I am not a professional email marketer – if you need a detailed guide on making the most of your email message, refer to experts. But what I do understand is that there’s a long way to the user’s inbox for my message to cover: I first need to earn trust to be given the email address, then I need to have something to say, then the message should be opened and read.
So in case in case in the end your message is just neglected, that’s even worse than a missed opportunity – that’s like a lost war.
Considering a link in an email message is its (one of) the most important element(s) because we want it clicked (or linked to), here are just a few basic but essential tips for you to make sure the opportunity isn’t missed:
1. Image links are not always a good idea
Fact: Image links may be more attractive; they draw attention and the are great for branding but the worst thing about them is that most email clients block the images (loading them only on request).
Actionable tip: if you want to brand your email message, use image links for logos but always provide alternative (calling to action) text links:
2. Too many links may get your message to spam box
Fact: No matter how perfectly solicited your message may be, if you list too many linked URLs, it may be caught by the recipient’s spam filters.
Actionable tip : Refrain from adding too much (linked) information in your email signature because it can make your overall email messaged linked content ratio too huge:
3. Too long links are not clickable
Fact: Too long links are broken in several lines that makes them totally user-unfriendly.
Actionable tip: If your email messages are automatically generated (e.g. blog updates to email subscribers), make sure your post slugs are optimized:
4. “Readable” links are better clicked through
Fact: The user doesn’t trust (and thus doesn’t click) the links if he can’t tell where he is going to land.
Actionable tips:
- If you need to use URL shorteners, use those that allow path customization, e.g. http://tinyurl.com/coolnews
- Create your site domain-based short URLs: see the detailed guide here.
