How I’m Optimizing for the “right” clicks.

A few weeks ago I shared why it’s important to segment your subscribers. Check that out in Part 1 here.

NGL: I was fired up when I wrote it! I envisioned a smooth process that worked like magic.

It would tell me more about my new subscribers and their goals & challenges.

Plus… remember, the whisperings of “double the revenue!”

So I updated the Welcome email with new link tags to segment and waited with bated breath.

How to set up Link Tags in ConvertKit

  1. Highlight the text you want to link and click on the link icon
  2. Put the link in the link field and click the link tag icon
  3. Choose the tag you want attach to subscribers who click that link
Easy as 1-2-3.

Initial Results from new Welcome Email

Well… after one week, I was feeling deflated:

  • 8 new subscribers received the new Welcome Email
  • 6 opened it (75%)
  • 3 subscribers clicked on at least one link (37.5%)

Great click rate! But one glaring problem: not a single person clicked on the segmentation links ↓

5 links to click…. zero actual clicks.

Instead, they clicked my Most Popular Links options:


They're great links, so makes sense they'd click 'em.

And I can’t force new subscribers to click one of the 5 segmentation links. This was a concern I had going in. But I didn’t anticipate going 0-for-6.

That’s a problem.

How I’m Fixing The Welcome Email

I needed to reduce the number of links.

I only want readers clicking on the segmentation link options. Nothing else.

So I’m removing all the others — including the entire Most Popular Links section. Poof. Gone!

“But aren’t those helpful articles for your readers?”

They are! But notice they’re addressing three different challenges:

  1. Choosing a platform (“just getting started”)
  2. Booking paid ads for your newsletter (“monetization”)
  3. Building a successful newsletter (“growth & improvement”)

So now I’ll send these articles in an expanded and improved Welcome sequence — if you click 1 of the 5 segmentation links, you get an additional email. Here’s how the new Welcome email looks:

Only clickable links are the 5 segmentation links (plus the ‘unsubscribe’ link, of course)

Results of the *NEW* Welcome Email

The new version is performing much better. Why?

✅️ I removed all links except the 5 segmentation options.
✅ I incentivized clicks with the promise of an “additional resource”.

I can’t make new subscribers click these links. But I can do my best to incentivize them with the copy.

*Sidenote: If subscribers choose not to click on a link, they enter my regular weekly newsletter rhythm. I may tweak this at some point… TBD.

Now 3 weeks in, I have more data:

  • 136 sends
  • 76% open rate
  • 39% click rate
  • 2 unsubscribed (this is actually a good thing — weed out uninterested subs!)
Better results! Still room for improvement…

A 100% click rate is ideal — but this is better than nothing.

I’ll continue to monitor as I get more subscribers and make adjustments as needed.

With the Welcome Email better optimized for segmentation, I now have to create a short automation that adds the subscriber into the correct email sequence (ie. the ‘additional resource’ email).

That’s coming in Part 3 of this series.

Stay tuned!



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