ending tomorrow, make sure that ending date and time is very apparent. This gives the customer a feeling of urgency and desire to purchase before they miss the extra savings or free offer. Looking for more tips on email marketing? Sign-up for our monthly email newsletter for more ideas!
