In order to aim for
with
email newsletter
measures, the next metric that needs to be improved after the open rate is the click rate. The key is to have potential customers who open the email click on the transition link (CTA) and transition to the page you want to be directed to, without letting them leave.
This time, we will introduce the necessary metrics and tips for improving your email newsletter’s click-through rate.
How to measure click-through rate in email newsletters?
The click-through rate of an email newsletter refers to the percentage of recipients who click on the URL link placed within the email. Similar to open rate, you need an
HTML
formatted email to measure click rate. Text emails do not have the ability to measure open or click rates.
Email distribution tools are useful for measuring clicks. The distribution tool issues tracking URLs for each recipient, each email, and each link location so that you can see who clicked which link and when.
As a result, recipients who click the link in the email will land on the destination web page via the tracking URL for measurement.
By using email distribution tools and
marketing automation (MA)
tools, you can easily create HTML emails and analyze data such as click rate. We recommend “Swich Plus”, a marketing tool that combines CMS and MA, as it allows you to easily create a destination LP with intuitive operation.
Two click-through rates and ideas to watch
There are two types of click-through rate: the click-through rate for the number of deliveries and the click-through rate for the number of opens. The former is commonly referred to as the click rate, while the latter is called the response rate or CTR (Click Through Rate).
click rate
Click rate can be calculated using the following formula.
Click rate (%) = number of actual clicks ÷ number of deliveries × 100
Click-through rate is the best indicator to get a bird’s-eye view of the effectiveness of your email newsletter efforts as a whole. However, since it includes the opening and clicking actions of prospective customers, it can be difficult to assess whether the email subject line or the body of the email is having an impact.
Response rate/CTR
Response rate/CTR can be calculated using the following formula.
Response rate/CTR (%) = Number of actual clicks ÷ Number of opens × 100
Response rate/CTR represents the percentage of emails that are clicked out of those that are opened, and is the next most important metric to pay attention to after the open rate. If the percentage of people reading the opened email and clicking on the destination web page is low, you need to improve the text and transition link (CTA) in the email.
It is important to understand that the click rate is an indicator that measures the percentage of clicks on the entire email newsletter, and the response rate/CTR is an indicator that measures the percentage of emails that were clicked among the emails that were opened.
Average click rate as a guide
When you first start an e-mail newsletter campaign, it is difficult to judge whether it is working or not just by looking at the open rate and click-through rate. Survey data from Constant Contact is useful as a reference.
Based on data collected from over 200 million email newsletters, the overall average click-through rate is 1.27%, with industry-specific average click-through rates ranging from 0.5% to 2.9%. By the way, the overall average open rate was 29.55%, and the overall average bounce rate was 9.95%.
Reference:
Average industry rates for email as of February 2022
It is a good idea to use the average click-through rate for your industry as a guideline and improve your own click-through rate.
How to increase click-through rate? The trick
We will introduce tips for improving click-through rates from the perspective of first view and CTA.
first view
The first view that recipients see when they open your email is the part that has the biggest impact on improving response rates and CTR. The opening sentence of the first view also appears in the preheader, which can have a positive impact on open rates.
It is important to make the reader feel that they need to read this e-mail newsletter in the opening section. Like the subject line of an e-mail newsletter, we create sentences while keeping in mind the 4U principles, which use merit (usefulness), sense of limitation (urgency), sense of specialness (uniqueness), and numbers (specificity).
Then, make good use of headings and images to make the entire email easier to read. Also, be sure to include a transition link (CTA) in the first view.
CTAs
Transition links (CTA) are more likely to be clicked if they have both button format and anchor text. In the body of the email, set the link to the destination page in the section that describes the destination page. We will also set up buttons that encourage people to click, such as “Click here for details/application.”
Also, try to limit your CTA to one per email. If multiple links are installed, the transition destinations will be scattered, making it difficult to transition to the page you want to convert.
In addition, you can improve the overall click-through rate of your email newsletter by changing the subject line to increase the open rate, creating appropriate distribution segments depending on the content of the email newsletter, and optimizing the distribution date and time.
summary
This time, we introduced the metrics you should look at and tips for improving your email newsletter’s click-through rate. The click rate is suitable for looking at the effectiveness of the entire email newsletter, but the response rate/CTR is suitable for looking at the improvement effect of the clicks themselves.
It is also important to improve the first view and CTA that people see immediately after opening the email newsletter so that they will click.