Email marketing: how to improve usability and thus the click rate

 Email marketing: how to improve usability and thus the click rate-Overview

Surely you have heard of web usability but have you stopped to think about the role of  usability in your  email marketing ?

In email marketing, every aspect that we can improve multiplies the results exponentially. If your  newsletters  offer a good user experience, the percentage of openings and clicks will increase and you will generate more conversions among your database. So let's see what usability is and how we can use it to improve our emails.

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What is usability in email marketing?

We can define usability as  "design at the service of the user experience" . Good usability makes the user interact with our content in a comfortable and fluid way, know at all times where to go and experience pleasant sensations ... that will end up associating with our brand. That is, usability has the potential to improve both  results  and  branding .

Over the last few years, web usability has been a topic of great interest and a series of guidelines and good practices have been designed that we can apply to email marketing. If you want to know what they are, keep reading!

The keys to improve the usability of your emails

Balance between texts and images

Emails are opened on many different types of devices and operating systems, so we always run the risk that a user will not be able to view the images.

Therefore, if we want to guarantee a good experience, we have to make sure that the email is understandable and provides  a good experience in "text only" format . In turn, for users who can see them (which will be the majority), images are very important to improve the attractiveness of content. So we must combine both resources in a harmonious way.

And of course, the same applies to interactive elements, videos, GIFs and other "extras" that we want to incorporate into our emails. In short, always have a plan B for users who cannot see all the elements of the mail.

The customer journey in email marketing

From the moment a user sees an email in their inbox until the final click occurs, the interaction is divided into a series of  phases  that follow a logical order:

Sender's name  . 

This aspect is sometimes overlooked when setting up emails, but it is very important to build trust.

Line  issue . 

One of the factors with the most potential to improve the results of a campaign.

Preview . 

Here, the user has to decide whether the offer interests him or not.

Header . 

A graphically prominent element that is also the first to be displayed once within the email.

Body  of the message.

 Here brevity and conciseness are key. Remember that users tend to scan emails, rather than read them thoroughly.

Click . 

Through the call to action (usually in the form of a button).

Each of these stages affects the next and the general acceptance rate of the message and the brand. Therefore, it is recommended to do  A / B tests  in which we compare variations of each of them.

usability email marketing 2

Another very advisable good practice is to send ourselves a copy of the email before launching the campaign. Thus, we can live the customer journey in our own flesh and see if there are any aspects that do not work.

Usability tips for email marketing

The   traditional reading order does not change in the case of emails, that is, users read from left to right and from top to bottom. Therefore, the email organization should always follow this guideline.

The  call to action  should be positioned at key locations and respecting the reading order.

The different sections of the email must be separated with   clear transitions , so that the user perceives them as separate units. Don't be afraid of white space!

More than 50% of users  do not scroll  through emails, therefore the basic offer should be clear from the beginning. To make sure no user gets lost, include at least one call to action in the header.

The  first paragraph  is the most widely read, so be sure to start off strong. Do not forget that it is highly recommended to do A / B tests of the body of the emails, so you can see which starter formulas are more effective.

Here are a few interesting examples to inspire you:

usability email marketing 3

I hope that all this information has helped you better understand the usability factor in emails and its help in improving the click-through rate.