{"id":1281,"date":"2019-06-25T07:09:28","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T12:09:28","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-03-03T08:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:22:21","slug":"redesign-email-increase-click-through-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.campaignmonitor.com\/blog\/email-marketing\/redesign-email-increase-click-through-rate\/","title":{"rendered":"How We Got a 127% Increase in Email Click-Throughs by Redesigning Our Blog Email"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article has been updated as of June 2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Campaign Monitor has been doing content marketing before it was even a recognized marketing approach. Looking back over our content, our Founder, Dave, has been publishing blog posts and guides to email marketing since 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, when I started at Campaign Monitor as Director of Content, I had some pretty big shoes to fill.<\/p>\n

One of the opportunities I immediately noticed was the email we sent to blog subscribers when a new blog post was published, so we decided to run some tests on it.<\/p>\n

This is the story of how we redesigned our blog subscribers email and landed a 127% increase in click-throughs.<\/p>\n

The old blog subscribers email<\/h3>\n

The old blog subscribers email was being sent automatically via our\u00a0RSS to Email feature<\/a>. Each time we published a new blog post<\/a>, our own Campaign Monitor account automatically pulled the summary and a link to the article from the RSS feed and sent it out to subscribers.<\/p>\n

The old email looked like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the most visually appealing email and it didn\u2019t align with the rest of our marketing assets, which were all beautifully designed by our fantastic design team.<\/p>\n

The new blog subscribers email<\/h2>\n

Having just launched our new email builder,\u00a0Canvas<\/a>, we decided to use one of its new styles to redesign the blog subscribers email and A\/B test the new design against the old one.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the new email:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The result? We received a\u00a0127% increase in click-throughs\u00a0on the first test we ran.<\/p>\n

Still not completely satisfied with that, we continued testing the old design against the new design on the next few emails we sent. Every time, we saw a similar result. It became clear the new design was working very well.<\/p>\n

But why? What was it that made this new design convert so much better, even though the text content and the offer were exactly the same?<\/p>\n

Here are some thoughts on why it converts so much better:<\/p>\n

Content prominence<\/h3>\n

In the old design, the most prominent element (and, therefore, the first thing people saw) was the large Campaign Monitor logo. In this new design, the blog title is the most prominent element, drawing people into reading the post summary and increasing their desire to click through to the blog to read the full article.<\/p>\n

Better design elements<\/h3>\n

The typography and layout were dated and tired in the old layout. This fact didn\u2019t instill much trust in the reader and likely had a negative effect on their perception of the blog post\u2019s quality. The new design features modern imagery and typography and increases people\u2019s motivation to click through by subtly reassuring them the post will be high quality and worth their time reading.<\/p>\n

Stronger CTA<\/h3>\n

In the old design, the only link to the blog post was a small text link at the bottom of the email. The new design, however, features a large, high-contrast button that draws the reader\u2019s eye and makes it easy to take the next step and click-through to the post.<\/p>\n

Other tests and changes<\/h2>\n

Given that this is one of the most frequent emails we send (and is a significant driver of blog traffic), we like to run an A\/B test each time we send, in an effort to further improve the effectiveness of the email.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an outline of some of the tests we\u2019ve recently run:<\/p>\n

Microcopy<\/h3>\n

We tested using generic button copy like \u201cRead the full post to learn more\u201d against button copy that was specific to that email, such as \u201cLearn the 3 ways to improve your email marketing.\u201d Each time we tested this, the email with\u00a0specific microcopy\u00a0won the test by about a 10% margin.<\/p>\n

Heading link<\/h3>\n

We also tested whether or not having a link behind the large blog post heading at the top of the email improved click-through rates or whether it was better to just have the link behind the button at the bottom. Not surprisingly, it\u2019s better to link the heading text as well.<\/p>\n

Subject lines<\/h3>\n

The majority of the time, we A\/B test potential blog headlines against each other using a subject line test. The headline is one of the most critical factors in the success of a blog post, and A\/B testing two headlines helps us find the best one for the post. For instance, in one of our\u00a0recent blog posts that featured a video\u00a0we got an 18% increase in opens just by including the word \u201cVideo\u201d in the subject line.<\/p>\n

Through constant testing, we\u2019ve been able to increase the click-through rate of our email campaigns beyond the initial 127% lift. It still varies from email to email, but we can often see 50% click-through rates on our blog subscriber email, and that\u2019s something to be excited about.<\/p>\n

How to redesign your newsletter<\/h2>\n

You\u2019re probably wondering if you can enjoy a higher email click-through rate by redesigning your email. Well, anyone can. However, you need to make sure that your email newsletter redesign is done right. Here are some email newsletter\u00a0 best practices you should be sure to follow:<\/p>\n

Keep the new design simple and clean.<\/h3>\n

One of the biggest reasons for low click-through rates is a cluttered email design. Research has shown that people don\u2019t read emails; they skim.<\/p>\n

What this means for your email redesign is that you have to:<\/p>\n