10 Hot Tricks to Get More Clicks
Every email marketer has the same goal: get more clicks! Read on for some quick and easy tips on how to get the maximum response out of your next email marketing campaign.
1) Use a friendly from line
Familiarize recipients with the brand so that the name is recognizable. If sending to a new pool to acquire new customers, identify with customers by designating a company employee as the sender. People like receiving email from other people. Justin Timberlake’s PR team capitalized on this by combining both brand and individual name, sending monthly newsletters that named ‘Justin Timberlake’ as the sender. Although most recipients will realize early enough that the email wasn’t necessarily sent by him personally, they will click on it just to see what it contains.
2) Enticing subject lines
In an office setting, there’s not much room for subject line creativity while upholding professional lines of communication. Marketing emails, however, don’t have to follow the same guidelines. The most effective subject lines create a sense of mystery or curiosity in simple ways. Asking a question, making a bold statement, or playful teases are great options for grabbing attention without giving everything away. For example, a company launching a new product could send an email with the subject line “It has finally arrived.” People will click on the message to find out what it is. Of course, you must be careful not to deceive consumers, making sure your email’s content doesn’t guarantee anything unreasonable or make false claims. You also can’t use something that hints to or implies a completely different message than what’s in the email. For more on email advertising laws, check out this post.
3) Format preview text
Take a look a look at your inbox. Do you see the text directly next to or under the subject line? This is considered preview text (also sometimes called a “preheader”). If formatted correctly, this is a great tool to draw people in if the from & subject line haven’t already. Make sure the text isn’t random characters and has proper punctuation to make a real impact.
4) Link images
Some things never change. As babies, we touched colorful pictures in books and grabbed at shiny objects because they looked too appealing not to. This same behavior can be correlated with our tendency to click on images online and in emails to navigate to another page. Making sure every image in an email is strategically hyperlinked will allow for higher click through rates with the consumer ending up at a predetermined destination.
5) Test different calls to action
A good email campaign must have a clear call to action. Is the email meant to increase sign ups for a mailing list? Elicit donations for a fundraiser? Convince consumers to buy the latest mobile device? You can motivate readers to execute the desired response by asking them in different ways to see which works best. You might use an email campaign with slang terms and trendy slogans to entice a younger demographic to act. As trends change, the verbiage will need to as well. Another effective tactic is to make concise and simple demands. ‘Click Here’ and ‘Read More’ receive a high amount of clicks mostly because they ask very little of a reader who has a natural tendency to engage.
6) Use the CTA multiple times
Regardless of what is being asked, consumers are more likely to click if they are approached with the same request several times but in various ways. For instance, buttons or linked text reading “Learn More,” “Request Info” and “Act Now” may all appear in the same email and redirect to the same offer page that accomplishes a desired conversion. This strategy gives readers multiple opportunities to engage without risking redundant content.
7) Create a legitimate sense of urgency
Someone recently coined the term FOMO – or fear of missing out – and it caught on like wildfire. In today’s society, people are afraid of being left out on a special event or missing out on a great deal. After all, that’s how Black Friday, Cyber Monday and all of the other designated shopping days have become so popular. Emails with time-sensitive offers that have a legitimate expiration date receive more clicks because consumers feel the need to act quickly.
8) Use headers with tabs
A marketing campaign should have a clear goal with a message and call to action that align with the brand’s desired response. However, while a consumer may subscribe to a company’s mailing list, the offers they receive may not always appeal to their specific wants or needs at that moment. By including a header with tabs that link to different pages on that company’s website, there’s still a chance of getting clicks from users who may have otherwise ignored the email. For example, a clothing retail store may run an ad on men’s dress shirts. If a female reader opens the email and doesn’t have a need for men’s clothing, they may still click on a tab in the header that redirects to women’s clothing or sale items, creating a conversion opportunity.
9) Include other relevant offers
If you decide a header doesn’t fit your campaign strategy or you test it and it doesn’t work, there’s always the option of including similar offers within the body of the email without taking away from the main message. Amazon does this both in their emails and on their site by using a shopper’s behavior to advertising alternate items that other users bought. They also serve ads for items the customer already purchased to encourage repeat buying. In the same way, headers elicit additional clicks; including relevant but materially different offers in the same email will capitalize on users who aren’t interested in the main promotion (just make sure the alternate offers don’t break any compliance laws!).
10) Add in a video
Video ads are rapidly taking over the digital marketing space, with more than 54% of US consumers watching video ads as often as 100 times per month. Studies show it’s more effective than TV advertising and that big name brands have started allocating much of their marketing budget into making likable ads that create both brand recognition and product interest. While a video file may be too large to effectively deploy a large email campaign, screenshots of the video with ‘Click to Play’ will do the trick.
