Online marketing success, including email newsletters, cannot be tracked without metrics. Click activity is the metric we use to not only track the effectiveness of our campaigns, but also to generate and identify new leads for additional business.

Click rates essentially capture the amount of reader engagement with the email message or website. Recipients who click on content demonstrate a higher level of interest in the material and/or the company presenting the information.

What might affect click activity rates? Poor list hygiene, lack of list segmentation, inadequate content and unclear (or missing) calls to action. Without calls to action, what are you hoping to accomplish with your newsletter or website?

Calls to action play a significant role in motivating recipients to click, as does the quality of the content. Click activity rates are the marketer's best metric to determine effectiveness not only in the campaign, but also in the topics that each reader or visitor prefers, enabling them to maximize their target marketing efforts.

Consistently provide calls to action with every piece of content you publish. The best calls to action are:

• Proportional to other visual elements
• Larger than less critical CTAs
• Prominent and easily found
• Above the fold - at or near the top of a webpage, email or e-newsletter
• Customized to fit the type of CTA or communication method
• Separated from other elements with whitespace
• In a contrasting color to make them stand out
• Dual-purpose, offering secondary actions in addition to the primary action
• Successful in conveying a sense of urgency