Significant Drop in Email Click-through

[MParsells]

We've noticed our click-through rate drop significantly over the last 3 months. We've gone from steady click-through numbers in the 10-12% range over the last year, to today where we are seeing 4-5%.

I don't know if it's a email systems issue or our content is the issue. Our opens have stayed consistent over the last year and have only dropped maybe 2 or 3%. It's just very confusing...

Anyone else having this issue?

[CHawkins]

I also wanted to add a link to this thread about email authentication. It is worth reviewing those settings as well to improve email performance.

[CHawkins · Accepted solution]

@MParsells - I have a client who is in a similar situation.

A few thoughts:

• Have you recently run your email domain through an email blocklist check (like this one)? You mentioned open rates haven't changed significantly but it is worth checking if your domain is being flagged anywhere.
• Are you using a lot of imagery in your emails? I have noticied especially with audiences that are have high security concerns (Ex - My client is emailing a lot of hospitals), IT email systems are more strict and may be quick to flag emails with lots of imagery or just a large file size attached.
• Has your email topics or audience changed in the last year? For example, were you primarily getting leads form webinar registrations last year but now it is primarily eBook downloads? It may seem like a subtle shift but it could change behaviors.
• Has your email list size changed dramatically in the past year?
• Have you checked for "bot" behaviors on your clicks? I am wondering if HubSpot bot filtering has improved in the past year and the clicks you were seeing a year ago were more "bot" clicks? Typically, I look at the time of the email delivered and the time of the click. If it is within the same minute, I am suspicious whether the person clicked the email or if the email system/security clicked the email to check for suspicous links. 

Expanding on the thoughts above, I would set up a few tests for:

• Using little to no imagery in the emails - plain text style
• Limiting the number of total emails you are sending at a time. For example, if your usual email list is 1,000, try breaking it into 3 different lists of ~350 each.
• [Even better than above but more manual] Limit the number of people at a single domain you are emailing at one time to 5 or fewer. For example, if you have 30 people at HubSpot on your email list, break them into 6 different email sends. Some IT systems set up spam rules if they see a lot of the same email coming in.

[DianaGomez]

Hi @MParsells,

Thanks for reaching out to the community!

Thank you for sharing your experience. I understand your concern to see such a significant drop in click-through rates over the last three months. It's worth taking a look at the solutions that @karstenkoehler  and @JuanGomez0818 provided for a very similar case: Click-through rates tanking. Anyone else?

I hope this helps clarify!

Best regards,

Diana