[ASK AN EXPERT] Low Click-Through Rates on Email Campaigns

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Our Ask An Expert series features real questions answered by Claire Axelrad, J.D., CFRE, our very own Fundraising Coach, also known as Charity Clairity.
Today’s question comes from a fundraiser who isn’t happy with their email click-through rates.
Dear Charity Clairity,
I’m noticing our click-through rate for our year-end campaign emails is low. Any ideas?
— Not Clicking
Dear Not Clicking,
First, let’s define ‘low.’ Do you mean compared with your own previous years’ results, or just in general based on your intuition?
If you’re doing worse than in previous years, that’s another discussion entirely. Your list could be at fault. Or your message and design. Or the fact that Giving Tuesday response cannibalized year-end response. Or even the reputation of your organization. Ask yourself: “What is different about our organization and/or message this year than in previous years?”
Before I dig too deep into the wrong weeds, let’s get a reality check on nonprofit click-through rates in general. The folks at Campaign Monitor built an in-depth guide outlining email marketing benchmarks for nonprofits based on their original research taken from billions of Campaign Monitor emails. You can see the benchmarks for all industries here.
What they discovered may surprise you. It’s the fact that, while nonprofit open rates trend higher than other industries (average 20.39%), their click-through (average 2.66%) and click-to-open (average 12.99%) rates are lower. Why? Perhaps it’s because supporters love to hear news from their favorite nonprofits, but they need a bit more of a nudge to incite a click-through or click-to-open.
About now you’re probably wanting some term definitions, right?
I’m going to assume you want more folks to (1) open your email (otherwise, you’ve really just wasted your time crafting your message) and then (2) click-to-open your campaign so they can make a gift (otherwise, you’ve failed to inspire folks to take the action you desire – which is the whole point). Right?
Here are some tactics to get more folks to open your email (OR).
Here are some tactics to encourage higher engagement, once the email has been opened (CTOR).
One final piece of advice: Create your own benchmarks. Don’t get too bogged down by industry standards. What’s really important is that you improve your own performance year over year. Also, make sure you track performance by segment. If your CTOR is terrific for donors and lousy for prospects, that tells you something.
Hope this helps you start clicking on all cylinders!
— Charity Clairity
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