Table of Contents
1. What is email click through rate (CTR)?
2. What is the average CTR for an email?
3. What is a good CTR for an email?
4. How to calculate CTR for an email?
5. How to improve email CTR?
6. Summary
Email click through rate (CTR) can indicate whether your messages are resonating with your audience. Your email marketing efforts may fall flat if your subscribers aren’t clicking on the email links or taking the actions that can drive sales.
It’s therefore important to improve your email CTR to make sure you’re not missing out on potential leads, sales, and overall business growth.
That’s why you need to know the best practices for having a good CTR and how to increase it for the results you expect from email marketing.
In this post, we’ll explain what CTR is in email marketing, how it’s measured, and some proven strategies for continuously making it better. We’ll explain how to drive more clicks and conversions, and, ultimately, ensure business success.
What is email click through rate (CTR)?
Email click through rate (CTR) measures the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. It represents the percentage of recipients who clicked on one or more links within your email.
A high CTR indicates your email content is engaging, your offer is compelling, and your call to action is clear.
What is the average CTR for an email?
As of June 2024, the average email click through rate of an email marketing campaign is 1.4%, according to Forbes. However, certain industries achieve much higher CTR rates.
Here’s a look at a few average email CTR per industry based on the data by Forbes:
| Industry | Click through rates |
| Technology services | 2.60% |
| Legal services | 1.60% |
| Administrative and business support services (billing, phone answering, hiring, etc.) | 1.80% |
| Education | 1.70% |
What is a good CTR for an email?
The average CTR for an email is dependent on the industry. So there’s no magic number for a good email CTR.
However, based on the averages above, you could consider a good email CTR to be between one to five percent. However, it’s important to compare your results to those of past campaigns and your own industry.
Email CTR is also affected by several elements of an email, including the subject line, email content, call to action, bounce rate, and email client.
It can also vary depending on the following factors:
- Your company size
- Your industry
- Your country
- The kind of emails you send
- How clean your email list is
Related to your email CTR is CTOR.
Click through open rate (CTOR) is similar to email CTR, but it only counts clicks from people who opened your email rather than every recipient. Because of that, your CTOR will naturally be higher than your CTR. Experts recommend aiming for a CTOR of 10 – 15% for promotional emails.
If your email content fails to entice customers, they’ll be unlikely to click on any links, even if many people open your emails.
The key to successful email marketing is getting people to click on your call to action (CTA), the part that tells them what to do next.
How to calculate CTR for an email?
The email CTR formula clearly measures the effectiveness of your email content and CTA.
The good news is that you can easily determine the click through rate of your email campaigns using an online email CTR calculator.
The email CTR formula is as follows:
CTR = Total number of recipients that clicked on a link / Total number of recipients x 100
Let’s say you created an email campaign for 200 subscribers and 180 emails were delivered to inboxes.
50 people click on the link or button included in the email.
Here’s how you would calculate your email CTR for this campaign:
- Identify clicks and delivered emails: We know from the example that 50 people clicked on the CTA (clicks), and 180 emails were delivered successfully (delivered emails)
- Divide clicks by delivered emails: We want to find the percentage of delivered emails that resulted in a click. So, clicks (50) divided by delivered emails (180) equals approximately 0.278
- Convert to percentage: Since percentages are typically expressed as a whole number between 0 and 100, we need to multiply the decimal by 100. In this case, 0.278 multiplied by 100 is approximately 27.8%
Therefore, the email CTR for this campaign is 27.8%.
How to improve email CTR?
Improving your email CTR should be a top priority for any email marketing strategy. A higher CTR indicates that your emails resonate with subscribers and drive them to take action.
We’ll cover some of the most effective ways to improve your email CTR in the section below:
1. Ask questions
Questions can be an interesting way to break the ice and make your email stand out. They nudge subscribers to think and reply, making the email feel more like a conversation than a one-way message.
When subscribers answer, even if it’s just in their heads, they’re more likely to feel invested in your message. The answers can help you identify areas where your content can be improved to then boost email CTR. It can also help you segment your email list based on their preferences and send more targeted emails relevant to each subscriber.
This email by Mixergy asks subscribers to identify their biggest challenge, which is relevant to helping people overcome obstacles and be successful.
By asking questions, Mixergy invites subscribers to think about their own experiences and potentially click on the options provided. This makes the email more interactive than a typical message:
2. Include product recommendations
People appreciate convenience. Product recommendations eliminate the need for subscribers to search through your entire website to find something they might like.
By presenting curated suggestions, you’re saving them time and effort. This entices them to click and explore the recommended products.
Additionally, well-chosen recommendations can introduce subscribers to new products they weren’t aware of or reignite interest in something they considered previously.
In the image below, Good Eggs uses a “New in the Market” section to recommend new arrivals. It also includes eye-catching visuals and clear “Shop Now” buttons.
Using this strategy, Good Eggs simplifies the buying process, potentially increasing email CTR and boosting the sale of new products:
3. Insert social proof
Most people are naturally cautious about online interactions and purchases. Social proof helps mitigate that risk by showing the positive experiences others have had.
Seeing customer success stories or positive ratings can assure subscribers that your offerings are trustworthy and worth their time.
This email by Bite uses social proof effectively. Testimonials from trusted brands encourage subscribers to click through and enjoy similar experiences:
4. Ask for product reviews
Customers appreciate it when a company they’ve already purchased from asks for their feedback. It makes them feel heard and valued. If they’ve had a positive experience with your product or service, they’d be more than happy to leave a review.
Furthermore, sharing their thoughts on the product helps validate its value for potential customers. Seeing genuine, positive customer reviews from real users can go a long way in reducing any skepticism.
Simply send a follow-up email after a purchase, thanking the customer and politely requesting a review. This is an excellent example from Papier:
5. Add high quality images
While it’s best to avoid cluttering your email with tons of pictures, having a few can be helpful. Pictures can grab attention and make people interested in your message.
However, they should complement the topic of your email and help you get your point across.
Take this message from Lamborghini, for example. It includes sleek and stylish images to reinforce a brand image of luxury, performance, and exclusivity:
Summary
Understanding your email CTR is essential for gauging the success of your email marketing campaigns.
There are several strategies you can implement to improve your CTR, including incorporating questions, product recommendations, social proof, and high-quality visuals.
By constantly testing and refining your email content, you can increase engagement and clicks, ultimately driving more sales and website traffic.
While the average email CTR across industries is 1.4%, with Omnisend, you can achieve higher rates — our US merchants see an ROI of $73.20, double the average of $36 for email marketing.
Source from Omnisend
Disclaimer: The information set forth above is provided by omnisend.com independently of Alibaba.com. Alibaba.com makes no representation and warranties as to the quality and reliability of the seller and products. Alibaba.com expressly disclaims any liability for breaches pertaining to the copyright of content.
