Despite the fact that you’re marketing your business like crazy — on social media, your blog, via email, you name it — you might not be getting a lot of the one thing that matters: clicks.
Clicks to your website equal customer engagement. If you’ve got a decent social media following, are publishing content regularly, and are continually increasing your email subscribers, but aren’t seeing a high click-through rate, it’s time to ask yourself a few key questions.
Are Our Headlines Engaging Enough?
Whether you’re writing a blog post, a press release, or an email, your headline (or subject line) must grab people by the eyeballs and get them to click to read more. If yours aren’t getting the kinds of clicks you want, you need to assess why.
Start by reading other headlines. Which pique your interest? Which make you want to click them? Do you see a theme? Some strategies for improving your headline engagement include:
- Use a statistic or number (“Get a 58% Boost in Reads with This Simple Trick”)
- Ask a question (“Could You Use More Money?”)
- Make a list (“7 Things You Didn’t Know About Cats”)
- Keep them short (5 words is a good average)
Test out different headlines to assess which show an improvement in clicks, then use those strategies for subsequent headlines.
Are Our Emails Putting People to Sleep?
You work away on your company newsletter and promotional emails, but people aren’t clicking to buy your products. What gives?
First, look at the data. What percentage of people are opening your emails? (this is called your open rate) Average open rates vary by industry, but you want to see somewhere between 17% and 20%. If you’re not getting that, look at how frequently you’re sending emails. It’s possible that you’re sending them more than people want to receive them, and they’re just deleting those emails you spent so much time developing. Scale back and measure results to see if they improve.
Within the email, assess what you’re trying to communicate. Ideally you have one call-to-action per email, so if you want them to buy a product, don’t confuse them by giving them eight products to consider. Keep the language short (just a few paragraphs) and include several places with the same link you want them to click.
Are People Ignoring Our Ads?
If your digital or pay-per-click ads aren’t generating interest, turn your focus to what the reason may be. Remember: whether you buy advertising on Facebook, Google, or somewhere else, you’re competing with a lot of other activity. Your copy and image, if you have one, need to be eye-catching so that people want to click your ad to learn more.
Keep the copy benefit-focused, meaning you’ve got to boil down the perks that people get by clicking your ad. Special offers and deep discounts, such as free shipping, 30% off, and buy one get one free are sure to generate clicks.
If you use an image, make sure it’s professional-quality. If the ad is for a product, the image should be of that product, not your headshot or brand logo.
You can A/B test ads to see which copy generates more interest, and tweak your campaign accordingly.
If your marketing efforts aren’t getting the engagement you’re looking for, don’t give up. Just assess what you’re currently doing to find places you can improve for better results.
