SH0
What's the behavior that drives people to click on the logo at the top of my emails?
As long as I've been sending email campaigns with company logos on top, those clicks nearly always get as many, if not more, clicks than the primary call to action of the campaign.
It's baffling.
I can't explanin this, other than it's possible the people who click on logos are the ones who are brand aware, and want to check up on your company. Or, that they're the type who prefers to navigate things their own way, meaning, they'll see a message in your email, but go to the website itself to navigate to it (instead of clicking directly from within the email).
If anybody has insights or has run tests/surveys to help give clarity to this odd behavior, I'm all ears. And I promise to post back with any results of my own.
I see this a lot too. I think theres an anxiety associated with opening an email, subscribers will often feel duped in to opening something that they don't really want to read, and that they're being fed only a slice of the available content.
By clicking on the logo you know where you'll end up, and you can have confidence in the experience.
TL;DR - People aren't confident with email, they click the logo to get to an experience they have more confidence in
yeah I'm inclined to agree with you, Sam. It would be an interesting theory to test, perhaps using a sequence of emails (not a single A/B campaign). Could you alter the behavior of the subscriber by removing the logo link outright? Or through some other design or copy treatment?
If it's a trust issue, then what are other ways to instill trust inside the email? When it comes to links, you could write them out, for example (even if you hyperlink them to your ESP can track them). You could test a written-out URL, if it performs, test it against removing the link from the logo.
I'm sure there are other ways of pinpointing the reason behind the behavior (intersitials when you click on the logo, or changing the logo link to a landing page, then see what happens on the next email, etc.).
I think it probably has a lot to do with the reader knowing that the logo is usually a standard link to a business' homepage. They know where they're going and they trust that button will take them there.
Beside the fact that consumers have grown a little paranoid of digital marketers, I would also consider that maybe your call to actions aren't clear or relevant enough and it leaves readers feeling like they should just do it on their own.
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