In my recent post on click through rates, I touched on the total number of clicks versus unique clicks in email communications and what the most recent industry statistics are. This post continues that conversation, but contains information on some reasons why your CTRs may be low.

If your email marketing campaigns are typically showing under 2-3% CTRs, some of the causes likely include:

  • Poor permission or opt-in processes. This includes pre-checked boxes, not making it clear what type of email they will be receiving, automatically adding someone to receive your email marketing when they’ve actually signed up for something else such as a whitepaper, etc.
  • Poorly written email subject lines that do not direct and motivate recipients to take an action.
  • Poor email delivery rates. If a lot of your email messages are getting blocked or filtered and you don’t know it, your CTR will obviously be affected.
  • Poor email open rates. If few people open your email, fewer recipients have a chance to click.
  • Poor email design and layout. If they can’t easily find where to click through or aren’t motivated to by your layout – you’ve got trouble.
  • Lack of links. Quite simply, the more links the better. Make it so that email readers are continuously stumbling over text and graphic links like they do signage in a retail store.
  • No reason to click. If your email newsletter has a single or multiple articles in their entirety, then don’t expect them to click. You haven’t given them any reason. If you are sending a promotional email and you don’t include a deadline for the offer, or convey a discount, special offer, limited supply, etc., few people are probably going to take action.

Hopefully you found this information useful for your email marketing efforts. And for those of you who did read the entire article, we have a special treat for you…the answer to Willow’s first most frequently asked question…“so what’s the story behind the Willow tree?”