Newsletter Click Rate: 7 Tips for Optimization

Are your newsletter subscribers opening your emails, but not clicking on the links you set? Then take a closer look at the newsletter click rate. Like all other metrics in email marketing, the click rate tells you how to make your newsletter more profitable. After all, the chance of a conversion increases with every click on a link or Call-to-Action (CtA).

Learn in this blog post how to increase the click rate in your newsletter and use the full potential of newsletter marketing.

What is the click rate in a newsletter?

You send out a newsletter, recipients open it, click on the calls to action, and convert on a landing page. Unfortunately, this scenario rarely happens. To encourage even more recipients to click on your newsletter, it helps to take a look at the click rate.

The newsletter click rate is a metric that provides information about the clicks within your newsletter. These can be text links, Call-to-Action Buttons as well as image links. If the reader clicks on a link you set, the interaction increases and so does the probability of a conversion. Consequently, you are one step closer to your goal – depending on what you want to achieve with your newsletter and the links you set. This is exactly where the strength of the newsletter click rate lies: it indicates how many recipients have been convinced by the newsletter to the point where they are willing to click on a link.

Good to know: The use of the click rate is not limited to email marketing. It is also used in search engine marketing, banner advertising as well as affiliate marketing. In this blog post, however, we will focus on the click rate in newsletters.

Click-through Rate vs. Click-to-Open Rate: Which metric should I use?

In email marketing, a distinction is made between two forms of click rate – the click-through rate and the click-to-open rate. While the click-through rate (CTR) relates the clicks to all delivered emails, the click-to-open rate (CTOR) relates only to the previously opened emails.

This makes a big difference, because if you include all delivered emails in the calculation, the click rate is significantly lower compared to the opened emails. The simple reason: the click probability for unopened emails is logically zero. A simple calculation example:

You send 1000 emails, all of which are delivered successfully. 300 of the recipients open the email and 150 click on a link.

• Click-through Rate = 15% (150 clicks from 1000 delivered emails)
• Click-to-Open Rate = 50% (150 clicks from 300 openings)

What newsletter click rate should you ideally use?

That depends entirely on what you intend to achieve with the click rate. Unlike the click-to-open rate, the click-through rate is influenced by two important metrics: the delivery rate and the opening rate. For this reason, the click-through rate gives a good overview of the overall success of your newsletter. If, on the other hand, you use the click rate to optimize your newsletter, the click-to-open rate is more useful. Since the success after the newsletter opening is considered here, influencing factors such as subject line and sender name can be excluded and the focus placed on content and layout.

Classification of the newsletter click rate

To understand the importance of newsletter click rate, it helps to take a look at other important metrics in email marketing. The metrics mentioned below have been arranged chronologically. Accordingly, the first metric refers to the first point of contact with the recipient (delivery rate), while the last metric accounts for the last point of contact with the recipient (unsubscribe rate).

• Delivery rate & bounce rate provide information about deliverability and incorrect email addresses.
• Opening rate indicates how many recipients open the newsletter
• Click rate refers to the clicks on links and CtA buttons
• Newsletter conversion rate reveals what percentage of recipients take a targeted action
• Unsubscribe rate describes the percentage of recipients who unsubscribe from the newsletter after it has been sent out

How to measure and calculate the newsletter click rate

Click rate measurement is integrated into every common newsletter tool, so you don’t have to worry about it manually – as long as you use professional newsletter tools, which is clearly recommended. Technically, measurement is possible with unique tracking links that are built into the newsletter. Pay attention to whether the tool specifies the CTR or CTOR.

You can also create tracking links manually using Google Analytics. With link tagging, you give the link additional information (parameters) that are different from other links, so that clicks from the newsletter are unique and counted separately. Google Analytics offers extensive functions for this purpose. Necessary parameters for for the evaluation of clicks are:

• utm_source: for example “utm_source=newsletter”.
• utm_medium: for example “utm_medium=email”.
• utm_campaign: for example “utm_campaign=christmas”.

At this point, we would still like to make a clear recommendation for professional newsletter tools (e.g. SendinBlue or CleverReach), as all possible key figures for newsletter marketing can be evaluated compactly (e.g. delivery rate, opening rate and unsubscribe rate). Especially since in most cases a simple integration with Google Analytics and other helpful tools is possible, so you can track what happens after the click on the landing page. Learn more about newsletter tools and how to send newsletters.

When calculating the click rate in newsletters, we must once again refer to the different forms of the click rate. The formulas for calculating the click rate are different.

The formula for the click-through rate:

The formula for the click-to-open rate:

The click-to-open rate (CTOR) is between 10 and 15 percent (source: emarketingplatform) – depending on the industry you are in. The character of your newsletter also has a big influence on the click rate. Is it a more informative newsletter or a sale? Adjust your click-to-open rate expectations depending. The average value of the click-through rate (CTR) will naturally be lower, as can be seen here:

• Retail: CTOR 20%, CTR 8%
• Technology: CTOR 7%, CTR 2%
• Health: CTOR 11%, CTR 5%
• Food: CTOR 21%, CTR 9%

7 tips to optimize the click rate in your newsletter

What are the influencing factors on the click rate and how can the newsletter click rate be increased? We give you 7 tips for optimizing your click rate. Only those influencing factors are taken into account that actually directly affect the click rate. For this reason, the tips are about optimizing the click-to-open rate.

If, however, you are interested in optimizing the opening rate, take a look at the blog post Newsletter Opening Rate: 7 Tips for Optimization.

1. Meet subject line expectations

Optimizing the subject line influences the opening rate. Whether you meet the expectations you create with the subject line is reflected in the newsletter click rate. If you meet the expectations, the click rate increases. If, on the other hand, you make false promises in the subject line or even bring up topics that are not covered in the newsletter, you will be punished with a lower click rate.

The content and subject line of the newsletter must thus be matched to each other. This requires a clear strategy in newsletter marketing: What are the topics of your newsletter? What do you want to achieve with your newsletter? Do you want to strengthen customer loyalty or achieve sales? Based on this, you should first create the content, including layout, text, CtAs, etc. Last but not least, you should formulate the subject line. This way, you can be sure that it really fits the content.

• Formulate subject line after content creation
• Work out a clear newsletter marketing strategy

2. Create an attractive layout

It happens to all of us: we open an email and know right away that we won’t read it because of the poor layout. What’s annoying is that up until this moment, everything has been done right. Newsletter subscribers were successfully generated and openings were achieved with the help of the subject line and the sender’s name. If now the layout is not right, it means a great lost potential.

Before the actual text, the reader perceives the layout. So do not neglect it. Whether colors, font or images: The layout must be consistent, encourage reading and ideally match the corporate design. The good news is that once a layout has been set up, it requires only minimal changes for each newsletter sent out. This makes it all the more important to spend enough time on the layout once. Remember: less is often more.

• Open space: Enough open space encourages reading. Give your readers the opportunity to relax their eyes and use open space to create a targeted focus.
• Text blocks: Be sure to keep it short and avoid large blocks of text. Paragraphs and subheadings break up the text.
• Font: You can adapt the font of your corporate design, as you have certainly paid attention to an easy-to-read font on your website. The optimal font size ranges between 14 and 16 pixels.
• Images: Images are appealing and convincing – but only if they are placed selectively. They should always just support the text. Also keep in mind that many clients do not display images automatically. In these cases, only a placeholder appears, but not the image.
• Colors: You can take these from your corporate design as well. However, be careful with the background color, because dark background colors make other color look less intense.

3. Increase relevance of content

Quite often, all newsletter subscribers are grouped into a single recipient list, so they all receive the same content. If you have a manageable list of recipients with a narrowly defined target audience, this is not a problem. However, the more recipients you have and the broader your target audience, the higher the probability that the content is simply not relevant and does not add value to the recipient. Irrelevant content negatively affects both the opening and the click rate in the newsletter.

To give an extreme example: An older person will hardly be interested in your content on TikTok. Accordingly, he or she is unlikely to click on the CtA button or any other link.

To customize content for recipients, you need to know your recipients well and use segmentation to carve out groups of recipients. You can only do that with data: How old is the recipient? What are their interests? For what reason was the newsletter subscribed? Basically, you have the following options for data collection, which of course must be designed in compliance with GDPR:

• Newsletter surveys
• Data query with newsletter generation
• Data query with sweepstakes
• Further insights from newsletter generation

With the free newsletter popups from uptain you can easily win newsletter subscribers and offer several possibilities to better understand the subscribers and thus perform segmentations. On the one hand, any data can be queried, which, however, must not be mandatory fields for legal reasons. On the other hand, depending on the incentive played out (e.g. voucher or FOMO), you know the reason for which your newsletter was subscribed to. In this way, you can easily perform segmentation based on the incentives that led to the newsletter subscription.

4. Use CtAs in a targeted way

When readers click within your newsletter, it’s usually on the call-to-action buttons or simple text links you set. This makes them one of the biggest influences on click rates in your newsletter. Reason enough to take a closer look at call-to-actions. These must be clearly defined. This means that the reader must immediately know what to do and what is coming up.

• Emphasis: the reader must clearly recognize that it is a CtA. Both text and design can be used to reinforce this effect. Phrases such as “More information,” “Read more,” and “To the product” let the reader know immediately what to do and what to expect. In addition, the CtA should be highlighted in color so that the reader can see where the CtA is located even when skimming through the text. CtAs can also be highlighted by making them appear “clickable”.
• Number: To target CtAs, the number of CtAs should be adjusted. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make a blanket statement about the number of CtAs. This depends on the length of the newsletter and, above all, on the content. Be careful to use CtAs only if they fit your newsletter strategy. For example, if you want to promote and sell one product category in particular, not too many CTAs should refer to other products.
• Placement: The targeted use of CtAs also includes their placement. The central call-to-action can be used in the header graphic. In any case, this should also refer to the subject line in order to meet the reader’s expectations. Ideally, you should use further CtAs at the end of each article.
• Mobile readers: Since more and more newsletters are read on mobile devices, CtAs should also be optimized for smaller displays. This means making the CtAs large and including enough free space around them. With professional newsletter tools, you can see how the elements are displayed on different display sizes, so you won’t have any nasty surprises after sending.

5. Use personalized salutation

SmarterHQ found in a study that personalization of communication is a basic requirement for 72% of consumers to interact with a company in the first place. “Good day, Mrs. Meyer” or “Hey, Jana” creates a completely different mood than “Dear Sir or Madam” or “Dear Customer”.

The personal salutation is the simplest form of personalization in the newsletter and can be implemented easily and automatically with most newsletter tools. You only need a few pieces of information about the recipients, which vary depending on the form of address (e.g. first name and/or last name). In order to implement the personal salutation in newsletter marketing, placeholders are integrated that fall back on the contact data. When the newsletter is sent, the placeholders are automatically filled with the corresponding data.

6. Adapt writing style

Once you have gained the attention of your recipients and generated initial interest, the writing style must also fit. Some general rules:

• Use an active writing style and thus create positive feelings for your readers
• Avoid long, convoluted sentences
• Transitional words make the text lively (e.g., finally, however, by the way)
• Consistently sort out unnecessary filler words

7. Analyze click behavior

If you implement the tips mentioned above, you will notice the click rate increasing after a short time. To gain even more insights into the click behavior of your readers, we recommend continuous analysis. After all, click behavior is subject to constant change. Developments in technology and competition change user expectations. The insights gained can then be used to identify specific optimization measures.

What analysis options do you have for your newsletter marketing?

• A/B tests: Most newsletter tools offer A/B tests and even multivariate tests. In addition to the sending time and the sender name for optimizing the opening rate, the entire newsletter content including texts, images, salutation, CTAs and layout can be used for optimizing the click rate. Here, several variants of an element are tested and the variant with the most clicks is defined as the new standard.
• Heatmaps: Some tools also provide heatmaps that allow you to see exactly which elements have been clicked on and how often. While you test multiple variants of an element with A/B tests, heatmaps visualize the click behavior of your readers and give you a better understanding from the reader’s perspective.

Optimize the newsletter click rate and generate more conversions!

Use the potential of your newsletter by increasing the click rate. After all, there is high interest at this point because the reader has already opened the email. At this advanced stage of the customer journey, every lost click means a potential missed sale.