Clicks let you know that you’re progressing in your relationships with leads, prospects, and customers. Someone searches for something related to your industry and happens upon a blog post you wrote. Click. They get to your post, like what they see, and want to get more of it in their inbox. Click. You send them an email with your latest blog post. Click.
Recently, we’ve been doing a video series with Bryan Harris to talk a lot about that last step in that process — emailing your contacts. All of the things we’ve talked about up until this point are crucial to know (growing your list, getting delivered to your contacts’ inboxes, and getting email opens), but getting clicks on your emails is probably the most important step. After all, if someone’s not clicking on your emails, how the heck are they supposed to get to your website and maybe one day become a customer?
In this video, we’ll walk you through the basics of getting people to click on your emails. So go on — watch the video (or read the transcript below).
How to Get More People to Click on Your Emails [Transcribed]
Hi, I’m Bryan with HubSpot.
In our previous videos, we covered two specific strategies: 1) How to get your emails past spam filters, and 2) How to increase the likelihood that your emails will be opened.
But email deliverability and open rates are only part of the story. In order for you to turn visitors into customers, you have to get them to click on your emails. And that’s why we’re all obsessed with clickthrough rates: If you can increase that metric, you increase the likelihood that your visitors will become leads, and that your leads will become customers.
So how do you create the perfect email? How do you craft an email that gets opened, gets readers excited, and gets them to click through to your website?
Whether you’re a brand new email marketer or a seasoned pro, we’ve identified four critical components of an email that you always need to be looking to optimize.
Component #1: Personalization
Just like personalizing subject lines can increase your open rates, personalizing the email itself could increase your clickthrough rates.
A recent MarketingSherpa case study discovered that 4 out of 10 email subscribers have marked a message as spam because the message wasn’t relevant to them.
One great way you can make your emails relevant to your readers is by showing them that you know something about them. You can do this by personalizing the message — but don’t be creepy about it.
Use the demographic and behavioral data you have about your readers in your emails. You can use their company name and location, their role at their company, the pages they’ve viewed on your site, and the items they’ve previously purchased — just not all of these data points at one time.
Be creative and be personal.
Just think to yourself: Are you more likely to open an email that addresses your exact needs, or one that you know was blasted out to 10,000 other people?
Component #2: Compelling Copy
You need to make sure that your emails are concise and compelling. It’s important to get your language, tone, and layout right in order to increase the chance that your readers will click through.
Make sure that your copy clearly communicates what your offer is and why your reader needs it. Tie it back to your original value proposition. Make your copy brief, compelling, and interesting.
It’s also important that you use short paragraphs and bullet points to break the copy up so it’s easy to scan. No one has time to read an essay. If your email reads like a book and it takes forever to read, no one will read it, much less click through.
Component #3: Images
People like pictures, so make sure your emails are visually compelling. Internal testing at HubSpot has shown us that plain-text emails can outperform HTML emails, but images still play a big role in getting your reader’s attention. They can also assist your copy by visually communicating what your offer is.
Pick out an image that matches your offer. For example, if your offer is a downloadable PowerPoint presentation, the image could simply include a picture of the presentation cover, which tells the viewers right away, “This is a downloadable presentation and this is what you can expect to get out of this.”
Easy enough, right? In addition to being relevant, choose an image that is visually compelling to help you get the reader’s attention right off the bat.
Component #4: Call-to-Action
The entire purpose of sending an email is to get your readers to click through and convert to the next stage of their buying journey. Because of that, the most important component of your email is your call-to-action.
To optimize your call-to-action, you should first select a primary, focused call-to-action for your email. Boil it down to the one action you want your readers to take. Often, this will just be to click through to your blog post or ebook.
Then, create your call-to-action. Whether it’s a button or a link, you want to make sure your call-to-action is prominent and obvious. It’s good practice to keep your calls-to-action “above the fold,” meaning they’re visible without the reader having to scroll down very far.
You’ll also want to optimize the language you use in your calls-to-action. You should use copy that is clear and action-oriented like “download” or “register,” and urgent like “now” or “today,” and friendly like “join us” or “get your.”
Finally, a great way to optimize your calls-to-action is actually to include several links and buttons throughout your email that all direct to the same landing page. This gives your readers multiple opportunities to click through and convert, increasing the chance that more of them will do so.
So remember, your number one goal is conversions. You want your readers to click through and convert to the next stage in the buying process.
In order to increase the chances of that happening, focus on these four things:
- Personalize your email.
- Use clear, concise, and skimmable copy.
- Use visually compelling and relevant images.
- Place focused calls-to-action in each email that are above the fold and use actionable language.
With these four components in place, you should see an increase in conversions.
Until next time, happy marketing!
