How Choice Paradox is killing your email click rates

 

If you want to boost your email click rates, you have to do two things:

1. Make the action you want your subscribers to take abundantly clear.
2. Keep your email design and messaging focused on that action.

Why, you ask? Thanks to something neuroscientists call Choice Paradox, when faced with too many decisions, we won’t make a decision at all. Let’s say you’re presented with an email like this one from Toyota.

 

 

It isn’t a bad-looking email by any means, but it does offer you several different, unrelated paths to click through. So, many subscribers will quickly scan through Options A, B, C, and D… then end up choosing Option E instead: inaction. 

On the other hand, let’s say you receive one of these more recent campaigns from Toyota.

 

 

Both campaigns are hyper-focused and centered around just two options you can choose between. It’s much easier (and requires less mental investment) to consider two options and make a quick decision.

Better yet, don't make your subscribers choose at all. Rather than cramming a ton of content into a single email, you can break it up into several emails, each with its own super clear call to action, like this one from Grammarly.

 

 

Clarity is king, and this tells you exactly what you’re going to get. Plus, emails with a single call to action (rather than several) can increase sales a whopping 1617% (Wordstream).

Including too many CTAs in your email is a mistake far too many marketers continue to make, so differentiate yourself by keeping things laser-focused and watch your click rates skyrocket as a result!

 

 

About the Author

McKenzie Gregory is a senior content manager on Emma’s marketing team. A Nashville native, she can be found covering all things email on the Emma blog, debating hyphenation rules, and watching obscene amounts of Netflix without a trace of shame.

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