Because open rates have become unreliable, you'll want to really pay attention to your clickthrough rates (CTRs) to gauge email performance.

After all, you don't want people to just read your emails—you want them to act in alignment with your objective, whether that's sales, registrations, downloads, website visits, you name it.

The click is a key step in that process. Everything they see once they open your email needs to work toward that end—the click.

First, though, a word of caution: your open rate isn't the only metric that can be inflated. Your CTR might be, too, if spam bots have made it onto your email list. There are even legitimate bots, often deployed by large enterprises, that randomly click links in incoming emails to ensure the destination sites don't pose security hazards for the enterprise.

(Check out "What If Your Email Metrics Are Off: Who's Really Clicking on Your Emails?" to learn what you can do to eliminate malicious bots and get your reporting back on track.)

This article will cover five areas to focus on to help you maximize your email clickthroughs.

Your Headline

Something about your subject line convinced your subscribers to open your email, and now it's your headline's role inside the body of your email to move them closer to clicking your call-to-action button or link.

Make sure that headline connects with your subject line and is big and bold, well positioned on top, as succinct as possible, and all about your offer.

Doing all that improves overall clickthrough performance by around 18%, according to Jay Schwedelson in his "The Real Truth About Email Marketing" MarketingProfs Master Class.

Your Call to Action

If your subscribers open your email, and the offer inside matches the promise made in your subject line, but they don't click through, there's a solid chance your call to action (CTA) is to blame.

Sure, some of your subscribers might not be quite ready to take the action you want them to take, but here, again, it's your CTA's job to invite them to get the information they need so they feel confident and equipped to act.

You can do that in a variety of ways within the email—using buttons, hyperlinked text, and even enticing images that link readers to the product shown when clicked.

But an eye-catching, visually appealing button with clear, concise, motivational, and benefit-oriented text is likely going to get the most action, so make sure there's one prominently placed above the fold.

Avoid using words like "Buy," "Download," "Register," and "Shop" in your buttons and text links. They don't speak to your subscribers' desires or needs, and they don't feel like much fun, do they?

Instead, consider what's in it for them and try something more along the lines of "Unlock My Savings," "Get My Free Report," "Save My Seat," or "Discover Your New Look."

Make it actionable by using powerful verbs, and make it personal by incorporating words like "my," "I," "me," "you" and "your."

Try different wording, design, and placements to determine what works best with your particular audience.

Your Offer

You have to promote something of value to get people to click; and just as with your CTA copy, how you position and name that something of value can determine whether you have success.

Discounts are fairly straightforward, though it helps if you put a good discount in context ("our biggest savings event of the year," "we never do this").

Beyond discounts, there's even more opportunity—and need—to get creative, and to make your offer as desirable as possible. Consider your subscribers' interests, needs, and time constraints, along with how you can package it to gain more interest.

Webinar? Yawn. Master class? Better. Quick 10-minute video? Sold, if I find the topic alluring.

PDF report? Eh. Toolkit? That might be useful. List of the 9 Most [fill in the blank] related to my interests or pain point? Yes, please!

You get the point: Your verbal packaging is as important as the content you provide, and perhaps more so when you want them to click.

Your Email Design

Your email design is another form of packaging that can influence your response rates, and it can appear different on different devices, which complicates things a bit.

Considering that more than half of your subscribers likely uses their phones to check email, mobile optimization is essential. Here are some important considerations:

• Load speed: Keep your email file size under 20kb, compress large images, don't embed video (instead, link a screenshot with a play button overlay to the video hosted on your website), and offer a text-only version for subscribers who select that option.
• Width: Opt for narrow blocks of content stacked in a single column, and use responsive layouts and/or "if/then" code rules to automatically resize emails to match the subscriber's screen size.
• Content placement: Ensure all your critical information, including your first CTA button, shows up above the fold no matter which device is used to access your email.
• White space: Present your copy in short paragraphs, and pad your CTA buttons and links with lots of extra space so that they're easy to click with fingers.
• Alt text: Add descriptive alt text to every image so that your subscribers understand what's featured even if images don't render.

Also make sure the imagery matches the look of the page you're taking them to, especially the hero image. Also, ensure that all legally required elements, such as your company's physical address and unsubscribe link, are visible in every marketing email you send.

Do yourself a favor and use services like Litmus and Email on Acid to see how your email will appear on different devices and platforms before you send it out.

Manually preview and test the email before sending, as well. Send it to yourself, see how it displays on your desktop and mobile devices, and check that all links properly direct subscribers to where you want them to go.

Your Body Copy

You have to be lightning fast to grab your subscribers' interest and motivate them to click that CTA button before they click back out of email and move on to other things.

Some ways to do that, besides creating a fabulous headline:

• Make your email content brief, especially if you're talking to prospective customers who aren't already invested in your brand. Remember, you're focused on getting them to click through to your landing page, which can do more of the actual selling.
• Use short paragraphs or small blocks of text, subheads where appropriate, and bullets when possible.
• Communicate clearly how your offer directly benefits them and what they stand to gain.
• Launch into your juiciest stuff first using the inverted pyramid method: It's no use saving the best for last if they never get that far.
• Write in a voice that's engaging so subscribers don't immediately tune out.
• Employ as much personalization as possible without infringing on their sense of privacy.
• Create urgency by letting them know that the opportunity you're offering them won't last forever.

Ensure you follow through on the promise made in your subject line. Your click-to-open rate can help you gauge how well you do that.

Partner With AI

AI tools can save your team time during the content creation process. Most marketers agree, however, that this technology tends to create content that can feel formulaic, so always edit the copy AI creates to make it more readable and engaging.

Bring in your brand's unique positioning and perspective, and make an emotional connection with your readers. Always double-check any facts or data that these tools introduce, as they can come from unreliable or inaccurate sources—or they might be completely made up.

Alternatively, AI can augment your own written content by acting as your editor, personalizing it for different subscriber segments, or even tailoring your messaging to each individual subscriber based on his or her preferences.

In all cases, these tools' outputs depend on the input you provide, which means offering the right information and carefully designing your prompts.

* * *

Ultimately, the reason you want people to click on your email is so that they do something at the other end of that click—buy, download, sign up, attend—in other words, convert.

We'll cover conversion optimization in a future article.

This article is part of a series on email marketing based on the comprehensive e-book How to Make Email Work Even Harder for You by Acoustic and MarketingProfs. The 70-page e-book is available for download (reg. required, but it's free); it's written by Kimberly Smith, whom you can reach at dtkgsmith@gmail.com.