Link Design, Pt. 1: Placement

chain_links.pngEmail readers, like web surfers, are ruthless in their decision making. They aren’t going to search around in our email for something to click on, nor are they going to sit and make a drawn out decision on whether or not to click when they see one.

Have you ever thought specifically about whether your links are optimized in your messages?

The first of a series of messages covering this broad topic, today we’ll focus on the placement of links in email.

Make Links a Priority

Link placement can be a crucial element of effective emailing marketing, especially if a major goal is to drive traffic to a website or specific page.

“Link placement can be a crucial element of effective emailing marketing …”

And yet, often we see email marketers spending a lot of time writing some great content in their messages, only to place a single link tucked away at the bottom their copy.

Well, I’m afraid that just doesn’t do all their hard work the justice it deserves.

Let’s do better than that. The results of our email campaigns can be boosted just by taking a few moments to look at our messages and make some quick changes to where our links are located.

Where to Put Your Links

Sometimes the goal of a message is to send traffic to a single web page. Perhaps it’s a page with more information on a product or service. Or, maybe there’s a free trial or order page you’d like to send subscribers to.

If this describes your message, consider the placement of links much like you would a web form on your web page:

It’s not that your copy isn’t great, but on a particular basis, subscribers may require more or less copy before feeling comfortable to click on your links. By providing links in multiple locations, no matter where they are in the message, they can click through.

Tip Bulb Using the tracking service your email service provides, you can track which version of the link in the message is performing best to learn a bit more about your subscribers and their habits, as well as whether or not they’re reading your plain text message.

More Than One Destination?

If you have multiple unique links or locations you’d like to send subscribers to in your messages, try prioritizing the sections of your messages so that the link in the top-most area is the one you’d like for them to click through most, the second link a little less so, and so on…

But try not to flood the messages with too many options. The more you offer, the less likely subscribers will choose the one you really want them to act on, if they click on any at all. Consider breaking your message up into a few instead.

Of course, some messages will necessitate having several links, perhaps to provide resources to subscribers. This type of strategy really applies only to messages where there is one or a few actions that you’d like to focus attention on in various degrees.

Keys to Success

chain_with_key.pngHopefully this article gets you thinking about your links. There’s still plenty of ground to cover, however. For instance, does using an image button in place of a text link provide better results?

Later I’ll follow up with these and other aspects of effective linking. For the meantime, look over your messages and consider how effectively yours are placed.

Print This Post

Related Articles

By:

Become a Better Email Marketer

Subscribe to This Blog by Email
Why Subscribe?

28 Comments

  1. Shirley

    This is a great reminder tip for me.

    My newsletter usually contains a link at the end of the weekly advice I provide that leads readers to additional info, and that’s worked well for me. However, what you explain here helps me to reshape my future broadcasts.

    I especially appreciate the information about adding the most prominent link first, the primary one you want subscribers to click, and then adding secondary links further down in the content.

    Have you blogged about the split broadcast feature? I’m off to learn more about that now.

    6/12/2007 9:21 am
  2. GC

    Good article Marc – lots of food for thought.

    I don’t want to hijack your subect matter but I’d love to see an article at some stage on strategies to increase the confirmed opt in rate.
    I’ve tried changing the text in the "Confirm you request for information" email, tried creating thank you pages on my own site etc etc – but there is still a significant percentage who don’t follow through on their initial sign up. I’d love to know your views and the ideas that others use to boost confirmation.

    Thanks again

    6/12/2007 9:42 am
  3. Marc Kline

    Shirley,

    Sure, we have. You’ll find an article explaining why you’d want to test your messages here:

    http://www.aweber.com/blog/email-marketing/why-split-test-your-messages.htm

    For instructions, visit our knowledge base:

    http://www.aweber.com/faq/questions/122/

    6/12/2007 11:08 am
  4. Marc Kline

    GC,

    It’s important to consider that, according to a recent survey, only 68% of users always enter a valid email address in sign up forms.

    Furthermore, according to our own statistics, about 10% of all addresses entered bounce back to our servers straight off the bat.

    We do have a knowledge base article on improving the rate, but it seems that you may have already considered the two things it covers.

    http://www.aweber.com/faq/questions/302/

    For the meantime, I might suggest contacting our customer support to discuss your specific case, but be on the lookout for some articles on confirmed opt-in.

    6/12/2007 11:14 am
  5. Marina Afanasyeva

    Marc,

    I enjoyed reading the article and the comments. What is your comment about how having multiple links in a message affects deliverability? It does have an affect when I send mail directly from my personal inbox.

    Looking forward to your reply.

    6/13/2007 2:51 am
  6. Marc Kline

    Marina,

    Truth be told, this isn’t something I’ve heard of frequently from customers or in the industry, though it is possible that some email services filter based on this on a limited level.

    In any case, you’ll want to use a content analyzer to check on other factors that might push a message’s score past the tipping point on what services consider "spammy" and cause a message to wind up into the junk folder.

    From a practical standpoint, I suggest minimalism when it comes to putting links in messages. If you don’t need a second option in a message, don’t give it. More options present more decisions for a reader to make, which can lead to inaction altogether on their part.

    6/13/2007 2:49 pm
  7. lawton chiles

    Great post Marc.

    I think we’ve all seen the TOO Many links in one email msg.

    I think more than 3 or 4 is overkill.

    One is too little, of course.

    Where do we draw the balance? and, do you use link CALL outs?

    I try this

    —->

    http://www.yoursite.com

    or something like that. it seems to draw more attention that you
    want them to click on the link. More suggestions please!

    6/17/2007 12:41 pm
  8. Marcel

    Dear Marc,

    great article once again. For my mail-outs I figured out that spreading 2 to max. 4 links over the message is increasing click through tremendously in comparison to having one link at the end of the message only.

    The figure 2 to 4 depends on the length of the message. Anything more than 4 is killing the effect, seems it looks too much like spam or shouting “I wanna sell ya my fish…” far too loud!

    I tend using one link near the message top for “readers in a hurry”. As you mentioned, this is also cool for to be displayed in the Outlook preview pane of the message reader. Then, one link somewhere in the body. Should be an appropriate place in context to the text. Important still, the link at the bottom.

    Like on web pages, readers tend to click on links at the bottom. It the effect of “O.K. I’ve read everything. So where to go from here?” Now, there needs to be our link. Perfect for the reader. KLICK: here they go…! To OUR link target.

    Perfect article. Cannot be reminded of link placement importance enough! Looking for the next edition.

    6/18/2007 3:16 am
  9. Justin Premick

    Lawton,

    Callouts like your example can certainly draw attention to your links.

    In my experience, they’re good particularly for plain text messages, since you don’t have the benefit of changing font sizes, colors, etc. to otherwise draw out your calls to action.

    Besides callouts, other tactics you can use are to leave some extra white space above and below your links, and to indent them slightly. That way, they don’t get "lost" in your paragraphs.

    6/18/2007 8:33 am | Follow me on Twitter
  10. Dirk

    Hi Lawton,

    what I tend to use is very similar to Lawton’s approach:

    ==> andthelinkhere

    Works like crazy…!

    Click Through rates have gone up tremendously since I do use this in my email newsletter and autoresponder email promotions…

    6/18/2007 8:56 am
  11. Cliff Calderwood

    I enjoyed this article.

    I’ve had a similar experience to GC on the opt-in rate and can confirm that at my list at least 30% never do the confirm.

    I’m also wondering if there are any thoughts on if its better having a short email with a compelling link out to a web page where the content for the message is housed?

    Does this decrease readership because people have to do a click and many won’t? Or is the sense that if the copy is compelling enough people will click to go out to the web page?

    6/19/2007 10:18 am
  12. Sally

    Thanks for this article, I will be testing it out, and thanks for the tip on ==> Dirk, will also be testing that one out too.

    I personally only gave the link once, but will have it a few times now to see if it makes any difference to the clickthrough rates.

    6/19/2007 10:29 am
  13. Patrick Forbes

    I’m curious about the difference in conversions via a graphic button as opposed to a textual link.

    Can’t wait for your next article!

    6/19/2007 11:19 am
  14. Marcus Hochstadt

    I enjoyed this article too, as Cliff. (Hi Cliff, hope you’re doing well!) And I, as Cliff, would like to know whether it’s a good or bad idea kind of "replacing" the good ‘ol newsletter by (p)leading them to a Web page containing the actual content.

    And secondly… I understand the concept of focusing on one topic per issue. Though, what if the newsletter is *not* about Internet Marketing nor home business but about travel?

    For instance, visitors to my smart-travel-germany.com site are usually wide spread. In other words, some are looking for special tips regarding amusement parks, some for insider tips of a particular city, some are more after historical facts of German castles, and so on.

    So, by focusing on one single topic per newsletter issue I might loose "the other 80%" of my readers since they’re not interested in that topic. But by providing news in regards to several topics I might target all of them.

    Any thoughts on this?

    6/19/2007 2:26 pm
  15. Maria Porter

    Great article,

    I have to say I rarely place more than one link in an email…
    now I know better.
    I love the 2 Call Out samples, I will defintely be using them.

    I wish there was a way of sending a 2nd confirmation email to
    the ones that missed opting in on the first. This would defintely increase our optin rates.

    Great job.

    6/19/2007 3:38 pm
  16. Tillie Walker

    Hello, new to this site and wanted to tell you that I enjoy reading the commets. I am finding out that I am learning alot. Thanks.

    6/19/2007 5:26 pm
  17. Birgit

    Your blog is very informative. A valuable lesson learned by this reader.

    6/19/2007 10:42 pm
  18. Flora Morris Brown

    Thanks for these great tips about use and placement of links. I know my future email newsletters will be so much better as a result.

    6/20/2007 1:55 am
  19. Torsten

    Hello,
    as we are talking about links in this article, just a quick side note about comment links here in the aweber blog. It’s a bit of critcs, but it is well meant for improvement of this blog and I hope you publish my comment nevertheless:

    I noted you add "nofollow" tags to links within your blog comments. I cannot see any use in this.

    People are posting, and as a "thank you" nofollow is added to their links… As all posts are checked and moderated prior to publishing, I see no use in this.

    If everybody in the net would start the habit of adding "nofollow" to links, one day you would fire up Google, enter a search term and receive – an empty page.

    What I mean is: ever since the beginning giving and receiving links has been the lifeblood of the internet. Also aWeber could only grow this way.

    I suggest you to consider to drop the "nofollow" tags to comment links. It is a more fair and open approach to the blog community.

    6/20/2007 2:34 am
  20. Mike Myklin

    I would vote with Maria for this option if it could be available.

    "I wish there was a way of sending a 2nd confirmation email to
    the ones that missed opting in on the first."

    My own experience shows me that sometimes I don’t get the confirmation email for some reason. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to confirm my request, it’s that I haven’t seen it or that the server hasn’t properly recorded my response.

    Plus, as happy as I am with Aweber in general, mistakes can happen. Right now I know that one lead has confirmed because they are using the materials I offered but they are still shown as "unconfirmed" in my leads. I have no way of changing their status to active and they aren’t receiving the support messages that go along with the product they are using.

    6/20/2007 5:31 am
  21. Marc Kline

    Cliff,

    To answer your question about short vs. long copy in email, it really depends. If what they’ll find on the website is the same length and kind of material they’ll find in the email, then it may not matter.

    On the other hand, you may have paid advertisements on your website you’d like to have clickthroughs for, or maybe you’d like to avoid sending HTML messages and leave the design to your web pages.

    You’ll need to judge the pro’s and con’s using this line of thinking.

    6/20/2007 9:16 am
  22. Marc Kline

    Marcus,

    I’d suggest segmenting and targeting wherever possible. When I receive email messages with subject matter and offers not related to my interests, I tend to skip it or trash it. Often, your readers may do the same.

    Of course, there are times when a message with multiple topics is a necessity. In these cases, I’d recommend staying concise with your copy inside of the email, then drive to a page with more content that suits a specific interest.

    6/20/2007 9:17 am
  23. Marc Kline

    Maria / Torsten / Mike,

    There can be many reasons: some you can control (is the signup process clear?) and others you can’t (did the subscriber give you a bogus address or one they don’t check regularly?).

    I’ll refer to the two statistics I’d referred to in an earlier comment, and suggest that you take a look at the knowledge base article I linked to as well.

    I’m afraid that we simply can’t re-send the verification message because a) ISPs consider this SPAM and b) if there’s a reason they’re not clicking on the verification link the first time, it’s very unlikely they’re going to do so the second time around.

    In the end, there’d be very little, if any benefit to sending it again, and the costs can be fatal to the efficacy of your email campaign. Please, feel free to contact our customer support to have a full discussion.

    6/20/2007 9:21 am
  24. John (Annette) Antaya

    I appreciated this article and when finally getting situated I will be giving it a try.
    Thanks for the great information.

    6/20/2007 8:12 pm
  25. Adib

    Thanks for the article. It reminds me to put a link on top. Always being excited to write and forget about the link :)

    I like the way some IM place an overview on top of their newsletter and a quick link for people who are in hurry.

    Anyway, thanks again…

    6/21/2007 11:24 pm
  26. Marcel

    I agree if you send a second mail to non-verified subscribers it either gets lost or otherwise not read as well, or would be considered unsolicited by the receipient.

    I’d like to ask the aweber blog and training team, if you could (or have already) write an article about that topic and what we as list owners can do to increase double-opt-in success rates. This could cover text on page that is shown right after initial signup, text in confirmation email etc…

    What are your thoughts and recommendations in this regard? What is the experience and recommendations of other members? Please post!

    6/22/2007 8:43 am
  27. Justin Premick

    Hi Marcel,

    We did write an article on how to improve your confirm rate some time ago, but with confirmations such a hot topic it sounds like a few more are a good idea.

    Also, check out our Knowledge Base for more ideas on confirming subscribers.

    6/22/2007 9:51 am | Follow me on Twitter

Leave a Comment

Need an avatar?



Follow Comments
Send me notifications of new comments
rss Follow comments via RSS