We Like Links

We all do, right? I’m sure you include links to product pages in your promotional emails, to articles in your newsletters, to sign up and order pages, and so on. But do you really think about how many, and where you place them, and how you present them? Or is it more of an afterthought, an item on your email-to-do list? Well, I’d like to share some recent feedback from our customers and email experts that tell us you may want to take it up a notch or 2.
It seems that email recipients LOVE LINKS, in fact, the more, the better if − and that’s a big “if” − they’re relevant and useful. Now we could analyze this to death (I think it’s the “portal” effect, i.e. lots of info in one place), but better to just take note of this new data and do the following:

• Highlight your most important links and topics with formatting, highlights, color, etc.
• Place high value links in first half/third of message and repeat at least once towards end.
• Vary the format (URL’s, text links, graphics), taking care to keep text/URLs short.
• Vary the topics and types of value-add links, think “USA Today” variety.
• Personalize whenever possible according to customer or industry profiles.

And, of course, track CTRs and analyze your “links” just like you do your messages, subject lines, etc., so you’re using every tool in your email marketing toolkit to improve your success rate.
Do this consistently, and your audience will not only look forward to your email messages, they will engage and take action more often, increasing your ROI.
So, link up!