Ah, now we get to the meat of any email campaign … how many of your recipients took an action and clicked through on one or more of the links in your email message? This is really important to know. We send out email messages because we want to change behavior, right? We want people to download a whitepaper, sign up for an event, learn more about a company, or take a variety of other actions.
The click-through rate (or click rate) is how many clicks were made, divided by the number of emails sent (usually, although it can be based on the number opened). This metric will tell you how many people are interested enough in your message to change what they were doing – which, up until then, was going through their email box – and give your message some attention.
An important point to remember about click-though rates is that they are indication of INTEREST, not intent. I may click on the “On Sale” button on the Lands End email that comes through to take a look, but I may not end up buying new ski pants. That’s for next week’s discussion.
Jenn