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Do you feel like your cold email click-through rate (CTR) is too low to even mention? Well, the solution isn’t simply to reach more leads but rather to change your approach so more of your current leads will click and convert into potential business. To do this, you’ll need to carefully track and improve your emails.
Read our guide to learn the ins and outs of CTRs and how you can monitor and improve them to grow your customer base.
What Does Cold Email Click-through Rate Mean?
The click-through rate is a key cold email metric for measuring the effectiveness of a company’s cold email outreach. It measures the percentage of recipients who click on at least one link inside your email.Here’s how to find a click-through rate:
Check the link(s) inside your email to see how many views or clicks it has.
Divide this number of clicks by the number of emails you’ve sent out.
Multiply the quotient by 100, and this will be your click-through rate.
Mathematically, the click-through rate can be calculated as follows:
| Click-through Rate = (Number of clicks ÷ Total number of emails delivered) x 100 |
|---|
Alternatively, you may use an email tool like QuickMail to automate the process.
The CTR can be a powerful indicator of email deliverability. It’s a metric that can say a lot about whether or not your email campaign is working.
A high CTR means your recipients are interested, which can lead to an increase in sales, conversions, and loyalty. A low CTR indicates your email has missed the mark in some way because it’s either unhelpful or irrelevant to your audience.Many factors can make a difference in the CTR of an email campaign, including:
The subject line
The quality of the content
The email’s layout
The email send time
Email deliverability
Marketers need to focus on each aspect for the highest chance of getting the most clicks from an email possible. Subject lines have to be engaging and inviting, the layout of your emails must be scannable and clear, and the content has to be spot-on to your audience.
Why Monitor Cold Email Click-Through Rates?
Monitoring cold email CTR is important for businesses to understand whether or not emails are sending the right message and are actually converting people.
There are no real downsides to monitoring CTR for your campaigns, as you can make adjustments to improve your emails if you realize not many customers are clicking through. Here are a few reasons you need to start monitoring cold email CTR if you need some extra convincing:
1. Understand What Type of Emails Work Better Than Others
By analyzing the CTR of different cold email campaigns, you can determine which emails are more effective in capturing the intrigue of your target market.
High CTRs typically suggest that:
Your cold email subject line is intriguing
Your email content is clear, concise, and relevant to recipients' issues
Your call-to-action (CTA) was easy to spot and encouraged the recipient to act
These three elements are effective in piquing the recipients’ interest and convincing them to act through the email’s links.
2. Segmentation & Personalization
If the business you’re in creates products and services for different demographics, creating a campaign that caters to a broad audience isn’t advisable. You’re better off using segmentation to create multiple versions of emails to cater to different demographics.
Here’s a rundown of B2B demographics that you can target. You should be able to find all this information based on someone’s LinkedIn profile:
| Demographics | Sub-demographics |
|---|---|
| Location | - The United States; California; New York City, NY, USA |
| Job title | - Marketing Manager; Marketing Director; VP of Marketing; CMO |
| Time in Position/Company | - One year; Three years; Eight years |
| Industry | - Manufacturing; IT Services; Accounting |
| School Attended | - Stanford; Cambridge; Harvard |
You can also segment leads further by emailing leads who open but don’t click through, click through but don’t convert, who respond positively, and much more. The opportunities are endless.
Personalization also involves using other characteristics like their pain points and other relevant attributes.
QuickMail can help you identify which parts of emails, such as CTAs and subject lines, effectively engage specific portions of your audience. When you fine-tune these elements for each campaign, you’ll ensure that all demographics within your reach can read content that best speaks to them.
3. Measuring ROI
Return on investment (ROI) refers to how much money you make as a result of an investment. In this case, your investment is your cold email marketing budget. A higher CTR will typically mean more conversions, which will mean a higher ROI. Here’s how this process works:
Your website traffic improves: As more leads click through your email links, they go to whichever URL the link is associated with — such as a landing page, signup page, or product page. This increase in web traffic can lead to more opportunities for potential customers to purchase your products or services.
Your conversion rates increase: With more people being led to take action and move forward with a product or service on your website, your conversions will see an increase in numbers, given that your conversion rate stays roughly the same.
You make more revenue: More conversions means you’re making more revenue, meaning you’ll get a bigger ROI than you thought possible. Even after breaking even, you can see this ROI grow with more email recipients who make purchases from your emails.
ROI can be calculated by dividing your earnings from your campaign by the campaign budget and then multiplying that by 100.
For example, if your campaign costs $500 and you make $2000 from sales, you have an ROI of 400%. Here’s the math on that: (2,000 ÷ 500) x 100 = 400%.
How QuickMail Can Help Track Click-Through Rates in Your Cold Emails
QuickMail is a powerful software designed to help professionals and businesses create and monitor cold email campaigns.
One of the main features of QuickMail is click tracking, giving you clear insights into which parts of your cold emails are clicked the most in both a visual heatmap and numerical format. If certain areas aren’t being clicked as much as you’d like (i.e. the CTA), you can course-correct for the best results.
You can seamlessly integrate QuickMail with your current email service provider to send cold emails. QuickMail is compatible with the most popular providers, including Gmail, Outlook, and any other inbox with SMTP.
Here’s how QuickMail can help track and improve your email CTR:
Click Tracking: See which links inside your email get clicked with click tracking. This will help with understanding the effectiveness of your CTAs.
Real-time reports: Access your QuickMail analytics dashboard to analyze real-time reports of your email campaign and CTR.
Personalize attributes inside the email: Fully personalize your email by adding attributes like name, title, and company, and go the extra step by even touching on things like pain points to increase personalization.
A/B testing: You can experiment with different emails by changing up copy, links, and more, and see which emails provide you with the best performance in terms of click-through rates and also all the other metrics like open rates, replies, and bounces.
How to Enable & See Click Tracking in QuickMail
You can toggle click tracking on and off for each email you send on QuickMail within the Campaign.
Some users prefer to turn on click tracking later in the email sequence to improve deliverability. Others choose to enable it throughout the entire campaign - it’s really up to you.
Other Tools to Help Measure & Improve Click-Through Rates
Here are additional cold email tools you can use along with QuickMail to optimize each cold email launch:
| Service | Our Pick |
|---|---|
| Data Analytics | Google Analytics and QuickMail can be a powerful combination for you. With the combined statistics, you’ll be able to make more informed marketing decisions. |
| Analytics for Gmail | Streak helps provide basic statistics in a convenient way on Gmail. |
| Email Deliverability | You can’t convert people who don’t read your email in the first place. This is where Mailflow can shine. This tool helps to warm up your inbox to help with deliverability. |
| Grammar Checker | Grammarly allows you to spot and fix spelling and grammatical errors in your emails and can also make suggestions to change your tone and voice. |
| Readability Checker | Hemingway spots words and complex sentences and shows you how to trim down sentences so paragraphs are easier to read for recipients. |
Strategies to Increase Click-Through Rate
It’s not enough to simply use the help of an email marketing software like QuickMail. There’s an art to crafting emails to entice customers to visit, sign up, and buy from your website.
Here are some strategies to create thought-provoking copy for higher CTRs:
1. Personalize Your CTA
Calls to action (CTAs) in emails are often tied into or around contextual links or buttons to give readers an easy-to-see click-through link. You can easily use contextual data to address each reader by name to tell them how to act.
Here are some examples of personalized CTAs you can use:
“Louise, we got a complimentary audit waiting for you. Check here!”
“This Christmas offer won’t last, Gene. Start now with this exclusive offer. Claim your 7-day no-cost trial today.”
“We saw you downloaded our PDF on HVAC prices! Get in touch with us so that professionals can look at your HVAC system and get a completely free cost estimate.”
Cold email personalization isn’t new in email marketing. It’s a tried-and-true tactic that’s helped businesses grow their consumer base for decades and is no longer a should-do but a must-do.
2. Keep It Short
Don’t take too much of your recipients’ time. Keep your email copy short and inviting enough for your leads to want to learn more about your company, products, and services.
Having excess text can derail your potential customers from clicking through, so it’s always advisable to read through your email several times to remove any fluff.
3. A/B Test Different Email Copy
A/B testing means testing your email by sending two different versions of the email to two different groups of email recipients.
If you’re not sure about which design, layout, presentation, subject line, or any other aspect to go with moving forward, you can send two different emails, each with different variations to find out which version generates a better CTR overall.
4. Experiment With Timing
Timing is important because many emails can appear in a person’s inbox throughout the day. You need to know your target audience to determine the best send time that prompts them to read your cold email.
This could be when they wake up in the morning, when they get home from work, or any other time they could be reading emails. You can also send emails out during certain days of the week to see which performs best.
5. Include a P.S. Section
A P.S. section is typically used for thoughts unrelated to the rest of the email. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Instead, you can use P.S. sections as bonus points to help you convey even more value to your recipients.
Here are some P.S. statements that can encourage further interest in your products and services:
"P.S. I'd be happy to provide a personalized demo of our product to show you how it can benefit your business."
“P.S. We have worked in the HVAC business for over two decades now and have seen and solved virtually every problem you can think of.”
“P.S. We have a recent case study where we increased their organic traffic by 193% in 3 months. Find out how here.”
“P.S. Have you heard what our customers have said of our services? You can find our latest 5-star reviews here.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good cold email click-through rate?
What is considered a “good” click-through rate depends on many factors, such as your expertise, audience, and the content of your email. The average click-through rate is 3.67%, so generally speaking, any click-through rate above that would be above average and considered “good.”
What is a bad cold email click-through rate?
In certain scenarios, 3 to 5% CTR (the average range according to DemandCurve) can be considered “good” or “bad.” Of course, the worst CTR would be zero, meaning your links have never been clicked.
What affects email click-through rate?
Click-through rates can be determined by many factors. These include the subject line, body, CTA, email layout, design, recipients, and the time the email is sent. If you focus on perfecting each of these points, you could increase the CTR and achieve better engagement with your target market.
What is the difference between the open rate and click-through rate?
The open rate indicates the amount of people that click on the email to open and read it. On the other hand, Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of recipients that have clicked on the link out of the total number of recipients that received the email.
Ready to Skyrocket Cold Email Click-Through Rates?
If you want software that can help you seamlessly track and improve your cold email click-through rates, then QuickMail is the right choice for you.
Sending cold emails with QuickMail is cost-efficient, personalized, and scalable, giving you the best odds of generating leads with each email campaign you send.
Are you keen to find out how you can use QuickMail to monitor and improve click-through rates? Begin your free QuickMail trial today.
