Improve your average email click-through rates

Click rate—or CR for short—is one of the key metrics for evaluating email performance, alongside revenue.
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This is because it’s a 3-in-1 metric. Deliverability, opens, and clicks all impact the click rate, making it an efficient metric to measure your overall email marketing performance.
Think about everything that needs to go right before someone can click on a link in your email:
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• The email lands in their inbox—that’s email deliverability.
• The subject line must be interesting and relevant to the subscriber—that’s your open rate.
• And finally, the email content itself must be compelling enough to drive the recipient to take action—that’s your click rate.
  
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Optimizing this metric will quickly help increase your revenue from email marketing—as well as from SMS marketing, since that channel doesn't have open rates.

In this article, you’ll learn exactly how to improve these metrics, starting with benchmarking across e-commerce industries. Keep reading to discover:

• What is a click rate?
• How do you calculate your CR?
• What’s the difference between click rate and click-to-open rate?
• What’s an average CR?
• What’s a good click rate?
• What does a low CR mean?
• How do you increase your email click rates?
  
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What is a click rate?
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A click rate is the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link in your email, out of all the people who received your email. When a recipient clicks on the link in the email, your marketing tool will track this action.
You can use the click rate to measure how effective your email was. Did the recipient want more information or take action on your website? If they clicked, the answer is yes.
Because the click rate is a percentage rather than a total number, it’s a smart way to measure performance without factors like total list size or open rates skewing your data.

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How do you calculate the click rate?
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To calculate the click rate, use this formula:

The key metric you’ll notice is total unique clicks. You’ve probably also heard of total cumulative clicks, which counts when a user clicks multiple times in an email. For example, if a user clicks the link five times, it will show as one unique click but five cumulative clicks.
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Since click rate measures the number of users who clicked, it doesn’t count how many times they clicked. That’s why the formula uses total unique clicks.
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So, if you send an email to 1,000 people, 500 of them open it, and 100 people click the link in the email, your CR will be 10%. That’s 100 unique clicks / 1,000 sent emails.
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What’s the difference between click rate and click-to-open rate?
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It’s easy to confuse the different metrics, even when they don’t sound identical, so it’s no surprise this is a common question.
However, click-to-open rate (CTOR) is a very different metric. CTOR measures the percentage of clicks based on who opened the email.

Use this formula to calculate click-to-open rate:

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Let’s go back to the same example I shared earlier. Suppose you sent your email to 1,000 people, 500 unique people opened it, and 100 unique people clicked on a link in that email. Your CTOR would be 20%, calculated as 100 unique clicks / 500 opened emails.
The CTOR will always be higher than the CR unless the number of unique opens is equal to the number of emails you sent.
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That said, due to Apple’s privacy updates and the fact that open rate metrics are no longer as reliable, CTOR is not as dependable as it used to be.
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What is the average click rate for e-commerce email?
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The average click rate for e-commerce email is 3.62% for brands on Klaviyo. However, different types of emails have different click rates.

• Automated emails and workflows, what Klaviyo calls flows, had an average click rate of 5.82% in Q1 2022.
• Campaigns, or one-off emails, had an average click rate of 1.42% in Q1 2022.
• SMS campaigns had an average click rate of 8.33% in Q1 2022.

But to benchmark more accurately how your email campaigns or workflows are performing, here’s an overview of the average e-commerce click rates by email per industry:

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Keep in mind that this breakdown reflects the click rates for email campaigns, SMS campaigns, and for email automations and workflows in the first quarter of 2022.
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What is a good click rate for e-commerce?
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So, if those are the average CRs, what constitutes a good click rate for an e-commerce brand? Is it just slightly above the industry average?
Kind of. I can’t give you an exact number without knowing your specific e-commerce business. If you consistently perform well above the average, aiming for CRs just above the average won’t result in significant growth for your business.
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Instead, use these methods to understand what a good click rate looks like for your business:

• Discover the benchmarks for your e-commerce industry: Use the list above (or similar benchmarks) to familiarize yourself with the average CRs across different industries. Use the most up-to-date benchmarks to compare your performance against similar brands.
• Align your expectations based on your brand’s average performance: If your average CRs fall in the bottom five percent, don’t expect to jump to the top five percent immediately. And if you’re just above average, don’t settle for average! Always strive to improve your own average CRs.
• Observe how different segments and email types perform: The CRs for emails sent to your 30-day engaged audience will differ from CRs sent to a list of unengaged subscribers. Automated email flows are not comparable to regular campaigns. By comparing your brand’s average CRs to industry standards, you can determine what success looks like for your campaigns.
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What does a low click rate mean?
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Since CR is such a comprehensive metric, a low click rate can have multiple causes. These are the three main reasons for a low click rate:

1. The emails aren’t landing in the inbox: If your deliverability rate is low, it will impact both your open rate and your click rate.
2. The subject line isn’t appealing to recipients: You’ll know this is the issue if both the open rate and click rate are low, but deliverability is high. This doesn’t just mean the subject line needs work, it might also mean you’re targeting the wrong audience. A subject line about coffee might yield a low open rate with tea lovers, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t test with a coffee-drinking audience.
3. The email content isn’t inspiring action: Finally, if your deliverability and open rates were high, but your click rate was low, it’s likely that the content of your email didn’t resonate with your recipients.
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How to increase your email click rates
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Increasing your click rates is an art in itself. What’s most effective for your business depends on the current state of your emails. For example, if deliverability is already guaranteed, there’s no point in trying to improve inbox placement from 99.99% to 99.999%.

Below are 8 tactics you can use to increase the CR for your e-commerce brand.

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1. Practice healthy habits for emails—and SMS too!
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High email deliverability depends on maintaining healthy lists. By regularly cleaning your list—removing inactive subscribers before they mark your emails as spam—you can ensure your emails land in your recipients' inboxes.

If you suspect deliverability is the cause of your low click rate, check out these 6 tips to improve your email deliverability.
In addition to deliverability, a great habit for increasing clicks is to segment your list based on engagement and interests.

"Please, please don’t blast your list," says Katherine Burlock, CLV strategist at &BAM. "Even if it doesn’t impact deliverability—which it likely will—you risk harming your reputation by spamming your email list over and over. Segment customers versus non-customers, and by brand or collection where users have shown interest. There are a million ways to segment and personalize so you don’t overwhelm the inbox."
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You can use customer behavior to segment many types of campaigns. For example, exclude customers who just purchased the product from large email campaigns, as receiving an offer for something they just bought can cause frustration and potential issues with price matching.

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2. Start with the subject line
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A subject line convinces the recipient to open the email. A great subject line convinces them to open the email and click through to the website.
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One of the biggest mistakes people make when writing subject lines is using flashy but irrelevant text to entice someone to open the message.
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"Keep your subject lines short," says Ashley Ismailovski, CRO operations manager at SmartSites. "I know you’ve just crafted the most amazing email and you can’t wait to share it with your subscribers, but if the subject line isn’t compelling, they just won’t open the message. Most people read emails on their phones these days. This means long subject lines can get cut off before the reader reaches the important information!"
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If the subject line isn’t compelling, your subscribers just won’t open the message.
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—Ashley Ismailovski, CRO operations manager at SmartSites

Be clear in your subject line to help recipients understand what they’re opening. If you’re unsure about the effectiveness of a subject line, run an A/B test. Choose the winning version not just based on the open rate, but also the click rate.

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3. Run a content test
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Remember the click-to-open rate (CTOR)? It measures who clicked on a link—based on who opened the email. It’s not the same as a click rate, but it can be helpful to understand whether a content test is the best way to increase clicks.

CTOR evaluates the reactions of people who actually saw the email, making it a good metric to assess your email content.
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If your CTOR is low, it’s a sign your email content needs attention, and improving it will likely boost your click rate. Run a content test to make adjustments that truly increase clicks.
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If you want to make incremental changes, start by changing one element of your email. This helps isolate a single variable and lets you learn something specific, like whether a green or white button is more effective. Another great single-variable test is comparing lifestyle images to product images. You might be surprised by what your audience prefers!
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"A missed opportunity for many brands is A/B testing key flow messages with both an email and SMS version," says Ryan O'Connor, director of growth at SmartBug Media. "Oftentimes, one channel performs differently depending on the brand and where the customer is in their journey."
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Oftentimes, one channel performs differently depending on the brand and where the customer is in their journey.
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—Ryan O’Connor, director of growth at SmartBug Media

You can also test a conceptually different email or offer. Do recent buyers respond better to refer-a-friend incentive emails or similar product recommendation emails?

If you choose this method, keep as many variables the same as possible. Plan to send two versions of the email to a random group on the same day and time. Try to keep the formatting consistent to avoid introducing extra variables that could cause one email to perform better due to design rather than content.

The emails will inevitably differ, so it won’t be a perfect scientific test, but you’ll gain direct insights into your audience, which you can apply to further testing.
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Note: When using CTOR to run a content test, make sure to use Klaviyo to segment iOS users to avoid measuring engagement based on opens triggered by spam filters.

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4. Optimize your emails for mobile
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Many email creators (myself included) build emails in desktop mode, even though more and more people are reading emails on mobile devices.

"Approach your emails from a mobile-first perspective," says Ismailovski. "The vast majority of emails brands send are opened on smartphones instead of on a computer or laptop. When testing your email design, ensure that it looks good on small screens as well as in the standard desktop layout."
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Even if you start with desktop previews, don’t forget to check the mobile preview.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Are the modules stacked properly?
• Are images resizing without losing text readability?
• Are links too close together, making it hard for users to click?
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Next, visualize how much information the recipient can see on their screen at once. The smaller screen often shortens text lines, so keep the text concise to avoid filling the entire phone screen with a block of text.
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Don’t add too many calls-to-action (CTAs) within the same area. One CTA on a phone screen is usually enough for consumers to focus on.

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5. Organize your CTAs
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It may seem like adding more calls-to-action (CTAs) would lead to more clicks. That’s usually not the case. Too many links can confuse and overwhelm recipients, which is why a clear CTA hierarchy is essential to guide them on what action to take.

"Use the squint test to check your email design," says Nichelle Hubley, founder and CEO of &BAM. "Squint until the design blurs and see if you can tell where the customer should click. It should be super clear. If your CTA doesn’t stand out, the customer will scroll on by."

If your CTA doesn’t stand out, then the customer will scroll on by.
—Nichelle Hubley, founder and CEO at &BAM

With the right CTA hierarchy, you can still include multiple links in the email. For instance, if your email features several products with individual purchase links, include a primary CTA to browse all products. This way, people who might not click on a specific product still have an incentive to click.

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The Fish Society uses three different visuals to establish a clear CTA hierarchy. The blue buttons direct recipients to the primary CTAs—one general ("Valentine's Seafood") and one specific ("10% OFF CAVIAR")—to attract maximum attention.
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The white buttons are clearly secondary, ensuring they don’t distract while still offering relevant product pages to interested customers.
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Finally, the hyperlinks in the paragraph are simply underlined, providing helpful information without drawing attention away from the primary CTAs.
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Clear CTAs help customers understand why they should click, leading to a better customer experience and higher click rates.


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6. Add urgency
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Giving customers a reason to click on an email is essential. Creating urgency is a tried-and-true way to show customers that clicking now is in their best interest.

Displaying an offer that’s about to expire is one of the best ways to add urgency to your emails. However, be careful not to create false urgency by "extending" deals that never truly end. Otherwise, you risk losing customer trust in your brand.

Don’t have a discount to highlight? Craft a message explaining why your customer shouldn’t wait another day to enjoy your product. Urgency doesn’t have to be just about sales!

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7. Choose your send time wisely
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Do you know the best time to send an email? There’s no shortage of data-driven studies that collect thousands of data points to answer this question.
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If you search for the “best time to send emails,” you’ll find plenty of studies claiming to identify the best day to send emails, based on a number of companies that aren’t yours.
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What these studies don’t tell you is how your audience compares to the randomized sample. And since you’re not sending emails to a perfectly average data point, you should take their advice with a grain of salt.
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"Testing send times via A/B testing is one of the most underrated strategies I see with brands," says Brandon Matis, founder of Luxor Marketing. "Just by testing morning sends versus night sends, you can see an extraordinary difference in conversions."
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A/B testing send times is one of the most underrated strategies I see with brands.
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—Brandon Matis, founder of Luxor Marketing

The best time to send emails to your audience is unique to your business. Instead of using a mass-produced schedule—likely when all your competitors are sending their emails—conduct scientific tests within your marketing automation platform to determine the best send time for your customers.

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8. Create personalized, automated email flows
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By creating automated email flows, also known as drip or nurture campaigns, based on user behavior, you can deliver highly relevant content that’s more likely to be clicked.

Why do automated email flows generate such high click rates? The content is specifically tailored to a customer’s actions.

When a customer views a specific product or takes an action on your site, it can trigger a series of emails aligned with that action.

For example, consider this abandoned cart email that Bombinate sent me when I added an item to my cart but didn’t complete the purchase.

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As a customer, I feel that the brand understands exactly what’s important to me when I receive this email. But from the company’s perspective, they only had to set up an automated campaign, possibly months ago.
"You want to personalize your emails as much as possible with the data you have," says Tennessee Allgood, senior manager of lifecycle marketing at Stak Agency. "Personalization helps keep your user experience relevant and ensures customers come back for more."
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Automated flows have a high impact, require little effort, and are excellent for boosting click rates.

Check out the top 10 marketing automations e-commerce companies used this year to see if there are any you can add to your email strategy.

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Higher click rates lead to higher revenue
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These tips are great and are all designed to help you generate more revenue. However, increasing your click rate doesn’t mean much if your revenue doesn’t grow.
Track email-attributed revenue along with the CR to monitor whether the adjustments you make in your emails are helping to boost high purchase intent in your customers.

If your email CR increases but revenue doesn’t, try one of the six other strategies to boost your click rate.

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Do you have further questions on how to increase your CTR in Klaviyo after reading this article? Contact Polaris Growth for more advice.

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