The overall goal of just about every email you send is to get a click. This might be a clickthrough to a sales page, a webinar registration page, one of your social media platforms, a partner’s page, and so on. But ultimately, you’re usually looking to get your subscribers to click a link and buy a product.
Question is, how do you boost your CTR (clickthrough rate)? That’s what you’ll find out inside this guide. Check out these 17 surefire ways to improve your CTAs (calls to action) and CTRs…
1. Know Your Numbers
In order to improve your clickthrough rate (CTR), you need to first understand what a good rate is for your industry. Generally, the range averages from 1% to 5%.
You’ll need to do your research to determine what’s normal for your market. For example, if your market is known for 4% conversions but you tend to get 2%, then you know you have some work to do to improve it.
2. Use a CTA Image
A good call to action button or similar image tends to outperform CTA links. That’s why you’re going to want to insert a button that even skimmers can find easily. For example, a bright orange button will easily stand out against a black and white design.
You might also use the “blur test.” Squint your eyes or back up from your screen far enough that you can no longer read the words in your email. Question is, can you still recognize the CTA button? If so, then you’re on the right track – big, boldly colored buttons that stand out tend to work well. As always, you’ll want to test the wording on the button and the size and color of the button to find a combination that works for you.
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3. Choose Your CTA Wording Carefully
Whether your CTA is a button (preferable) or a link, you need to choose your wording carefully. You want to use active language that gets people excited about what they’re going to get.
For example, “Click here” tells people what to do, but overall it’s pretty ineffective. Here are other ways to word your CTA link or button (with a couple examples in different niches):
- Click here to start your business!
- Get your free copywriting consultation now!
- Join the net’s best home-selling group now!
- Start slimming down now – click here to get started!
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4. Give People a Good Reason to Act
One key to crafting a good CTA is that you need to give people a good reason to take action. As mentioned above, simply asking people to “click here” isn’t very effective. Instead, you need to give them a good reason, which should appear very near your CTA link or button.
For example: Get started now, because you deserve every edge you can get in this business!
Another example: If you do nothing, you’ll wake up tomorrow in the same place: overweight and unhappy. You deserve to be healthy and happy, so click here to get started now.
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5. Encourage People to Act Now
As you just discovered, you need to give people a good reason to act. Even better is if you can give them a good reason to act RIGHT NOW.
Before we go any further, let me be clear: don’t use any sort of false scarcity or urgency tactics. Don’t try to scare people or evoke another negative emotion. Instead, if you have a legitimate reason for encouraging people to act now, then share that reason.
For example: This special $50 discount ends in just 72 hours – so order now to avoid missing out!
Another example: Become a charter member and lock in a 40% discount off the regular membership price. But heads up, this offer is only available to the first 150 people who join now, so click here to get started.
Here’s the next idea…
6. Send Offers People Want
This is such a simple way to boost your conversion rates: give people what they want. Send them relevant, targeted, and in-demand offers and content.
If you’re not sure what people want, then take these three steps:
- Do research to find out what people are already buying. Let’s suppose you’re in a weight-loss niche. If you search ClickBank for “weight loss” and notice that “get rid of belly fat” products sell really well in your niche, that’s one of the best predictors of whether your audience will buy that particular kind of product.
- See what’s popular elsewhere. For example, take note of what sort of content and solutions always get a lot of traction on your blog and social media pages.
- Ask your audience. Survey them to find out what they want, but keep in mind that way they say and what they do may be two different things, so always use this in combination with Step 1 above.
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7. Insert Relevant Images (Maybe)
Many people who’ve tested it all confirm the same thing: if you insert relevant, compelling image into your emails, your clickthrough rate goes up. BUT (and it’s a big but), it’s going to depend on how many images you insert.
Mail Chimp did a study where they examined the results of billions of emails. They found that zero images tended to outperform emails that had up to ten images inserted them. However, when emails included 11 or more images, they outperformed the emails with zero images by a wide margin!
Will this work for you? Only way to know for sure is to test it out. Just be sure you’re using professional, polished images that are oriented towards the text or the CTA (call to action) button.
For example, if you have a smiling face that’s looking slightly to the right, then insert the image to the left of the text. That way, the person appears to be “looking” towards the text, which in turn will draw your prospect’s eyes towards the text as well.
8. Remove Distractions
When someone opens your email, you want them to have a singular focus: clicking on your link. To get to that point, they need to read your content from top to bottom.
Simple, right?
It is. But it’s also easy for readers to get distracted. That’s why you want to make sure your emails are clean. Remove distractions in them, such as contact info and links that may appear in your header.
Think of it this way: the only two ways to exit your email should be 1) By hitting the back or “close” button on their email client (which you hope they don’t do) and 2) Clicking on your link. To that end, be sure there is nothing else to click on or distract the reader.
9. Use a Single-Column Layout
You may like the idea of a two-column layout in a newsletter because it looks “newsy.” However, if your goal is to get your readers to take action, then a single-column layout is preferable.
The reason is simple: a single-column layout focuses the reader. They have to read from top to bottom, as there is no other way to do it. That makes it more likely they’ll read your content in the order you intended, which will increase their desire and get them clicking on your link.
10. Offer Long Links
As mentioned earlier, CTA button are preferable. However, if you need to use a link, then use at least a half-dozen words as the anchor text. This is much preferable to using a two or three word CTA link.
Here’s why:
- Your users can spot the link more easily when it’s longer.
- Mobile users can more easily click on longer links.
- Longer CTAs give you a chance to tell people why they should act now.
Together, these reasons add up to a better clickthrough rate.
11. Insert Directional Graphics
Part of boosting your clickthrough rate is making sure the CTA button is easy to see. That’s why inserting graphical arrows that point at the button tend to boost conversions. Your prospect’s eyes will naturally look in the direction the arrow is pointing, which will make them take notice of the CTA button and the text immediately around it.
12. Place CTAs to the Right
In many cases, your CTA button is going to be in the middle of a single-column design, usually near the bottom of the page. However, if you insert multiple CTA buttons into your text (which is a good idea, provided the calls to action are for the same thing), then you might offset one of the buttons. If you do this, then be sure the CTA button is to the right of the text.
Here’s why: people read from left to right, so the most natural place to put the button is to the right, which prospects will see after they’ve read the text. Conversely, if you put the button to the left, people need to backtrack with their eyes to get back to the left side of the screen. That’s unnatural. It’s a simple thing, but it will impact your conversions.
13. Increase Conversions With a Series
If you send out a single email that’s known to convert well, you’ll get some clicks and sales. But if you want to further boost conversions, then it’s a good idea to send out a series of emails all promoting the same thing.
For example, you might send out a short series that looks like this:
- Email 1: Presell email that lists the benefits of the offer.
- Email 2: Objection handling. Inside this email you raise and handle objections. For example, if you’re selling something expensive, then you might focus on justifying the price. Or if an objection is “it won’t work,” then you focus on the guarantee.
- Email 3: Proof. This email provides proof of your claims, such as offering case studies, testimonials, videos, screenshots, newspaper clippings or similar.
- Email 4: Last chance. If you were offering some sort of discount or bonus (which you would mention in all the previous emails), you might send out one more email informing people it’s their last chance to take advantage of the special.
An email series will almost always boost your conversions over a single email.
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14. Boost Response With Social Sharing
Another way to boost your clickthrough rate is to encourage your prospects to share the content with their friends. You can make this easy by inserting social sharing buttons. This works to boost response because people are naturally more open to an offer when their friends recommend it to them (versus when the offer is an advertisement from a marketer).
NOTE: Create a separate email apart from your promo series that encourages people to share. That way, you’re not diluting your responses by presenting two calls to action (one to buy, and one to share). You can also put a social share button on the order confirmation page, in much the same way that Amazon encourages you to share that you just purchased a product.
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15. Prioritize Quality
One of the big keys to high conversions is to consistently send high-quality information to your subscribers. Over time, people will open your emails because it’s from YOU. And they’ll click on your links because they trust your recommendations. To that end, be sure you’re 100% focused on helping your subscribers.
16. Analyze Your Numbers
If your conversions are low, then you need to look at your numbers before you can fix the problem. For example, maybe your conversions are low because your open rate is low – in which case, you need to first do things to boost opens (such as tweaking your subject lines).
17. Limit Campaigns
If you’re pushing different promotions multiple times per week, your subscribers may get promo fatigue. Plus, if you’re insisting every new product out there is the best thing ever, your prospects are going to start realizing that you’re just promoting everything.
The solution: limit your campaigns, typically to around one per week. Watch your conversions and your unsubscribe numbers to get an idea of how effective your campaigns are. (But keep in mind unsubscribes aren’t always a bad thing, as when untargeted people weed themselves out, you end up with a more responsive list.)
Conclusion At the end of the day, the name of the game is to get clicks and sales when you send out emails. That’s why you’ll want to use the 17 tips and strategies that you just learned about for improving your CTA and CTR.
Keep Reading: 17 Tips, Ideas, Examples And Insights For Getting The Right Message To The Right Audience
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