{"id":5581,"date":"2013-07-12T14:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-07-12T21:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/?p=5581"},"modified":"2013-09-06T14:41:27","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T21:41:27","slug":"driving-more-clicks-from-email-newsletters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/driving-more-clicks-from-email-newsletters\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving More Clicks from Email Newsletters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Guest post by Dean Levitt, Chief of Culture at <a title=\"Mad Mimi Email Marketing\" href=\"https:\/\/www.madmimi.com\">Mad Mimi Email Marketing<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5585 alignleft\" alt=\"eNewsletter\" src=\"https:\/\/blogcontent.yola.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Fotolia_37662287_XS.jpg\" width=\"384\" height=\"200\" \/>No matter what your website goal is, in order to reach those goals you need traffic. Whether you built your site to <a title=\"sell products\" href=\"http:\/\/yola.com\/online-store?cid=501050\">sell products<\/a>, keep your local PTA members informed, or offer a service, a website needs visitors in order to achieve the goal you had in mind when building it.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most effective ways to generate traffic to your website is with <a title=\"launch your first email campaign\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/marketing-campaigns-101-7-steps-to-launching-your-first-email-marketing-campaign\/\">a great email newsletter<\/a>. If you\u2019ve never sent an email newsletter before, it\u2019s easy to get started. If you need help, check out our <a title=\"email marketing guide for beginners\" href=\"http:\/\/help.madmimi.com\/simple-guide-to-email-marketing\/\">email marketing guide for beginners<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you are someone who already understands the value of an email newsletter, it\u2019s worth reviewing your habits. Here are four tips to help you maximize clicks and <a title=\"drive traffic to your website\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/how-to-drive-profitable-traffic-to-your-website-with-long-tail-seo\/\">drive more traffic to your website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ideal Link Placement<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Just like on a web page, link placement plays a big role in the number of clicks that link will receive. In an email, the first link in the newsletter content typically gets the highest number of clicks.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, think about what your newsletter is about and what you\u2019d like to achieve with it. Do you want your readers to visit your homepage and just explore? Or do you want to highlight an item of interest?<\/p>\n<p>Whatever it is that you\u2019d most like your readers to read, place it up top.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Fotolia_37760477_XS.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5586\" alt=\"hyperlink\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Fotolia_37760477_XS.jpg\" width=\"333\" height=\"222\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Effective Anchor Text<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. It&#8217;s the text your reader will actually see and can encourage action. If the goal of your email newsletter is to drive traffic to your website, then more clicks = success. So it&#8217;s important to be thoughtful about the anchor text you use. It can make all the difference to the success of your email newsletter.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of including your full, typed-out URL or something else that may be subtle (like linking a descriptive word in a sentence), <strong>give your links a <a title=\"call to action\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/how-to-create-effective-ctas\/\">call to<\/a><a title=\"call to action\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/how-to-create-effective-ctas\/\"> action<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>That boils down to defining an action. Let\u2019s explore two versions that might lead to the same landing page.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Example 1:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>The <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">new schedule<\/span> is up on the website.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Example 2:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em> The new schedule is up on the website. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Click here to view.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The first example is passive and doesn\u2019t really compel any action from your readers. It lacks a call to action. However, example 2 is more clear and direct. It encourages action and is likely to bring more clicks.<\/p>\n<p>Click here, read more, download now! Whatever it is, make sure it solicites action!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Images Make for Compelling Links<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That pretty much sums it up. Images make for compelling links. When surfing the web, we\u2019re pretty much well-tuned to clicking on images.<\/p>\n<p>One simple recommendation is to make all the images in your email newsletter clickable. Images draw attention, so this is an easy way to cover all your bases and ensure you don&#8217;t miss a single visitor.<\/p>\n<p>Another recommendation is to actually do some design. A well-designed button (&#8220;Sign up&#8221; &#8220;Register&#8221;) can be a powerful motivator and get readers clicking. It\u2019s highly noticeable and thus, more compelling.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5592\" alt=\"button\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/button.gif\" width=\"265\" height=\"58\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Have a Landing Page Strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A landing page is the specific page where a site visitor \u201clands\u201d after clicking on a link. It doesn\u2019t have to be something ornate, (it could even be your homepage) but it does need to fulfill the reason your reader clicked on the link in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if your goal is to get folks to register to attend an event, making sure your link leads directly to the registration page will increase the likelihood of the visitor signing up.<\/p>\n<p>If, however, you simply send them to your homepage. In essence, you are hoping they\u2019ll explore your site and eventually drift over to the registration page. You\u2019ll likely see a lot less registrations.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the reason the reader clicked on a link, the destination should fulfill the promise you made when you said \u201cclick here!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All in all, having a clear goal in mind when sending an email newsletter is a good idea. Once you\u2019ve got that goal clear, make sure you are using these and other tactics to optimize links and achieve the best possible conversion rate for your goal.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>About Dean Levit:<br \/>\n<\/strong>Dean Levitt is Chief of Culture at <a title=\"Mad Mimi Email Marketing\" href=\"https:\/\/www.madmimi.com\">Mad Mimi Email Marketing<\/a>. Based in Honolulu, Dean spends altogether too much time thinking about email, people, music and customer support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest post by Dean Levitt, Chief of Culture at Mad Mimi Email Marketing. No matter what your website goal is, in order to reach those goals you need traffic. Whether you built your site to sell products, keep your local PTA members informed, or offer a service, a website needs visitors in order to achieve&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/driving-more-clicks-from-email-newsletters\/\" class=\"\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Driving More Clicks from Email Newsletters<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":467,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false},"categories":[119],"tags":[347,305,168,348,349,1113],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5581"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/467"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5581"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6087,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5581\/revisions\/6087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}