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Did you know that email advertising currently has higher click-through rates than social media posts? In Western European countries, it averaged around 5% in 2022, while the global average CTR for social networks in the same period was just 1.3%. This may come as a surprise in this social-media-driven age, but it pays to focus on your email marketing campaigns.
However, even if you're already sending out newsletters, that doesn't mean they're getting you the results you want. One way to make sure your email marketing budget isn't going to waste is by zooming in on your click-through rates.
In this article, we'll explain exactly what an email click-through rate is and how to measure it. Don't worry if you get a low score. That's the first step of improving – and we're here to show you just how to do it.
What is an email CTR (click-through rate)?
If you're sending out email campaigns, chances are you want your subscribers to do something. It's not always to buy – it can be to fill out a survey, sign up for a community or join a waitlist for a new product launch. Whatever it may be, you want them to take intentional action based on your email marketing campaign.
The email click-through rate illustrates how successful you are with that goal. It represents the proportion of email recipients who have clicked on at least one link included in your email.
Although this information is most valuable when combined with other email marketing KPIs (email open rates, conversions, bounce rates, revenue etc.), it's still a good starting point. If you're not reaching your industry average, you may need to change the CTA or subject line, improve copy or target a more specific audience – all to get the most juice out of your email marketing efforts.
How to calculate email click-through rate
To calculate your click-through rate (CTR), divide the total number of clicks by the number of emails sent (and delivered) and then multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage.
CTR = Number of clicks on a link / Number of emails delivered x 100
For example, if you sent out 1,500 emails and 75 people clicked on your links, your CTR would be 5%. The CTR formula for this data looks like this:
(75 / 1,500) * 100 = 5%
Average email click-through rate
Research shows that the highest global click-to-open rate for marketing emails in 2022 was in the financial services sector, with an impressive 16.68%. Second and third place were the publishing and communications industries, with 14.47% and 11.83%, respectively.
In 2021, the UK saw the highest click-through rates in the education sector, although it was significantly less than the numbers above – 4.4%. Second place was tied between estate, design and construction with 3.6%.
Geographic location also plays a part in the average click-through rate. In 2022, Canada had the highest average CTR of 7.41%. In Germany, the rate was 4.18% and in the US – just 2.68%.
What is a good email click-through rate?
As you can see from the data above, many factors can affect the click-through rate of an email, such as the industry, location and type of email campaign. Various sources consider different click-through rates to be sufficient. Overall, a 2-3% click-through rate is a good range across countries and sectors.
Email CTR: Types
There are various ways to measure email receivers’ level of engagement through clicks. These methods include measuring unique clicks, all clicks and click-to-open rate (CTOR). Let us explain:
- Clicks unique: This measurement calculates the number of unique receivers who clicked on a hyperlink in your email. Even if a recipient clicks on a link several times, it will only be considered as one unique click.
- Clicks all: Also called the total click-through rate (TCTR), it takes into account the total clicks on a link in your email, even if the same recipient clicks multiple times. This may not give you the best idea about the popularity of your message, as it includes people who click on a link on multiple devices or at different times, and firewalls opening links in your email to check for malware.
- Click-to-open rate (CTOR): This metric measures the level of engagement of recipients who opened your email. To calculate CTOR, divide the number of clicks on a link in your email by the number of opens.
Email click rate vs click-through rate
The terms "email click rate" and "click-through rate" refer to more or less the same metric, but there are some subtle differences between them. That's why you'll see two different numbers for each in your email marketing reports.
- Email click rate: This term refers to the percentage of people clicking on one or more links in your email out of the people who received your email.
- Click-through Rate (CTR): This is the more widely used term. CTR represents the percentage of people who clicked on at least one link in an email out of the people who opened it.
For example, the total number of emails delivered can be 1,000, but the number of people who opened your email can be 700. The total link clicks remain the same – let's say 100 – but the scores will be different:
Email click rate: (100 / 1000) * 100 = 10%
Click-through Rate: (100 / 700) * 100 = 14.29%
How to improve email click-through rate
There are many factors that influence a low click-through rate. Some include:
- Email relevance to the recipient
- The call-to-action (CTA) – functionality, placement, clarity and how compelling it is
- Email design, readability and layout
- Email type (promotional, informational etc.)
- Email timing vs. where the client is in their customer journey
Below, you'll find some tactics to improve the click-through rates of your email marketing campaigns.
Email analytics
The first thing you need is to invest in an email analytics tool. Without such software, there's no way of knowing what results your email campaigns are getting you. A great add-on to your ESP that includes robust email marketing reporting and analytics features is SEINō.
It's an email analytics tool that provides near real-time insights into your marketing efforts. The system features many customization options, which allow you to tailor it to fit your needs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmCl8fN3VF0&t=16s&ab_channel=SEIN%C5%8D%7CEmailAnalytics
The main advantage of SEINō is its advanced reporting tools that show your subscribers' behavior and preferences. Based on this information, you can create targeted campaigns that are sure to resonate with your audience and encourage those clicks.
The key features you get with our software include:
- Benchmarking campaigns in one view to see which gets the better click-through rate
- Analyzing transactional metrics like the number of transactions, total revenue, average order value and revenue per email sent
- Monitoring the development of your subscriber list
- Grouping, pivoting and filtering data
- Viewing information in easily readable dashboards and graphs
- Integrating with BigQuery, Deployteq, Selligent, Salesforce Marketing Cloud and web analytics tools like Google Analytics
- Setting specific targets for each metric
- Exporting data in any format that's comfortable for you
Let's look at some real-life examples of how SEINō helped companies optimize their email marketing campaigns:
- Temeer Group: The company faced a bottleneck in creating email campaign reports. Their CRM team had to manually copy data from email service providers and Google Analytics to create reports. However, since working with SEINō, they now have direct access to email marketing data and save a significant amount of time that can be spent on actions that directly improve their CTR.
- Glanbia: The introduction of SEINō provided them with real-time insights for email marketing campaigns, allowing Glanbia to create comprehensive weekly reports in minutes, saving 16 hours per week. They can use this time to improve their click-through rates with segment analysis, personalization and A/B testing.
Segmentation and personalization
At SEINō, we use an engagement model to analyze your subscribers' behavior. This helps us understand how users experience your business and segment them based on their activity.
For example, if a user regularly opens your emails, clicks on your products or calls to action and adds items to their cart but doesn't complete the purchase, we tag them as “Promising”. Similarly, if someone who was previously an active customer stops engaging with your emails, we segment them as “At risk”.
The goal of this is to help you target specific subscribers with the right kind and frequency of messaging, correct negative trends, prevent unsubscribes and urge potential buyers with targeted offers that actually interest them.
Our engagement tab shows the breakdown of these segments and how many users each segment represents. It also provides detailed information like the “Days since the last click,” “Click frequency,” “Days in the database,” and “Days between clicks.” You can also download a CSV of the user IDs in each segment to easily target them for specific email campaigns in your ESP.
A/B testing
Here are some aspects you can experiment with in your email campaigns:
- Subject lines
- Content
- Call-to-action buttons
- Sender name
- Message preview
- Plain text vs media-rich
- Salutation structures
- Delivery time
Image source: Zapier
Launching two different versions of a campaign (or two entirely different campaigns) to the same audience helps you determine which is more effective with your customers. With SEINō, it's easy to compare the collected information in our Data Explorer.
Alternatively, you can send the same email to two different groups of your email clients. Use our email marketing benchmarks with one clear reporting view to see which one has the biggest potential.
Compelling email copy
Simplicity and sticking to one core message allow you to push through the clutter of information scattered in the busy minds of your audience. Email ad copy should be short, direct, easy to understand and written in the language that resonates with your audience.
Image source: HubSpot
Zappos does a couple of things right you can learn from:
- No more than 20 lines of copy
- A relevant picture
- Visible and direct CTA
- Second person pronouns
- Value-oriented copy
- Casual tone with a sense of humor
Look how 1-800-Contacts get their point across perfectly (they let the reader know their contacts can come in time for their weekend plans) with just a short "hello" and two lines of text:
Image source: HubSpot
Social proof like customer testimonials, ratings or user-generated content is also a great way to motivate subscribers to click through to your offer because it makes you look more trustworthy.
Powerful CTAs
We suggest sticking to one great call to action. Having too many choices can lead to analysis paralysis. It distracts users from the desired action. What's more, the increased time and effort it takes to choose can lead to anxiety and excessively high expectations.
Take a look at this example:
Image source: The Daily Egg
Both emails have a clear, visible CTA button. However, the customer might focus more on the ‘Read more’ links from the first version, preventing them from clicking through to the offer. As it turns out, the second version of the email had a 42% higher click-through rate.
Other CTA aspects to experiment with are placement and language. The button should visually stand out. CTA copy has to be short, compelling, actionable and create a sense of urgency.
Here's how Duolingo does it, with the two-word, action-focused CTA in their signature, nothing to distract you and the invaluable, urgent "now":
Image source: Copyhackers
Interactive elements
Sure, pictures are a must – but they're everywhere. If you want to grab your audience's attention with something that stands out, use interactive media like:
- Quizzes
- Polls
- Product carousels
- Animated GIFs
Always make sure they work well on all devices before sending.
Here's an example from Litmus, encouraging readers to take action by swiping:
Image source: HubSpot
Sense of urgency and scarcity
Some ways to add a sense of urgency include:
- Limited time offers
- Countdowns (bonus points if they're animated and include seconds)
- Limited stock
- Exclusive deals
- The promise of delivery before an event (the weekend, Christmas etc.)
Leverage FOMO by creating a sense that if your readers don't act now, they'll never get this chance again.
Image source: HubSpot
Different formats
If you're selling physical products, high-quality pictures are a must, and you can experiment with video content, which is currently on the rise. However, not every target audience persona enjoys media-heavy messaging. Some niches require you to explain something in more detail.
Here are two drastically different examples – and both of them work, but for different purposes:
Image source: HubSpot
Experiment to find out which format works best for your audience.
Mobile device optimization
Most people open emails on their mobile devices first – or only. This means you may be losing clicks if your newsletters are unattractive or inaccessible on mobiles. Some ESPs have ready-to-use mobile-responsive templates to adjust your emails automatically to various screen sizes.
If you're not using responsive templates, always double-check how the content looks on devices other than what you're working on. Another thing to keep in mind is to keep your subject lines short so they don't get cropped on small screens.
Image source: Designmodo
Any links in your email should also direct your audience to mobile-friendly sites. If you want to create a positive experience and encourage conversions, optimize your landing page and shop, too.
Conclusion
Improving your email click-through rate is necessary for driving business success. Your customers are more likely to buy from you if they get visually appealing, compelling, personalized and relevant messaging. Remember to always add a powerful CTA to let your audience know what you expect them to do.
Our product SEINō is a great tool that will help you get the most out of your email campaigns. It provides businesses with real-time analytics showing exactly where you can improve to raise your email CTR.
Sign up for a free demo and trial to start making your emails work for you.
Email click-through rate (CTR): FAQ
What is a good click-through rate for email? Email marketers across the globe have different industry averages. However, a good rule of thumb for judging the effectiveness of your marketing emails is aiming at least for the 2-3% CTR rate. 7-17% is a very good score.
How is CTR calculated? This metric is expressed as a percentage. To calculate email CTR, you need to divide the number of clicks by the number of delivered emails and multiply the result by 100.
What is a bad CTR? A bad CTR measures between 0% and 1%.
Is a 2% CTR good? 2% is an OK CTR and a good place to start.
How do I fix low CTR? To improve your marketing email success, follow our nine tips:
– Implement email analytics
– Add segmentation and personalization
– Use A/B testing
– Work on how compelling your email content is
– Consider different CTA placement and copy
– Include animated GIFs and interactive elements
– Create a sense of urgency and scarcity
– Try out different formats
– Optimize for mobile devices
