5 New Ways to Get More Clicks in Small Business Email
Whether you’re managing B2B or B2C email campaigns, you not only want your subscribers to open your emails, you want them to click. And whether your business is B2B or B2C, the “rules of engagement” are basically the same.
What’s the secret to getting more click-throughs? While it’s not exactly rocket science, there is some testing involved (although not the white-coat lab kind). Let’s take a look at some ways to increase your clicks – and revenue.
Get More Clicks: New Small Business Email Strategy
1. Be a bit of a tease.
This starts with the subject line. You won’t get any clicks if your email isn’t opened. That means you need a compelling subject line. A teaser subject line is OK, as long as you give a hint of the content. Simply saying “Surprise inside…” may be too vague. But “The secret to cold-call success” might boost your open rate. Run A/B tests and refine.
The subject line of this Hubspot email – “How Businesses Are Marketing With Facebook & Twitter” – hints of industry insight and a trending topic, social media.
You can tease your readers in the email itself. Provide an excerpt or introduction to an article, with a link to “Read More.”
2. Leverage your links.
The number of links is important, as is where you place the links. They should be in the preheader, header, body and footer of the email.
According to one study, the more links in the email the greater the click-through rate (CTR). From 1 to 5 links resulted in a 9.10% CTR, 6-10 links a 7.30% CTR, 11-20 a 10.90% CTR, and more than 21 links a 19.20% CTR.
3. Be a social butterfly.
This tip assumes that you’ve got a presence on the major social network sites: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. And perhaps Instagram, Pinterest and others. If you don’t have a social presence, start building one now. Once you do, go beyond simply placing social site icons in your email. Create discussions or contests to encourage click-through. Don’t be afraid to voice an opinion – or seek opinions – healthy debate will engage your audience.
Remember, clicks don’t always have to go directly to your website. They should go wherever you have a presence on the web. More importantly, they should go wherever your prospects and customers spend their time online – and many of them gravitate toward social-sharing sites.
The following footer may be a bit of an overkill, but it certainly opens up options for subscribers to click – and share content:
4. Incorporate video.
Small businesses may shy away from video because it seems too expensive or technically daunting. But with a basic video camera (or even a smartphone with video capabilities), you can create a respectable video and incorporate it into your marketing materials, including emails.
For time-crunched businesspeople, videos can provide valuable information that they can receive in a timely fashion. For multitaskers, the audio portion of the video is as important as the video itself; they can listen to your content while doing other tasks.
5. Mix up your calls to action.
As in sales, if you don’t ask for the sale, you won’t get it. The same holds true for emails. If you don’t include a call to action, you won’t get the click-through. However, the CTA doesn’t always have to be “BUY NOW.” It can be informational (LEARN MORE), educational (DOWNLOAD NOW), or encourage other actions such as SUBSCRIBE NOW or REQUEST AN ESTIMATE. As with your links, placement is key. Don’t relegate your CTAs to the bottom of your email; strategically place them throughout.
You also can give your subscribers options, as in the example below:
When you’re looking at the analytics for your email campaigns, it’s great to see more clicks. But you don’t want clicks just for clicks’ sake. You want to “click” with your prospects and customers, creating an ongoing dialogue that leads to both customer acquisition and retention.
Tagged in: Online Marketing, Small Business