How to Actually Get People to Click on Your Emails

I get it.

Your time is valuable so spending hours writing, formatting, and sending emails that people aren’t going to open, read, and click on is not worth it. 

So, instead of continuing to waste our time writing emails no one opens, let’s write emails that people not only open, but CLICK on! (gasp!)

There are many things that influence whether or not your ideal client is going to click on your email but let’s summarize them:

1. Time – What times is your ideal client checking emails? What time is your ideal client taking action on emails?
2. SPAM – Is your email going to your ideal client’s SPAM folder?
3. Subject Line – Is the email catching your ideal client’s attention? Is it convincing them they need to open it up?
4. Formatting – Is your email professional looking? Is the copy easy to read? Are the calls to action eye-catching? Do you require your client to scroll too much to get to the “meat” of the message?
5. Personalization – If your email personalized to what your ideal client is needing? Is it solving their unique problem or is it a generic sales email that isn’t personalized to what they are looking for?
6. Messaging – Is your messaging clear and concise? Is it easy to understand what you are asking your ideal client to do? Is it easy to understand what next steps your ideal client needs to take?
7. Value – Are you adding value to your ideal client’s life? Or are you just trying to make a sale?
8. Call to Action – Is your call to action strong enough to make your ideal client take action right now? Have you put a deadline on the ask? Is your call to action too time consuming or complicated for them to do it while they are waiting in the school pick-up line? Does your call to action require them to have information they may not have on hand at the time? 

Now that you are aware of the 8 above points, how do you write an email that your ideal client is actually going to click on? 

TEST. TEST. TEST. 

Write emails with different messaging, different formatting, different subject lines, different send times, different call to actions… try everything. 

Record your findings and make educated guesses regarding your ideal client’s behaviors, preferences, and email reading habits and start catering to them. We need to meet our client’s at their habits, they will not meet us at ours.

A few great statistics to look at are:

• Open Rate – # of opens/Total # of sends
• Click Through Rate – # of clicks/Total # of sends
• Click to Open Rate – # of click/# of opens
• Unsubscribe Rate – # of unsubscribes/Total # of sends

Something we will talk about more in-depth in future weeks is a/b testing. If you’re curious, give it a Google. It’s a great way to test 2 versions of your email with 1 varying element (subject lines, send times, formatting designs, etc) and then send the “winning” email to your full list. Check to see if your email marketing platform offers this service, it’s a great feature to use and abuse. 

Phew! Let’s face it, getting people to click on your emails is not easy. It takes time, patience, and trust to really get your audience to start responding. When someone gives you their email list they are saying, “I am interested in what you have to offer, I am trusting you not to SPAM me, and I’m looking forward to your emails”.

We must nurture that relationship and treat it with the respect it deserves. Because once you abuse it and the unsubscribe button is hit, it’s MUCH harder to earn that trust back.