Guest post by Dean Levitt, Chief of Culture at Mad Mimi Email Marketing.

No matter what your website goal is, in order to reach those goals you need traffic. Whether you built your site to sell products, keep your local PTA members informed, or offer a service, a website needs visitors in order to achieve the goal you had in mind when building it.

One of the most effective ways to generate traffic to your website is with a great email newsletter. If you’ve never sent an email newsletter before, it’s easy to get started. If you need help, check out our email marketing guide for beginners.

If you are someone who already understands the value of an email newsletter, it’s worth reviewing your habits. Here are four tips to help you maximize clicks and drive more traffic to your website.

Ideal Link Placement

Just like on a web page, link placement plays a big role in the number of clicks that link will receive. In an email, the first link in the newsletter content typically gets the highest number of clicks.

With that in mind, think about what your newsletter is about and what you’d like to achieve with it. Do you want your readers to visit your homepage and just explore? Or do you want to highlight an item of interest?

Whatever it is that you’d most like your readers to read, place it up top.

Effective Anchor Text

Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. It’s the text your reader will actually see and can encourage action. If the goal of your email newsletter is to drive traffic to your website, then more clicks = success. So it’s important to be thoughtful about the anchor text you use. It can make all the difference to the success of your email newsletter.

Instead of including your full, typed-out URL or something else that may be subtle (like linking a descriptive word in a sentence), give your links a call to action.

That boils down to defining an action. Let’s explore two versions that might lead to the same landing page.

Example 1:

The new schedule is up on the website.

Example 2:

The new schedule is up on the website. Click here to view.

The first example is passive and doesn’t really compel any action from your readers. It lacks a call to action. However, example 2 is more clear and direct. It encourages action and is likely to bring more clicks.

Click here, read more, download now! Whatever it is, make sure it solicites action!

Images Make for Compelling Links

That pretty much sums it up. Images make for compelling links. When surfing the web, we’re pretty much well-tuned to clicking on images.

One simple recommendation is to make all the images in your email newsletter clickable. Images draw attention, so this is an easy way to cover all your bases and ensure you don’t miss a single visitor.

Another recommendation is to actually do some design. A well-designed button (“Sign up” “Register”) can be a powerful motivator and get readers clicking. It’s highly noticeable and thus, more compelling.

Have a Landing Page Strategy

A landing page is the specific page where a site visitor “lands” after clicking on a link. It doesn’t have to be something ornate, (it could even be your homepage) but it does need to fulfill the reason your reader clicked on the link in the first place.

For example, if your goal is to get folks to register to attend an event, making sure your link leads directly to the registration page will increase the likelihood of the visitor signing up.

If, however, you simply send them to your homepage. In essence, you are hoping they’ll explore your site and eventually drift over to the registration page. You’ll likely see a lot less registrations.

Whatever the reason the reader clicked on a link, the destination should fulfill the promise you made when you said “click here!”

All in all, having a clear goal in mind when sending an email newsletter is a good idea. Once you’ve got that goal clear, make sure you are using these and other tactics to optimize links and achieve the best possible conversion rate for your goal.

About Dean Levit:

Dean Levitt is Chief of Culture at Mad Mimi Email Marketing. Based in Honolulu, Dean spends altogether too much time thinking about email, people, music and customer support.