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What Is CTR in Email? Posted: 11 Feb 2021 08:00 AM PST When you start a new email marketing campaign, you're probably looking at various metrics. You want to see how many subscribers are opening your emails and the type of content that resonates with them. Hopefully, you're also tracking your click-through rate (CTR). After all, your CTR is one of the most important email marketing metrics, because it shows you how engaged your audience is. But how do you calculate your CTR, and how do you know if it's low or high? And if your CTR is on the low side, how can you start improving this metric? What is email click-through rate (CTR)? Your CTR measures how many subscribers clicked on any links, buttons or images you included in a particular email. It's the number of subscribers who clicked on at least one link in your email. What's considered a good CTR varies by your industry. The average CTR across all industries is 2.62%. Editor's note: Looking for the right email marketing service for your business? Fill out the below questionnaire to have our vendor partners contact you about your needs.   Why is CTR important? Every time you start a new email campaign, you should have a specific goal in mind. This goal could be to drive traffic to your landing pages, boost sales, or get your subscribers to follow you on social media. The point is that every email invites your subscribers to take a specific action. This is known as your call to action (CTA). By tracking your CTR, you can see how well your emails motivate your subscribers to take the action you want them to take. Your CTR is a measure of how engaged your email subscribers are. It's also a good indicator of whether you're sending relevant content and offers to your audience. How do you calculate your email CTR? Your email CTR is determined by the total number of subscribers who clicked on a link in your email. Here is the formula you'll use to calculate your email CTR: Total number of clicks ÷ Total delivered emails x 100 = CTR So, if you sent an email to 200 subscribers and 25 of them clicked on a link, your CTR is 12.5%. How to improve your email CTR If your email CTR is at least 2.62%, you're on track with the average across all industries. You should always be trying to improve your CTR, though, because the higher that number is, the more engaged your subscribers are. Fortunately, improving your CTR doesn't have to be complicated. If you're not sure where to start, take these seven steps to improve your email CTR. 1. Improve your open rates. Your email open rate and your CTR go hand in hand, because if you can't get your subscribers to open your emails, they won't click on any of your links. So, improving your open rates is a good place to start. One of the best ways to ensure subscribers open your emails is to modify the sender name and subject line. Instead of using your company name as the sender, why not try using a specific individual's name? Using a personal name may seem like a minor detail, but it can make a big difference. Studies have found that using a personal name can increase open rates by up to 35%. Your headline is another significant factor in whether or not customers open your emails. Shorter subject lines could improve your open rates.  Here are a few other tips to improve your subject lines: Personalize the subject line with the subscriber's first name. Don't ask questions. Subject lines that end with a question mark have lower open rates. Don't use emojis in the subject line; this could be off-putting to many people. 2. Optimize your emails for mobile. An estimated 46% of all emails are opened on a mobile device, and the number of people using desktop computers continues to decline every year. So, if you're wondering why you don't have a higher CTR, you should see if your emails are optimized for mobile devices. If the email design isn't responsive or the text is hard to read, you're likely losing out on clicks. One of the easiest ways to ensure that your emails are optimized for mobile is to use a predesigned template. Email marketing software providers such as ConvertKit and Campaign Monitor offer a wide selection of mobile-responsive templates. Even if you use a mobile-responsive template, it's a good idea to preview your email on various devices, which should include both iOS and Android devices, before sending it. 3. Make your emails scannable. Most people do not fully read online articles, blog posts and emails. Instead, they scan the text for the most relevant information. So, you want to make sure your emails are easily scannable. The easier your emails are to read, the less likely a subscriber is to get bored and delete the email as soon as they open it. Scannable emails also make it easier for readers to find and follow your CTA. The best way to make your emails scannable is to make your sentences short and include lots of white space. Don't make paragraphs longer than one or two sentences, since large text blocks are hard to read. It can help to include bullet points and lists wherever possible. Also, don't make your email too long, because some subscribers will lose interest. 4. Stick with one CTA. As a business owner, you might have multiple products and services you're trying to promote to your audience. That's why some companies include dozens of links in the emails they send to their subscribers. But too many links can overwhelm your subscribers. Businesses that pared their emails down to a single CTA increased their CTR by 371%. If you give your subscribers too many options, decision fatigue sets in, and they do nothing. So, if you have multiple CTAs within the same email, that's probably contributing to your low CTR. Instead, try to use one CTA that fits in well with the email content. Relevant, personalized content will make all the difference in converting your subscribers into customers. 5. Use a button instead of a link for your CTA. Another simple way to increase your CTR is to use an HTML button instead of a hyperlink for your CTA. However, make sure you're using bulletproof buttons, which are buttons you code into your email. They don't technically count as images, so if some of your subscribers have turned email images off, your button will still show up. You can use email marketing software to create bulletproof buttons that will look great on all devices. If bulletproof buttons don't work for you and you want to stick with hyperlinks, another option is to change your text links to a brighter font color, making them stand out more to your subscribers. 6. Personalize your emails. If you want to see more results from your email campaigns, you must incorporate personalization. Endless studies have shown that personalized emails have the highest click-through rates. Personalization goes beyond using the subscriber's first name. It's about delivering timely, relevant offers to your audience based on their interests and where they are in the customer journey. One of the best ways to use personalization to increase your CTR is by creating dynamic offers. A dynamic offer is customized to your audience based on their demographics, interests and stage in the customer journey. For instance, let's say you run an e-commerce store that sells clothing. An example of a dynamic offer would be showing women's clothes to your female subscribers and men's clothes to your male subscribers. Your subscribers aren't all interested in the same thing, so you shouldn't be sending them the exact same offers. Segmenting your audience allows you to send information that's relevant to them. 7. Utilize A/B split testing. If you're new to email marketing, it might feel pretty overwhelming at first. To make it easier, you could pick one point outlined in this article and set up an A/B split test for that element of your email campaign. Your email marketing service should make it easy to split-test the following: Email subject line Email content Images CTA text Buttons vs. hyperlinks A good place to start is to split-test two different CTAs to see which one performs better. You could also test different buttons to see if a particular color works better with your audience. There are many ways to improve your email CTR, and in all likelihood, you'll have to spend a lot of time testing and tracking your results. But over time, this will give you a better understanding of your audience so you can create emails and offers that create more value for them.

How Buy-Sell Agreements Work Posted: 11 Feb 2021 05:30 AM PST When you establish a business partnership, you don't intend for it to dissolve. Unfortunately, many circumstances – new opportunities, disputes, death – can sever a partnership. That's why creating and signing a buy-sell agreement is important for all business partners. What is this contract, and what does it cover? Read on to learn more. What is a buy-sell agreement? A buy-sell agreement, also known as a buy-and-sell agreement, is a contract that determines how a partner's shares in your company are reassigned if the partner departs, dies or otherwise ceases their ownership in your company. Usually, your buy-sell agreement will state that the partner's shares should be sold to your company's other partners. Additionally, buy-sell agreements often lay out a valuation process for your business. How does a buy-sell agreement work? A buy-sell agreement establishes how your company will go about receiving the shares that a departed partner leaves in their absence. Buy-sell agreements are most common among companies set up as partnerships, as they create a binding mechanism for a partner to exit the company. Some sole proprietors also create buy-sell agreements to determine who can buy their business in the event of their death. Buy-sell agreements exist for more than convenience. If your company has more than one owner, you are legally required to draft a buy-sell agreement. Often, your agreement will include a formula that determines how a departed partner's shares will be sold back to your company. This formula can be especially helpful in the event of a partner's death. In this case, the partner's estate is responsible for executing the agreement, with which it may not have been previously familiar. Types of buy-sell agreements Buy-sell agreements come in three types: Cross-purchase. If you and your business partners sign a cross-purchase agreement, you and your other partners would buy a departing partner's shares. Stock redemption. If you and your partners sign a stock redemption agreement, then your company will buy the departing partner's shares. With the departed partner's shares in the company's possession rather than that of the remaining partners, the shares could be sold to anybody (as long as your company is incorporated accordingly). Combination. Not all buy-sell agreements distinguish between cross-purchase and stock redemption arrangements. In these combination agreements, you and your partners will buy a portion of the departing partner's shares, and your company will buy the remaining portion. Notably, none of these arrangements guarantee that you and your partners have enough money to buy the departing partner's shares. That's why, in some cases, partners take out life insurance policies on the other partners. This way, if a partner's death triggers the buy-sell agreement, the other partners can use the proceeds of their life insurance policies to buy the deceased partner's shares. Buy-and-sell agreement FAQs At this point, you might feel like buy-sell agreements are pretty straightforward. However, like any contract, buy-sell agreements can be more complex than they seem. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about buy-sell agreements. What are the key elements of a buy-sell agreement? These are generally the most important elements of a buy-sell agreement: A valuation clause. This clause clearly states your company's value or provides a formula to determine this value based on several variables. A professional appraisal, though expensive, may also be in order. A clear indication of the parties involved. Your agreement should clearly state the names of all the partners covered by your buy-sell agreement. It's best to list the names near the top of the agreement and again in the signature area at the bottom. Buyer funding options. As mentioned earlier, partners sometimes take out life insurance policies on other partners to ensure ample funds for buying a deceased partner's share. Your buy-sell agreement should include language detailing this approach and any other buyer funding methods you'll use. A list of qualifying events. A partner's departure is not the only scenario where you'd have to turn to your buy-sell agreement – your agreement should list all the possible reasons for using it. Tax obligations. Share purchases and sales are often taxable, but you can minimize your tax liabilities with careful planning. As you draft your buy-sell agreement, you should consult a CPA, who can advise you on clauses you should include to improve your tax situation in the event of a partner buyout. How much does a buy-sell agreement cost? Although there is no single standard cost for the drafting of a buy-sell agreement, you should expect to pay several thousand dollars in lawyer's fees. Your costs will depend primarily on the number of partners included in the agreement, though other factors may affect your costs as well. How do you value your company during a transfer of shares? It's best to value your company before you draft your buy-sell agreement, rather than while you transfer shares. To do so, you can either hire a professional appraiser or develop a variation formula that you include in the agreement. Both options circumvent the challenge of partners independently valuing your company upon a buyout and coming up with different numbers. What happens if a company or its partners can't afford to buy a departing partner's shares? Not much can be done if a partner departs and the company or remaining partners can't afford to buy that partner's shares. However, you can plan ahead in the terms of your buy-sell agreement. You should add details about flexible payment plans to your buy-sell agreement. With flexible payment clauses in your agreement, you allow your company or its partners to put down initial deposits on share payments and then cover the remainder of the purchase in installments. Such installment-based payment plans can span several years, and they often include interest payments. Can a partner's bankruptcy have an effect on the business? Yes. If one of your partners files for bankruptcy, there is a chance your business could be sold to cover their debts. However, your buy-sell agreement can prevent this scenario. In your buy-sell agreement, you can include a clause that requires a partner to notify all other partners before filing for bankruptcy. This notification becomes an opportunity for the remaining partners to buy the bankrupt partner's shares, so your company can operate unencumbered by bankruptcy concerns. Can a partner's divorce have an effect on your company's share ownership? Yes. In states with community property laws, divorcing spouses can seek any earnings acquired during the marriage or any property, including business shares, purchased with these earnings. Divorces in states without community property laws can still present business ownership challenges, as a divorcing partner's spouse can still seek business shares as part of an equitable property division. As with the other concerns in these buy-sell agreement FAQs, you can mitigate divorce-related concerns with a well-written buy-sell agreement. You should include a clause in your agreement that requires a divorcing partner's spouse to sell business shares they receive in the divorce back to your company or its partners. A valuation formula or amount in the agreement can hasten this sell-back process. How do buy-sell agreements relate to estate taxes? In the event that a partner dies and leaves their shares to their kin, the deceased partner's estate taxes will be a flat proportion of their shares' values. As such, a lower valuation in a buy-sell agreement would mean estate taxes will be lower upon a partner's death. How often should buy-sell agreements be amended? Your lawyer should review your buy-sell agreement every year. If certain provisions are no longer legal or your business's structure changes, you can revise your agreement appropriately. This also gives you an opportunity to revalue your business while considering all the above factors. Annual reviews allow you to set up smoother partner buyouts. Though often challenging, partner departures don't have to put your business in an impossible situation. Buy-sell agreements can make the transition easier when the time comes.

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