What is the CTR average for emails? And how to improve yours.

Takeaways

• There is no single CTR average for emails. Several factors influence this number.
• Reviewing existing data will give a good indicator of what your CTR average should be based on your industry and the types of emails you’re sending.
• You can take specific steps to improve your CTR and boost conversions.

Smart copywriters and marketers understand the importance of data when writing copy.

And when it comes to emails, there are few metrics more important than your click-through rate (CTR).

“Click-through rate, or email click rate, is the measure of how many people clicked on a hyperlink, [call to action] CTA, or image within a particular email.“

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How to calculate CTR

The formula for calculating CTR is pretty straightforward.

To find your CTR take the total number of clicks your email receives and divide that by the total number of delivered emails (Subtract bounced emails from your total sends to get this number).

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Unique vs total CTR

Some marketers will talk about total CTR (TCTR), while others believe the only CTR worth measuring is unique CTR (UCTR).

I’m somewhere in the middle.

TCTR includes multiple clicks on the same link by the same email recipient, while UCTR only counts a single click per recipient.

While TCTR can add some unnecessary data, multiple clicks on a link may give insight into how valuable that information was.

TCTR on a link to a blog post may indicate the post was valuable enough for your reader to revisit it.

You can learn more about unique and total CTR (and other important Key Performance Indicators) in this Tutorial Tuesdays video.

Why does CTR matter?

Show me your CTR and I’ll tell you how engaged your readers are.

There are several metrics that you should track to assess the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.

CTR is an important one.

Your CTR indicates how engaged your readers are with your content.

Their clicks signal interest.

There is no single average CTR

This may seem odd since many people expect an average CTR for all emails.

But your CTR will vary depending on several factors.

Industry

One Hubspot report found that the average CTR by industry ranged from 6.82% for financial services up to 9.31% for manufacturing.

This put the average across industries at 7.8%.

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Email type

Your email type is also an important factor to consider when assessing your CTR against averages.

For example, triggered (or action-based) emails and welcome emails tend to have higher CTRs because they’re usually more relevant to the subscriber.

When you sign up for a freebie or a service, you’re looking out for that initial email.

Plus, you’re primed to take action with a click.

The same is true for triggered emails.

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Quick tips to improve your CTR

If you’ve discovered your CTR is below average – not to worry.

You can take specific steps to increase opens and clicks in your emails.

So come closer and let me share a few.

Start by measuring

My old boss used to say, ‘if you’re not measuring it, you can’t improve it.’

And he wasn’t wrong.

If you’re not doing this already, start tracking your email performance using a spreadsheet and include your CTR for each campaign sent.

Remember the rule of one

The most effective emails have one reader in mind, one goal, and one CTA.

The more focused your email is, the more likely you are to get better results.

Segment your list

There’s nothing like generic — or worse, irrelevant — content in your inbox to make you feel like the sender has no idea who you are or what you want.

Sending the same email to everyone on your list is bad for reader experience.

Fix this by segmenting your list.

Join 10X Emails to improve your email game

Want to dive deeper into improving your overall email performance?

In 10X Emails, Joanna Wiebe and Ry Schwartz cover these tips and more in great detail.

And there are lots of templates, so you don’t have to start from scratch.

Check it out here.