No Clicks Needed: How Zero-Click Thinking Can Enhance Your Newsletter

We’ve all been trained to look at click data to evaluate the performance of our newsletters.  Click Reach, Click-Through-Rate, Click-To-Open.  Changes to open tracking have conspired to limit the value of the open as a measurement of engagement, which has put even more focus on clicks as the primary engagement metric.

But what if I suggested an alternative approach to your newsletter: the Zero-Click strategy, creating a newsletter that provides value without your reader needing to click at all.  Done well, a zero-click newsletter can enhance your readers’ experience while fostering even stronger loyalty and connections.

What is Zero-Click Content?

Zero-Click content is content that provides immediate value, without the need to click through to get to the premium content.  It’s the opposite of click-bait content: information that is designed to be valuable to you without leaving, rather than information that is designed to make you visit another website. 

Everywhere you look today, you encounter zero-click content.  Social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are obvious examples.  Perhaps less obvious examples are search engines: recent studies show that anywhere from 40-60% of Google searches can result in “no click answers”, where users may find their answers on the search results page, without clicking into content.  With the growing presence of generative AI solutions integrated into search results, these numbers will only increase.

Consumers are used to, and often expect, zero-click content.

But newsletters have often lagged in this area.  In a world ruled by click-based metrics, this approach can appear counter-intuitive.  Don’t you want a reader to click the link to get to your webpage and read “Top 5 tips for making a better newsletter”?  Don’t you want a “Read more…” link with UTM tracking to give your newsletter attribution credit?

A Newsletter with No Clicks?

More than once recently, I have given my “hot take”: A newsletter can have value even if no one clicks it.  While this may seem controversial, let’s explore this thought a bit.

Start with the foundational question: What is the purpose of an email newsletter?  Depending on who you ask or what site you read, you will find different answers.  But almost every answer builds on the same general theme: “Provide news and information to your readers”. 

Unlike many marketing emails - you are not measuring direct ROI on a specific newsletter send or CTA.  Rather, you are (or should be) playing a long game. You establish yourself as a credible source of relevant and informational content, giving your readers what they are interested in reading about.  Of course, this is all part of a comprehensive email marketing campaign geared towards increasing your revenues; we want our newsletter readers to become product purchasers.  But the newsletter is a vehicle by which we build our reputation with our readers, making them more likely to convert through our more targeted promotional emails.

Again: the purpose of the newsletter is to “Provide news and information to your readers.”  With that as your purpose, a Zero-Click strategy begins to make more sense.

• You are bringing your readers the information they want right where they already are: in your email, in their inbox. No additional effort required on their part.  No reader “bait and switch” angst.  No additional signup push.  Just straight information.
• You are simplifying the information access: no challenge around mobile email AND mobile website. Solve it once, and present the information to the person where and how they are reading it, regardless of additional internet connectivity or device challenges.
• You are building trust, making it clear that you are interested in informing the reader, not just trying to gather their eyeball time. Readers know the difference.

So I shouldn’t have a Blog?

Of course not!  Having a Zero-Click strategy does not mean you should not offer click-through links in your email.  Having a reader engage with your website gives you the opportunity to provide additional information and gain more knowledge about your reader’s interests.  So make sure you give your readers a reason and an opportunity to learn more.

Zero-Click means thinking about your content in a way that ensures the reader can get value without clicking.  Offer thoughtful summaries with supporting information.  Lead with the important stuff; don’t make someone click to get it.  But this doesn’t prevent you or discourage you from offering clicks and enticements.  You should continue using the link tracking and reporting as you currently do.  You will want to measure how your newsletter contributes to conversions. 

This does represent a new way of thinking about the links in your newsletter: they aren’t the measurement of success for your newsletter.  Then what IS the measurement of success? How do you measure the performance of your newsletter?  You have to dig deeper to find the appropriate measurements - remember, this is a long game.  Some ideas to consider:

1. Dig deeper into your open data.  In a perfect world, we would trust open data and believe that people who repeatedly opened were getting value from our newsletter whether they clicked or not.  We know, though, that we aren’t in a perfect world; we cannot trust all of our open data.  But that doesn’t mean we have to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Dig deep into it, looking at data across devices and see what you can find: are there patterns that help you discern repeat real openers?

2. Carefully curated CTAs in your newsletter.  What can you offer in your newsletter that rewards a reader?  Don’t include it in your subject line, or in your preview text.  But offer something within the body of the email and see how it performs.  If people are in your email, how do they react to a newsletter-specific offer you present?

3. Attribution: do you survey your purchasers to ask about if and how a newsletter contributed to their purchase decision?  Ask your audience. 

How do I get started?

Start by finding a way to write an informative, accurate, and short summary of your content, the type of TL;DR summary that the kids talk about these days.  The summary should provide value to your audience, which means you need to understand what your audience is looking for.  Be creative with imagery - charts and graphs, in particular, may help illustrate the point you want to make.  This is a change in content strategy, as you are no longer writing “enticements”, but instead writing summaries.

Don’t be afraid of the Generative AI tools to give you a hand.  Here’s what ChatGPT generated for this blog!

Traditional email newsletters focus on click metrics, but a zero-click strategy enhances value by delivering helpful content directly in the email. Zero-click content improves user experience, engagement, and trust by providing immediate value without requiring clicks. This approach aligns with the core purpose of newsletters—providing news and information to readers—while building loyalty and credibility. Zero-click doesn’t eliminate the need for click-through links but shifts success measurement away from clicks. To implement, write concise, valuable summaries and use visual aids, focusing on audience needs and long-term engagement.

In summary: consider how to bring your readers what they are looking for - relevant and timely content - directly in the newsletter.  While we all want them to engage on our websites, don’t make that a requirement for your readers to still get value out of your newsletter.  Remember: I don’t have to click to still get value!

Photo by Jeremy Perkins on Unsplash