Email Marketing: First Link Gets 75% of the Clicks

Email Marketing: First Link Gets 75% of the Clicks:from B2B Marketing and Lead Generation | Optify by Jennifer Wong
What makes a successful email? There are many ways to measure success, but one key indicator is the response rate of the email; whether the recipient opened the email and took the desired action.
This simple email test shows how placement of call to actions in an email can dramatically affect the percentage of clicks one link received compared to other links in the email. You’ll see the metrics from the three email sends and the surprising results.

In three tests, we’ve found out that the first link in an email gets 75% of the clicks in that entire email.

The Campaign

Optify sends a recap of the top blog posts from it’s blog every month. Here’s how the test was set up to determine what percentage of clicks the first link gets.

The Set Up

We focused this test on our blog subscribers, people who had opted-in to our marketing content. The test was a part of an ongoing effort to improve the response rate of these emails. Each email was sent to at least 40 thousand recipients to get statistically relevant results.
Set a test schedule
We tested the same email format for three sends that happened on July 1st, August 1st, and September 1st.

Selecting the Variable to Test

Each email had a list of 20 links to click on as well as two graphics. Each link had the same call to action “Read the full story.” The content in the email was different for each send and randomly ordered which minimized the bias for interest in content type. Each email was formatted in the same “list” design.

Results

The first link in the email always received the most clicks in the email. That’s pretty easy to intuitively guess. But what’s surprising is the percentage of clicks it received. In all tests the first link received at least 71% of the clicks; 75% if you average the three emails.
Test 1


Test 2


Test 3

Takeaway

Position your desired response as the first link in the email. This will get about 70% of the clicks in your email. If you want other links to be clicked in an email, hyperlink an image. Images were the 2nd most clicked on link within the emails we sent; each image receiving 2-4% of the clicks within the email.
Do you see similar metrics for your email campaigns? How are you testing the performance of your emails?
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