Together with Nooks

Three Unexpected Ways to Book WAY More Meetings in 2025

Nooks analyzed 5,000,000 sales calls to uncover how to turn dials into dollars.

I partnered with them to publish the (surprising) findings:

→ Using this type of opener increases your success by 310% ​
→ Mentioning this message in your opener gives you a 6.3x higher chance of booking a meeting
→ Asking for the meeting at this exact moment boosts your success rate 11.8x
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If you want to stop wasting hours cold-calling with nothing to show for it, this will help.

​See the data and start booking more meetings.

See the data

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I'm a man of my word.

Last week I shared four ways to increase your email open rates.

And I promised that if you like them, then I would share more A/B tests from my sacred-but-now-very-public Reeder archives.

A whole lotta people replied.

So here we are. I hope you're ready.

Below are 6 ways to get more clicks in your emails. Each one comes from significant A/B testing and my experience writing, reviewing, sending thousands of emails (Gong, Clari, The Reeder, and advising dozens of SaaS companies).

Consider this the second installment of your "email 1-2 punch" combo.

Because getting folks to open your email is your first challenge.

Getting folks to click is your second.

And frankly, emails that don't get clicks are a waste of time.

And despite what you mighta heard, your readers WANT to click.

You just gotta make it easy and give 'em a good reason.

We're going to cover a few of those tactics today.

All of these have helped me improve my CTR (click-through-rate) to enviable levels. I imagine they'll do the same for you, too.

Ready? Let's ride 🌊​
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#1: Use line breaks, not block text

One of the first things when we look at an email is size it up.

How much time is this going to take?
How much effort is it going to take?

It's called “all at once” perception, where our brain decides how much work something (like reading an email) is going to take and if it's worth it.

When we see blocks of text, we see density. And density requires energy to comprehend.

So I use line breaks to let my words "breathe." It also gives your brain a chance to breathe between ideas.

Why did I A/B test this?

A couple years back, an executive challenged my approach saying all my line breaks were “unprofessional." True story.

Obviously, I was mildly offended. So I A/B tested the exact same copy but using single-sentence paragraphs vs block text. And guess what?

Block text lost every time.

I even split the audience by age (via "above the line" titles) and the practitioner audience ("below the line" titles). The results were the same every time.

So use line breaks, and let your copy breathe.

It makes it easier for your reader to digest, especially when reading on mobile.
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#2: Multiple hyperlinks are better than one

Ahhh, the battle of many email campaigns.

How many hyperlinks is best?
How many is too much?
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People get surprisingly fired up about this.

You might say you don't like lots of links. And I won't argue that.

But I can tell you that time and time again, more links get more clicks. (And conversions too).

Remember, we're talking about results, not preferences.

People will often swear up and down they hate a certain thing. But their actions tell a different story.

And I’ve found that multiple links get more clicks.

(That is to say, multiple hyperlinks directing to the same URL, not multiple CTAs.)

In fact, one of my best-performing emails had SIX hyperlinks.

You are probably thinking, How many hyperlinks are best?

It really comes down to using them intentionally so they feel part of your copy versus a “hard sell” to tap a link. How you hyperlink is more important than how many you have.

But to answer plainly, I use two or three depending on the copy.

PS: PS lines are a great way to sneak another one in there.

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#3: Tell stories. Don't do “hard teaching.”

“Hard teaching” is a phrase I got from direct response copywriting legend Ben Settle.

It's effectively sharing information in more of a lesson format. ChatGPT is legendary for concise how-to content. But guess what?

Stories outperform every time.

More interesting, first-person stories performed the best (vs third person). People seem to resonate more with what you’ve experienced firsthand vs experienced secondhand.

BTW: This doesn’t mean you should always avoid “hard teaching.” Nothing wrong with it, per se.

But if you can, take your info and wrap it up in a story for maximum engagement with your audience.

See my intro to today's newsletter as an example.

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#4: The length doesn't matter

I've argued and debated with many peers, directs, and bosses on the BS feedback "this email is too long."

I have done exhaustive analysis on this, and the length doesn’t matter as much as pacing.

Not sentence count, not word count, not character count.

I’ve written short and long emails that got TONS of clicks.
And short and long emails that didn’t.

TL;DR: Good copy is good copy — regardless of length.

And pacing — the speed of which someone cruises through your copy — is much more important than word count.

The Godfather is 2 hour and 50 minutes. Is that movie "too long"? No! Because the pacing is perfect.

That said, I am a huge proponent of concise email copy.

Focus on brevity, pack as much meaning in your email, and keep our Reader moving forward.
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#5: You don't have to say "Hi"

This is kind’ve a funny one.

My good friend and excellent copywriter, DJ Waldow (you'd be smart to hire him if he has room for new clients, btw), pushed me to test this out, and I’m glad he did.

For ages we’d stuck to the common “Hi Brad,” when writing our one-to-many marketing emails. One day he asked why I always did that. I didn’t have an answer, so we put it to the test.

The outcome?

“Hi” underperformed.

Emails had a higher CTR without it.

I'm not pretending I understand why it works.

But we cut it and never looked back.

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#6. You don't need HTML

HTML vs plain text is my FAVORITE.

Mostly because marketers — especially creative directors, art directors, and CMOs — love, love, love the “polish” of a well-formatted HTML email.

And they'll die on the HTML hill.

But I boldly declare Tom Foolery.

Why?

Because 99% of companies use HTML to sell stuff!

Every consumer ad is HTML. So are most B2B emails.

As a result, we've been conditioned to see HTML and put our mental "guard up" because we know a pitch is 'a comin'.

That’s why I personally despise the format.

But I put my bias to the test, and…

Plain text emails win every time.

So if you’re sending one-to-many emails, consider ditching the beautifully designed HTML and keep it simple. It reads more authentically, and people respond to that.

Caveat: if you’re emailing to an opt-in email list, like a newsletter, then HTML is fine. The advice and testing above was for “sales” emails to get prospects and buyers to convert.

Though you'll notice even my newsletter is a hybrid that leans plain text. No you know why.

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That's our time folks.

I wish we could go on, but it's Saturday and the sun is shining.

I'm currently in Solvang on Day 2 of a 5-city road trip through California with my girls, and the Santa Ynez wine is calling me from the other room.

But before I go...

Reply and let me know what questions you have. I'll pick my favorite one, give you a shout out, and write about it next week.

Look at me, Vacation Dev is already in full effect.

Excited to see what you send over.

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Holler at you next Saturday,
Devin

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