How to Make Your Emails More Clickable?

If you want to be heard in the industry, having a well-targeted email list is a must. Building a great email list is not an easy task; it takes years to build a better list. Someone once told me you don’t get subscribers; you earn them and That’s quite true.

Similarly, when your subscribers open your email, they trust you and your email campaign wins. But, for the majority of bloggers and even some established ones, the problem is not how to get subscribers, but how to get their emails clicked by them?

Thinking about this problem, here I have come up with a post in which you will learn how to get your emails clicked by your subscribers. It simply means that by reading this post you will learn to make your emails more clickable. So here we go:

Here I am sharing the checklist which must be done in order to make your emails more clickable:

Test your email before serving them onto your readers’ plate

They say first impression is the last impression, I say, for emails; every bad impression is the last impression. If your reader finds an email obtrusive, poorly designed, or short of the promise it makes in the headline, the readers will never open the future emails or may even unsubscribe. [Read why people unsubscribe from your blog?]

It is therefore advisable to have great email design and cool looking graphics that ensure your emails are opened upright the next time you send them.

Be a person, not a company or an automated emailing robot

Many times we make a mistake and think that sending an email as if from a company will make it look powerful, but the truth is people love emails from friends and not corporate. Hubspot conducted several split tests and came to a conclusion that says changing the sender’s name from a company official to real names increased the click-through rates of email by 3%.

You can also run a split test by actually sending half of your audience with one format and others a second format to see what works for you.

Hack the preview test of your emails to your benefit

You will be surprised but this one thing alone can enhance your email click-through rates like never before. Your email preview text is the line that appears just after the subject line of your email message. It is mostly of 50 characters or less. Most people forget to edit it in their newsletter service and therefore Gmail (or any other email client), pulls of data from the email body.

You can actually use this preview text to create a call to action, to create a sense of urgency and much more so that your subscriber will be forced to open your email.

Create a sense of urgency

We all get tons of emails in our inbox daily. Emails from colleagues, emails from coupons and shopping sites, and emails from online jobs and money-making sites we never subscribed to. Do we open all emails; certainly no.

So, which are the emails that are supposed to get more clicks? 

We generally tend to be more attracted to email newsletters that demand action from us. Or those that have a preview text that emits some sense of urgency.

Here are some examples of emails that demand emergency action and get a maximum response:

1. John Doe: Uh-ho your prescription is expiring.

This line creates a sense of urgency and tempts the email reader to open it.

2. Mari: Your daily dose is getting stale.

This is time-sensitive and the reader thinks she has been not updated with the latest daily dose and should read it before it is stale.

Use time-sensitive emails

We are all taught to do things that need priority. Using time-sensitive emails will make your audience that they have no time to open this email at a later date, they should click it now.

Suppose you send an email that reads, “Last chance” or “offer ending this weekend” your subscribers are more likely to open that email.

Sometimes, an easy and moderate line like “limited time offer” or “Special off only for you” might make the email more personalized. This is one key email marketing strategy that most successful brands use.

Keep brief, keep to the point

One of the major factors in getting your email picked up and read it its precise body. The more the text you write the more the chances of losing your point.

Moreover, most readers are busy and can’t wait long for you to come to the point. That’s why email newsletters are sometimes called your marketing ad copy.

Keep it short and precise!

When your readers get your point with short and up to the mark lines they will also most likely click on the links you provided and other stuff you intended them to do.

Give users the option of reading your email there way- either in plain text or in HTML

Did you know some email clients still won’t support HTML rich emails? When your subscriber opens up your email from a non-java based mobile browser like opera mini, they will not get your rich HTML the way you wanted them to.

When you are sending emails, in order to get high open rates, you should not ignore any reader. It is better to give them the option to choose from what they like to read.

If you are having some sort of tracking URLs like the UTM tracking etc., be careful not to leave the links as it is. Long URLs often are considered spammy and the readers might be scared to open them.

You can shorten your email URLs using URL shorteners like bit.ly or goo.gl.

Use call to action buttons

Most email marketing software has specially designed call to action buttons. You should include at least one call to action button at the end of your email hinting the reader what she/he is intended to do after the email.

Your call to action button should also include an “alt text” as we do for images in out blog posts. This will ensure your subscribers see a text in case the call to action images doesn’t load.

TIP: You can use Vertical Response’s free CTA button generator to create a personalized button.

Don’t overwhelm your readers with too many social sharing buttons

Word of mouth and social sharing are two things that can effectively boost your email marketing campaign.

For social sharing, you should definitely add social sharing buttons to your email template. But here, don’t add 32 social buttons, use three or four to the maximum.

If you are confused, do split tests. Send some emails with a set of social sharing buttons and then send another set with other social sharing buttons.

You will then know which social site is mostly used by your audience.

You can also use a survey form to ask what elements and social buttons your readers want to see. This procedure can do wonders because the readers get what they want.

Do not put all your readers in one basket

If you are running a multi-niche blog or deal with products related to more than one group of people then read this mindfully.

All your audiences might not have the same priority and interests. Some readers might like the motivational posts of your blog while others may be hardcore techies.

Some of your readers might be women interested in lifestyle while others might be social media marketing guys.

If you send the same gossip or luxury emails to hardcore techie subscribers; they will unsubscribe you.

Hubspot Inc does an excellent job here. When subscribing to the blog, they ask you if you want to subscribe to the marketing newsletter, or to the sales newsletter. In their offers pages, they also survey your position and industry in order to future provide you with related and relevant emails.

So you can personalize the subscription option and give your readers exactly what they want. This surely going to boost the number of clicks.

Express that your readers want you and not the other way around

Many times, sending many personalized and cheesy emails might make your audience think you need them.

Thought this is sometimes good but not always. You should learn to make your emails appear in a way that it is only meant for the profit of your readers.

One nice hack by Ana Hoffman is that she places here unsubscribe link right at the top. This shows she is not after you read her email.

Psychologically, readers think if she is not afraid to lose us, her email might be substance and read it mindfully.

Make it easy for your readers to share the heck out of your email

You can use readymade sharing templates like clickable links within your email newsletter so that it becomes easy and the reader is not worried. You can use free tweet generators like “click to tweet” in order to get your links and text tweeted the way you want them to be.

An “email to” link is very beneficial in order to make your email reach more people and hence more click through rates.

Use power words

Certain words always create a powerful impact on the reader. These words may be positive and negative. As an email marketer, you should use power words in your email subject, email body, and call to action.

Words like these are always meant to get your emails clicked:

1. Hurry
2. Best
3. Fabulous

And buying words like:

1. Only (use for money or cost-related things like $500 only.)
2. Cheap
3. Discount
4. Freebie etc.

In case you want more there are 80 power words to help you write a better email newsletter for lowering bounce rates.

Avoid using spam words

Email clients like Gmail are nowadays highly spammed and so they have strict spam detection algorithms set. Sometimes, even our reasonable letters might land in the readers’ spam box and might be a major setback for email click through rates.

To avoid using spam words don’t include or use synonyms of words like Loss (often used by weight loss niche people to spam inboxes), Donate (no flourishing business asks clients to donate, do you?), words in capital, etc.

Here is a huge resource of spammy words that would otherwise land your email in your reader’s spam box.

Offer incentives but don’t bribe

Who doesn’t like freebies, we all do. But, what about a company that always offers something inside the email but the body still fails to add value.

Once in awhile offering something is okay but offering cheap gifts or discounts may not always make the reader feel loved.

They can smell something fishy and might start looking at why you are so generous.

Talk as a friend but don’t forget your brand’s voice.

All email newsletters should sound friendly and not corporate. The reader should not at all feel overwhelmed at your technical wordings.

In order to get high open rates for emails, you have to make the reader feel ease. Then you can talk business and the reader will feel you are at a dinner table.

But, in an attempt to become a friend, don’t mess with your brand image. If your brand is authoritative, speak as it should be. If your brand is funny to make the email fun, but don’t crack below the belt jokes.

Strengthening Your Email Marketing for B2B

Business to business (B2B) refers to partnerships, business connections, or dealings with other businesses of companies. Email marketing is a vital tool in developing effective B2B marketing strategies to help you realize your goals. 

Creating B2B strategies is a combination of great content, proper email delivery, and not neglecting the technical aspects of email marketing. If you want a B2B strategy to be successful, proper communication through sending high-quality emails is crucial.

Over to you

These were the most overlooked but very essential tips for getting high click-through rates for your email. If you want to make your emails more clickable, just keep close to these email marketing techniques and I am sure you will reduce bounce rates for every email sent. Meanwhile, what are your tricks to make your emails more clickable? Do let our readers know your tricks by writing them in the comments.