Most of the bloggers start building an email list just to make money from their blog or just because they heard some top marketer/blogger saying that “the money is in the list!”.

And the rest of them get into email marketing just because everybody else is doing it as well. It’s just another goal or achievement for them.

No matter what your reason to build an email list is, one of the most important metrics that you need to understand is the CTR or click-through rate.

The main purpose of email marketing is not to sell something, but to get the click. The selling part is supposed to be handled by the sales page, where the subscribers land by clicking the link in your email.

Many people struggle to get even a single click from a list of hundreds of subscribers, forget about the sales.

So, how do you increase your click-through rates?

We’ll get to that in a minute, but first…

What’s the difference between click rates & click-through rates?

This is something that confuses many people and since they both sound similar, people assume that they are the same thing.

Well, technically both the metrics calculate clicks, just that their formulas of calculation are different.

Understand it this way:

Click Rate: The percentage of people who clicked a link in your email to the people who were delivered your email.

Click-Through Rate: The percentage of people who clicked a link in your email to the people who opened your email.

Let’s say, For Example:

Emails Delivered: 1000
Emails Opened: 600
Link Clicks: 400

Click Rate: (400/1000)*100 = 40%

Click-Through Rate: (400/600)*100 = 66%

So, no matter which formula you use, the principles are the same and you are basically calculating the clicks. and the more clicks you get, the more people will see your offer and hence more chances of making money.

Do you want to create an email list? Here are all the steps to start an email list for beginners.

So, let’s see 11 time-tested ways that will help you increase email click-through rates or email click rates.

#1 Your email subject line matters

You must be wondering, what’s the connection between the email subject line and click-through rates?

Well, allow me to surprise you, there’s a huge connection!

What happens when your email subject line doesn’t align with your email copy?

or you promise something else in your subject line but provide something else in the email copy?

or you use click baits to increase your open rates?

You lose the trust of your subscribers. And you’ve lost their trust, are they going to click on your link in your email copy?

I know I won’t because you didn’t deliver what you promised in your subject line. How should I know that you’ll deliver what you’re promising in your email copy?

So, you need to make sure that your email subject line perfectly aligns with your email copy and you deliver what you promised.

This will help you gain your subscribers’ trust and eventually, their clicks.

#2 Stay on the Point

You don’t need to fill your email with anything and everything just because you read somewhere that “long emails convert better!”.

The attention span of people nowadays has decreased significantly and you get very little time to get their attention.

That’s why it’s important that you start your email with the most important information first, try to stay on point, and then keep it as short as possible.

You don’t want your email subscribers to get bored and close the email window.

What you actually want is to capture their attention and get them to click on your link and that’s only possible if you stay on the point.

Related: 7 places to add email sign up forms to grow your email list

#3 Keep it Simple

Nowadays there are so many email marketing tools that offer these visually-appealing or “beautiful” email templates, which are completely useless.

Sending these types of emails hurt your deliverability because email providers (like Gmail) know that normal people don’t send these kinds of emails. They assume that you’re some sort of spammer or direct your emails to the spam folder or the promotions tab.

But let’s say even if your emails do get delivered, people are not used to receiving these kinds of emails. When they open these emails, it makes them feel “being sold to”. They think that it was not sent by an actual human.

It can also be confusing for them to figure out where to click sometimes!

And that’s the reason why you should only prefer to use “text-only” emails. Most top bloggers & marketers use simple text emails and it solves both the problems:

• Better chances of deliverability.
• More trust and clicks, because it brings a human touch to the equation.

You are a person, you are writing to PEOPLE and that’s why you should write in a human way if you want to get a better click-through rate.

#4 Segment your email list

Segmenting your email list can prove to be a game-changer in improving your click-through rates. But first, what does segmentation mean actually?

In simplest terms, email segmentation means dividing your email list and grouping your email subscribers based on their interests or demographics. But how does that help?

List segmentation allows you to send relevant information and extremely targeted offers to your subscribers thus increasing your email open rates and click-through rates.

#5 One email for one purpose

All of your email campaigns should have a purpose and that should be the ONLY purpose that your emails should have.

This is one of the biggest email marketing mistakes that is made by most of the new bloggers i.e. asking your subscribers to take multiple actions in a single email.

You shouldn’t ask your subscribers to read your blog post, listen to your podcast, download a freebie, purchase your product, or marry you in a single email.

This decreases the chances of them clicking on any link exponentially.

If your email has a single purpose and it asks your subscribers to take a single action, then they are more likely to click-through.

Related: The ultimate tutorial to create an online quiz and grow your email list

#6 Easily recognizable Call-to-action

Most of the people who open your emails are not going to read it completely. They’ll just scan it from the top to bottom and look for any important parts.

That’s why it’s important to make sure that your CTA or call-to-action stands out if you want them to take action.

So, how do you make your CTA stand out?

• Increase the text link size.
• Make it bold and underline.
• Use a different color text link.
• Use a button for call-to-action.

For example, look how bold and clear this CTA from one of my emails is:

Make sure that your CTA captures attention and makes your subscribers click. Here are 20 examples of call to action.

#7 Add your CTA or call-to-action multiple times

But just adding a single CTA at the end of the email is not gonna cut it.

One of the biggest ways to increase your click-through rates is by having multiple CTAs at different locations. Having multiple CTAs increasing your chances of getting a click multifold.

Use around 3-5 CTAs (pointing towards the same link!) depending on the length of the email and play around with different variations.

Mix up text links, image links, and buttons. I prefer to use 3 CTAs in my emails: one, in the beginning, one in the middle, and the last at the end.

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#8 Use emotional trigger or action words/adjectives

Using power words is a great strategy to increase email click through rates.

There are a few words, adjectives, and phrases that make to think with emotions rather than logic. And getting people to take action based on their emotions rather than logic is much easier.

For example, words & phrases like free, love, once in a lifetime, fair, etc.

That’s why you need to use different adjectives or action words before or after the CTA describing your offer to entice your subscribers to take action and get more clicks.

#9 Include a P.S.

The P.S. or post-script in your emails is an incredible piece of real estate to generate clicks. Why?

Because most of the people skip the whole email and just jump to read the P.S. because they feel like the whole email would be summed up there.

And if you’re not using P.S. in your emails then you’re missing out on a lot my friend and losing a lot of clicks.

Make sure to include a P.S. in your emails, describing what the email is about in a few sentences, and add a link with a clear CTA at the end.

But don’t overdo it! I’ve seen people using 4-5 post-scripts in their emails like P.S., P.P.S, P.P.P.S, etc. which does nothing but annoy your subscribers and might even make them unsubscribe from your list.

Here’s an example from one of my emails:

One email, one purpose, and one P.S.!

Related ==> 10 experts share their best email list building tip for beginners

#10 Sense of Urgency

We often tend to take action fast if there’s a scarcity or lack of time It’s just in our nature

And you can use this to your advantage for increasing your click-through rates.

All you need to do is create a sense of urgency by limiting the time of the offer or limiting the number of orders and notice the growth in your CTR.

For example:

Just a warning, don’t use both in a single offer. Either limit the limit or the number of orders, but not both.

#11 Make sure your emails are mobile-friendly

As the use of smartphones is growing day-by-day, more and more people are checking their emails on their phones.

That’s why you need to make sure that your emails are mobile-friendly.

How are you supposed to click on a link that you can’t see?

One more reason not to go with those email templates as sometimes, they don’t load on mobiles.

Final Words

You can’t just increase your click-through rates overnight by just following a magic formula.

It’s the small things that you do and the small steps you take that make a huge impact over time.

Follow these tips and you’ll definitely notice a significant growth in your email click rates.

We often tend to take action fast if there s a scarcity or lack of time. It s just in our nature.

About the author

Rahul Choudhary is the founder of blog2brand.com & invicreative.com! He’s known to be obsessed with helping bloggers & online entrepreneurs in turning their passions popular + profitable. He’s also a Martin Scorsese fan and a dog lover.

Follow him on social media: Twitter @itsrahulc Facebook @itsrahulchoudhary