Yes, people might be paranoid about clicking on email links in general, because most of them don't understand how exploits work. And it's safer to assume the worst.
I have I few ideas:
- You can try making it a linked image. Either something like 'click this to open the site' or a small image of the front page, then set the alt to the fallback plain link so people with disabled images still see the link. (Having the link be hidden behind an image could also allow to insert tracking id into it.)
- You could also append something like 'or look us up in your favorite search engine'.
- You could embed something similar to the main page of the website into the email itself. So recipients get more context before committing to a link. Emails would still have short introduction to spike interest, and then an alternative copy of the main page that explains more details, and only then the link.
- You could even link to the social profile of your website on the social site that your recipient was found from, and then link to the actual site from the 'bio' there. This would probably add some legitimacy points. Sending Instagram users something like 'find as at @SiteNameAccount or at this link' could be something to consider. So they have an option to not use links at all. Though copying text on a phone is an adventure...
Ultimately, you could produce a few potential designs like that, and ask your daughter to have her friends look at them and decide which one 'looks the safest' or most inviting.