Hi, {{first_name|friend}}. 👋

Welcome to Issue #237 of All About Email!

Last week was about using an actionable framework for creating Welcome Sequences that actually work.

This week, I “might” have made a very big mistake after changing my re-engagement automation trigger, which sent an email to almost my entire list! 🤦‍♂️

This has prompted me to ask the question, “Why don’t subscribers click”?

Let’s go! 👇

🤦‍♂️ On Friday, I changed my re-engagement automation trigger criteria to be based on “clicks only” over a set period of time (the previous was “clicks and opens” over a set period of time).

This was then retrospectively applied (I wasn’t expecting this) to every subscriber, and chaos ensued.

I know some people don’t click links, which is why my original criteria used “opens and clicks” over a set period, but with open rates becoming even less reliable recently (thanks, Gmail), I decided to switch to “clicks only” over a set period.

That time period is 90 days. I could be more aggressive and set it to 60 days, or even 30 days, but my thinking was always: “Surely a subscriber would click on at least one link in 90 days?”

It turns out I was wrong! 🤦‍♂️

I was shocked, after all, that’s about 12 issues with each issue containing an average of 28 links, so how could someone not click 1 of 336 links?

💡 Most of my emails get “clipped” (just like this one), so the most obvious answer for me is “clipping”, as this can impact click tracking.

🤔 But this got me thinking… why else might people not click on links in my emails (and yours, {{first_name|friend}})?

This one might be a bit of a stretch, but I’ve done it before, so here goes…most email platforms wrap every link in a tracking redirect so they can log who clicked, when, and on what device.

A privacy-conscious reader may hover over a link, see that it doesn't go where the anchor text says, and refuse to click. They don't trust where it's actually taking them.

🚨 Or, again, I sometimes do this: copy the destination URL, strip the tracking parameters, and paste it into a browser manually. The click never registers, but the content is consumed.

Open tracking works by embedding a tiny invisible image (a 1×1 pixel). Privacy-savvy readers know this exists. Some block all remote images entirely, but more relevantly, the same readers who block open tracking are also the ones most likely to be wary of clicking tracked links.

It's a similar mindset to the “URL rewrites”. If they're already protecting their open data, they're protecting their click data too.

🤔 I wonder how many of my readers genuinely enjoy my content but don't want the relationship to become transactional or tracked. They're happy to read; they're not happy to become a data point.

Corporate security tools can distort your click data in both directions. We know about bots inflating click rates, but occasional proxy behaviour may suppress it.

These possible edge cases where tracking breaks if a proxy caches the redirect and doesn't re-fire it on a human click, or if a company's security policy blocks the tracking redirect domain entirely.

🚨 This one is a bit alien to me as I’ve worked for myself for so long, so if I have my tin hat on or get things wrong, apologies in advance. 😂

Many employees use work email addresses to subscribe to newsletters. Their IT department may have full visibility into outbound click traffic.

An employee reading about job searching, competitor products, mental health resources, or anything politically adjacent may not click because they don't want that activity logged against their work account.

In highly regulated industries: finance, law, healthcare, government, clicking unusual links, even from newsletters you knowingly subscribed to, can trigger a security review or a message from IT.

So readers in these environments might be more cautious or never click.

I have even seen first-hand non-regulated industries that have IT departments who deliberately simulate compromised links as security tests for employees to see who clicks them/ 😬

Someone reads your newsletter during lunch on their work laptop. The content is personal, and they'd rather not leave a digital trail at work.

So they save it to read later on a personal device...and then forget.

Some antivirus software or browser extensions will flag click-tracking redirects as suspicious and either block the click or show a warning.

🚨 Even a single scary warning is enough to make a reader stop clicking from that sender entirely.

😡 I hate this one, it’s a pet peeve of mine (I understand why it happens, but I don’t have to like it).

If the reader has been burned before, clicked a link and hit a paywall or login wall, they'll stop clicking from that sender.

✅ I won’t share links in my newsletters that require a paywall or login, unless I know the link is very valuable, and I will give a warning.

💡Tools like Gmail's AI summaries, Apple Intelligence's email summarisation, and Microsoft Copilot in Outlook are increasingly surfacing condensed versions of email content directly in the inbox.

(Sometimes, before the reader has even opened the message.)

🫠 If the summary captures the core point of your newsletter well enough, the reader gets what they need without entering the email, let alone clicking a link.

The “curiosity gap” can work against you if stretched too far.

🤔 Readers who feel a link text is manipulating them, teasing without informing, will sometimes refuse to click on purpose.

I know I think/do this often.

Experienced readers, especially those who work in marketing, know that clicking a link can trigger retargeting, lead scoring, segment changes, and follow-up sequences.

💡 They're not avoiding the content; they're avoiding what might potentially come with the click.

🚨 If an email has too many links, readers often click none of them (with an average of 28 links per newsletter, it’s always on my mind).

Deciding which link to click becomes harder than clicking nothing.

💡 A newsletter full of interesting links can perform well as a reading product, but poorly if you need one specific conversion.

Fewer, more purposeful links drive more clicks.

💡 This one is always on my mind, especially if you're curating widely shared content; the reader may have already read it.

Clicking confirms nothing new for them.

🧠 If the email is dense, analytical, or requires real thinking, the reader may be mentally tired by the time they reach the CTA (on that note, congratulations if you’ve made it this far, {{first_name|friend}} 😂).

The click requires a cognitive change, from passive reading to active decision, and the reader has no capacity left.

Longer, more demanding emails may paradoxically suppress clicks even when engagement is high (I’m about ready to give up, and I’m the one writing this 🫠 ).

The same concept as banner blindness in display advertising.

🚨 Readers who see your newsletter regularly develop unconscious patterns of where they look and what they skip.

Sponsor links in a consistent position, footer CTAs, repeated "read more" buttons…over time, these become literally invisible to the trained eye.

💡 The reader isn't deciding “not” to click; they're not even registering that the link exists.

I’m not talking about the horror franchise Final Destination (although I might have killed a large portion of this newsletter 😂), but for some readers, a well-curated newsletter is the way they treat a morning newspaper (remember those?); “the summary is the product”.

They have no intention of ever leaving their inbox. For this persona, a non-click is their consumption mode. They may be among your most loyal readers, consistently opening every issue, and your click analytics will never reflect that.

🚨 And I’ve just found out that it applies to hundreds of my subscribers.

🧠 Some readers follow a newsletter for the writer's opinions and voice.

The external link is secondary; they've already got what they came for once they've read your framing.

💡 A lot of email reading happens between tasks: commuting, in bed, in a waiting room, during lunch. Clicks require a transition from passive reading to active action, and that’s often where “click intent” stops.

(Side note, apparently I love to write passively, and Grammarly loves to tell me so. 😂)

Readers may open and read because the topic is relevant, but not click because they're sceptical or unconvinced.

🤷‍♂️ Rightly or wrongly, I don’t really care about competitors as I don’t think I’m in a competition, but this point is relevant for many of you:

Someone doing a competitive analysis, another newsletter operator, a vendor, or a journalist may read carefully and deliberately not click, precisely to avoid being registered in your tracking data.

Experienced email readers, especially those who work in marketing themselves, know that clicking a link often triggers a tag, a segment change, or an automated follow-up sequence.

💡 They deliberately don't click because they don't want to be put into a nurture flow or have their behaviour profile updated.

🚨 This reason is probably the most thought-provoking, given the context of this email.

A reader who is gradually disengaging, not quite ready to unsubscribe, will stop clicking first (unless they were never clicking in the first place, as I’ve discovered 🫠).

💡 People may avoid clicking links related to health, money, debt, legal issues, employment, competitors, politics, relationships, or mental health, even if the content itself is entirely innocent.

The act of clicking records something about them, and some topics don't feel safe to register interest in.

I didn’t include all my reasons for why a link doesn’t get clicked, but did I miss something big, {{first_name|friend}}?

Are there any reasons you’ve encountered why someone doesn’t click on an email that I’ve not included today?

Reply and let me know.

A click is so much more than a measure of interest or engagement, and most of those variables we’ve discussed above are outside your control as a sender.

🫠 As I discovered today after messing up my click-based triggers, some of your most engaged readers may never click a thing.

In fact, a good email can actually reduce clicks by satisfying the reader before they need to click anywhere else.

That’s it for this week. 👋

Every week, as I write this newsletter, I'll share the track of the moment to create an unbelievably eclectic playlist just for your inbox.

🚨 If you’re interested in sponsoring the “All About Email” newsletter, you can find all the details in this Google Doc.

This week's excellent and insightful email news & tips:

If you have any questions about this email or email marketing, please reply, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

I hope you have a great week! 👋