How to get more clicks from your email newsletter

31.08.2014 2 min read

One of the main things in newsletter stats include is the engagement, how many people clicked the links on the email. Right after if not alongside the amount of how many people opened the email at the first place, the link clicks are usually seen as the most important metric of the influence of an email newsletter. How do you get people to click those links? Most of your subscribers either don't open the emails they receive or they only open them without engaging. I have, after some testing and adjusting, found out how to make more people to click links on my emails.

First of all it appears that the email must look pretty plain. You can still use a header image and whatnot. Don't use too many images and make your header simple and not too prominent. I know, you probably want to have a very elaborate header for your email and perhaps something that really stands out. It does turn the readers off. It takes too much of the space and steals the attention. White backgrounds and a very simple header makes the email look less like a corporate message or some sort of unsolicited marketing (read: spam) and more like an email.

I've noticed that many email promotions I receive use way too small size for the main text. So start using bigger text size, something along the line of 15 or 16 px, so that your subscribers will actually be able to read what you are reading. Small text is to be reserved for footers and other secondary content. Also make sure the links will pop from the rest of the text clearly, with a separable link colour. Use the same or similar colours as on your blog, so that the colouring of your emails and other presence are cohesive.

As I already mentioned it's good to be very economic about images. They appear to make the email look too corporate and it's not a good look. It may be pretty, but really it turns the audience off. When talking about your blog posts use simple links and encourage clicking them. You don't have to use the words "click here", but rather make sure your subscribers will understand this is a link to a post on your blog. Include the links as part of your main message or at least as a separated part of it. Oh and yes, make your main message interesting and personal. Don't only talk about your latest blog post, most of your subscribers have read at least some of your posts already.

The trick is to make your email simpler. Simplify everything: The header image, the backgrounds, the look of texts and the amount of the content on your email. Use images only where you really need them and make the email look more like an email and less like a newsletter.

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