By Florent 
I stared at my email analytics, baffled. My open rates were solid—sometimes even hitting 50%—but the click-throughs? A pitiful 3%. It felt like hosting a party where everyone showed up but just stood by the door, refusing to come inside. I’d crafted subject lines that hooked attention, but something was clearly missing between the open and the click.
The Problem Wasn’t What I Thought
At first, I blamed my links. Maybe they were broken? Too small? Buried in a wall of text? I tested button styles, anchor text colors, and even added multiple links per email. No meaningful change. Then, I realized: the issue wasn’t the links themselves—it was the emotional gap between opening and acting. My emails were informative, but they weren’t making readers *need* to click.
The Breakthrough: Framing the “Why” First
I rewrote a sequence for my digital planner bundle, shifting focus from features (“10 customizable templates!”) to the immediate frustration it solved. Instead of leading with the product, I started with a short story about Sunday-night overwhelm—something my audience vocalized in surveys. The email’s first line: “Ever wasted an hour rearranging your to-do list instead of actually doing it?” The link (now just one, prominently placed) followed a relatable struggle, not a sales pitch. Clicks jumped 37% in one send.
Where Automation Can Help—And Where It Can’t
Tools like sales funnel and automation tool streamlined my follow-ups, but I learned the hard way that no software fixes weak messaging. A/B testing subject lines? Easy to automate. Crafting emails that resonate? That requires digging into your audience’s daily frustrations—something I now do manually before loading a sequence.
The One Sentence That Changed Everything
My rule now: If I can’t summarize the click’s benefit in under 10 words (“skip the busywork,” “fix this common mistake”), I rewrite. One promo for my SEO templates flopped until I swapped “Includes keyword research guides” with “Stop guessing what Google wants.” Suddenly, clicks made sense because the *ache* came before the solution.
Now, I watch not just opens but scroll depth (are they reading to the link?) and time spent. Because an open is just curiosity—a click is commitment. And bridging that gap starts long before the “click here” button.