Improving Click-Through Rates on Featured Products

One of the simplest ways to increase click through rates on "featured" or "recommended" products from your home page or email campaigns is to give customers a clue as to why the items are featured.

Compare a merchandising zone like this:

To these:

Crutchfield recommends 3 iPods, and customer chooses which is most attractive - the best deal for the price, the top rated item or the expert/staff choice.

L.L. Bean's emails consistently feature products backed up by some outstanding attribute that justifies its recommendation. Value propositions, baby.