How Does Click-To-Open Rate Work and Why Should You Care?

A click-to-open rate, or CTOR, is the percentage of unique clicks after opening an email. In simple words, it tells you how many users have opened your email and clicked the link inside it.

This metric helps marketers understand their email marketing in a much better way. It not only tells how many emails are opened but also read by their recipients.

To learn more, keep reading the blog.

How To Calculate CTOR?

The click-to-open rate (CTOR) is a metric used in email marketing to measure the effectiveness of an email campaign. It shows the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link within an email after opening it. The formula for CTOR is:

CTOR = (total unique clicks / total unique opened)x100

Here’s a step-by-step guide to calculating CTOR:

1. Determine the Number of Clicks: Count how many times links within the email were clicked.

2. Determine the Number of Opens: Count how many times the email was opened.

Example

If an email was opened 1,000 times and received 200 clicks, the CTOR would be calculated as follows:

CTOR = (200) / (1000) x 100 = 20%

This means that 20% of the recipients who opened the email clicked on a link within it.

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What’s Better, CTR or CTOR?

Comparing the click-through rate (CTR) and the click-to-open rate (CTOR) depends on the specific goals and context of your marketing campaign.

Click-Through Rate (CTR):

Advantages:

• Measures the overall effectiveness of an ad or email campaign in generating clicks.

• Provides insights into the appeal of the ad's content or the email's subject line.

• Helps in evaluating the performance of different ads or emails against each other.

Limitations:

• Doesn't account for whether the recipient opened the email or saw the ad.

• Might not accurately reflect engagement if the campaign has a low open rate but a high click rate (e.g., due to misleading subject lines).

Click-Through Open Rate (CTOR):

Advantages:

• Provides a more focused metric by considering only those recipients who have opened the email.

• Reflects the effectiveness of the email content and call to action once the recipient has opened the email.

• Can help in optimising email content and layout to encourage clicks among engaged recipients.

Limitations:

• Doesn't account for recipients who didn't open the email, which might skew the results if the open rate is low.

• May not be as relevant for campaigns where the primary goal is to increase open rates rather than clicks.

Choosing Between CTR and CTOR

• If your primary goal is to assess the overall performance and appeal of your ads or emails, CTR might be more suitable.

• If you're focused on optimising engagement among recipients who have already opened the email, CTOR provides a more relevant metric.

• Both CTR and CTOR can be used together to gain a full understanding of your campaigns' effectiveness.

• Monitoring both metrics allows you to assess different aspects of engagement. Hence, make informed decisions to optimise your marketing strategies.

How to Improve the Click-To-Open Rate?

If your CTOR is low, it means that your email marketing campaigns are less effective. Thus, use these techniques, which will help you improve the CTOR.

Use CTA buttons

An attentive email has engaging copy, great visuals, and a compelling call to action. The CTA can be a text or a text with a URL.

According to Campaign Monitor, a CTA can increase the conversion rate by 28%. However, the condition is that it is appealing to the recipient, which makes them click on it.

To ensure that, you can apply these tips:

• Keep the CTA short (3–4 words) and catchy.

• Use action-based verbs such as explore, start, etc.

• Always place the CTA right after the offer (not before).

If you are new and find it difficult to come up with an effective CTA, use these 75 calls to action for your content type.

Review your offer

What makes a user click on the CTA? It is the offer you present to your audience. If your CTOR is low, review it. Ensure that the offer aligns with your expectations.

For that, you can:

• Segment your list: This will ensure that your audience gets what they want or need. Segmenting them based on their behaviour, geography, and other factors will help you create an engaging CTA.

• Send a survey: You can conduct a timely survey to better understand your audience. Ask them such questions in the survey that give you insights into their expectations.

Bottom line

To convert the targeted audience into your customers, you need to keep an eye on the essential details, which include the click-to-open rate.

Which is why, email marketing is the all-time favourite of marketers. It not only helps you establish your brand but also allows you to reach a wider audience.

Email marketing gets much easier when you use a notification tool such as Notifly, which gives you comprehensive insights into your email campaigns.

Book a demo today with Notifly