The Last Word: Boost Your Click Rate with Streamlined E-mail Design

The Last Word: Boost Your Click Rate with Streamlined E-mail Design

5117
Last-Word-Graphic-REv

Getting people to click on your marketing e-mails is certainly a key goal for any business. However, once the e-mail has been opened, it’s also important that the reader takes some sort of action after digesting the content. That’s why it’s important to focus on strong e-mail design.

Rae-Steinbach
Rae Steinbach

Along with other best practices, like using an e-mail address checker and segmenting lists, a strong e-mail design can serve to improve your click rate. If you’re not satisfied with the performance of your e-mails, keep the following tips in mind.

They’ll help you make the necessary design changes to achieve your goals.

Limit a Reader’s Options

A call-to-action (CTA) plays a crucial role in any marketing e-mail. It tells a reader what kind of action you want them to take, whether it’s buying a product, signing up for a service or downloading an app.

Don’t be tempted to include multiple CTAs in your e-mail. You might imagine that giving readers options means they’ll be more likely to actually take action. Even if a customer doesn’t want to make a purchase right away, they may still want to register for a service or take another form of action, right?

Not exactly. A 2006 study indicates why. In the study, researchers separated participants into two groups. One group was given the option to buy jam after considering six different flavors. The other group had 24 flavors of jam from which to choose. Interestingly, 30% of participants in the first group made a purchase. However, in the other, a mere 3% of people bought jam.

Moreover, research continues to demonstrate that giving customers too many options actually reduces the odds of them taking a desired action. Limit yourself to one CTA to improve your e-mails.

Stay Focused

The point above illustrates a principle that can be unfortunately easy to forget: a strong marketing e-mail is driven by an individual goal.

Every marketing e-mail you send should be designed with an outcome in mind. Some e-mails are designed to convince recipients to make a purchase. Others alert subscribers about events in an attempt to boost attendance. Sometimes a marketer simply sends an e-mail asking readers to share their content on social media.

When you know what your exact goal is, it’s easier to identify the one CTA that will best help you achieve it. The same concept should apply to marketing e-mails that share or direct readers to content.

It’s not uncommon for marketers to send e-mails letting their followers know about new articles, videos as well as other forms of content available on their site. It’s also tempting to send one e-mail that alerts recipients to all the recent content your business has published. However, this can result in clutter, and it is more likely to distract readers from whatever your main goal is.

If you’re going to send e-mails sharing content with readers, focus on one or two pieces. It’s the same principle used when you focus on one or two CTAs, so apply it to this situation as well.

Test Different E-mail Design Templates

Relying on different templates for different types of e-mails makes it easy to streamline certain key marketing processes. For instance, if you’re introducing a new product, having a “product announcement” e-mail template gives you the freedom to simply insert the relevant content into a preestablished format.

However, you shouldn’t assume your existing templates are perfect. For each distinct type of e-mail, you have templates for, develop different variations and A/B test them. This will allow you to determine which is more effective at generating conversions.

Optimize for Mobile

Statistics indicate that most people now read their e-mail on mobile devices. That means it’s important to ensure your e-mails are optimized for mobile. Most important, the format shouldn’t include large chunks of text or excessive use of multimedia elements.

Use formatting options like headers and bullet points to organize your content. Moreover, include multimedia elements that contribute to the content’s impact without cluttering the layout.

The best way to ensure your e-mails look appealing on mobile devices is simply to read them on a phone before sending them to your followers.

E-mail marketing can yield an investment return of $38 for every $1 you spend. As a result, it is one of the most effective and affordable marketing channels. By keeping these tips in mind, you can leverage its full potential.

Rae Steinbach is a graduate of Tufts University with a combined International Relations and Chinese degree. After spending time living and working abroad in China, she returned to New York City to pursue her career and continue curating quality content. Steinbach is passionate about travel, food and writing, of course.

2 COMMENTS

  1. I would like to suggest one more platform for email validation : Clearout.io
    They have an accuracy for more than 98%+ with affordable pricing & a very easy UI to work on.

LEAVE A REPLY