As a marketer, sending out emails to subscribers and getting little to no positive results is disappointing. It can also be an indicator that it’s time to take a step back and assess the impact of your email marketing strategies.
Trusting your instincts is a fundamental part of marketing, but with email, this instinct is best utilized when backed up with data. Email marketing metrics serve as a feedback mechanism that allows you to measure consumer reactions. The study of these metrics should be an essential part of your business continuity planning.
Before you send your next email or begin your next campaign project, take some time to analyze previous emails using the following email marketing metrics:
- Open rate
- Email bounce rate
- Click-through rate
- Email list growth rate
- Email sharing / social media forwarding rate
- Conversion rate
- Overall ROI
1. Open Rate
Open rate is the most basic email marketing metric, and is one of the important marketing KPIs that you should be tracking. Essentially, it tells you how many people opened your email. No matter how fantastic your content may be, it counts for nothing if the email is never read.
The general stats show most email marketers average an open rate of a little over 24%. If you get any more than this, whatever it is you’re doing, you’re doing it right.
Despite this, open rates can be misleading. Take cases where the email is opened but the message isn’t passed across to its reader. Instead of feeling downcast because of a low open rate, it may be better to judge the quality of your audience.
If only a handful of your subscribers bothered to open it, how responsive were they? A brainstorming session with your crew can help boost open rates. With the best screen share software and snacks for the team, this can make for a fun session.
It may not be a perfect measure of the quality of your emails, but a low open rate indicates the email subject line isn’t catchy enough. Emails are 26% more likely to be opened when the first names of subscribers are used. A review of your brand's onboarding email may be crucial in turning the tide.
2. EMAIL Bounce Rate
If you experience a low open rate, you may want to monitor your bounce rate. The bounce rate reveals what proportion of sent emails are actually delivered to their target.
An email soft bounces when it’s unable to reach its target due to a temporary issue, such as a faulty server or a full inbox. A hard bounce indicates the email will never reach its destination. This implies the address does not exist or may contain missing letters.
A high bounce rate automatically translates to a low open rate. Moving forward, it’s best if you ask subscribers to confirm their emails. This way, you can check that those on your email list are not there by chance; in other words, they have chosen to receive emails from you.
Customer feedback and email confirmation can be managed through the use of contact center solutions. Hard bounces should be immediately removed from your mail list. Internet service providers often use this as a measure of the integrity of a mailing service.
3. Click-through Rate
The click-through rate (CTR) is an essential key point indicator that gauges the success of your email marketing campaign. It tells you the number of people that clicked on the link in your email, which probably leads to your website. This email marketing metric is at the forefront of determining which emails are effective and which aren’t.
It should be monitored along with the open rate. On average, only 4% of the people who open an email click on the links in it. A high click-through rate is encouraged by open-ended questions and a mastery of the art of drawing the recipient in and seizing their attention.
Calls to action are a popular way to increase the traffic transferred to your website via emails. The CTR is a measure of the activity of your audience. A high click-through rate implies your subscribers are invested in your business.
However, this is affected by factors such as time, the devices used by subscribers, and your brand's public relations. Monitoring the behavior of your audience can prove effective in fine-tuning your email marketing strategy.
For instance, a particular demographic may be better at reading emails during the day while others are more active at night. These factors should be researched while planning brand campaigns and sales marketing.
4. EMAIL LIST Growth Rate
This parameter is relatively easy to determine as most emailing apps have it on their dashboard. It’s calculated by removing the number of unsubscribes from the number of new subscribers. Divide this by the number of emails on your list and multiply by 100. That’s it.
The growth rate is best monitored along with the unsubscribe rate. Allowing subscribers to unsubscribe from your list at any point is part of how integrity and trust are built.
Having a high unsubscribe rate may be disheartening, but it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. To some, it’s a step forward because your audience is being streamlined. After all, pruning is an indispensable part of growth. Your audience is becoming more suited to the type of emails you send, and this translates to them having more of an impact.
The benchmark for the rate of unsubscribes usually falls at around 0.2%. Anything more and you may have an issue. Improving growth rate is a priority task best carried out by collaborative task management processes.
5. Email Sharing / Social Media Forwarding Rate
This metric provides an insight into customer behavior. It’s the number of times your email was shared to another email or a social media account. In other words, it's great news! It implies your audience appreciates your content and would recommend you to others.
The social media forwarding rate is a great indicator that your mail recipients are, to some extent, loyal. This is a good starting point for building a solid customer base. 71% of consumer purchasing is influenced by friends’ social media posts and recommendations, and email sharing and forwarding is a great way to grab a few more subscribers.
Tracking email sharing and social media forwarding tells you what content offers the most impact, and this information can be applied to campaign projects. It is, therefore, necessary to make sharing options available and easily recognizable in your mails.
Improvement in mail content corresponds to an increase in email sharing and social media forwarding. Mail content can be greatly improved with well-edited pictures and videos, for example. Simple video editing apps present the average email marketer with instant video-making skills. When done properly, they transform a plain, monotonous email into a captivating story.
6. Conversion Rate
The conversion rate is a more accurate determination of the effect your emails have on their audience. It represents the number of subscribers that carried out the action you asked them to take.
For example, if your mail advertised a hair straightener, the conversion rate will tell you the number of people who opened the mail, read the content, clicked on the link, and bought the product.
The conversion rate judges the success of your campaign. Achieving a high conversion rate requires planning. For the best results, email marketers need to be well versed in creating high-conversion product pages.
Your email campaign should be purpose-driven and armed with an effective call to action. Proper campaign management involves studying key factors such as the time frame that favors mail interactions, the devices (desktop or mobile) used by the majority of subscribers, the use of trigger words, and push notifications.
7. Overall Return on Investment
This is a measure of the overall return on investment from email campaigns. At the end of each campaign, the marketing team should sit together, either physically, via video call, or maybe they can learn how to fax something from a computer and interact that way.
Together, they should determine how much was made from the campaign and how their investment decisions panned out. The return on investment is calculated as:
ROI = [(the amount recovered from the campaign – the amount invested in the campaign)/the amount invested in the campaign] * 100
The return on investment should be compared to the initial goals set at the beginning of the campaign. This is the final measure of the success of the campaign process. Email marketing usually has a high return on investment compared to other digital marketing strategies. Typically, it requires less capital but has the potential to generate massive revenue.
Using Email Marketing Metrics to Fine Tune Your Strategy
Depending on what the numbers say, you can make any necessary changes to your email marketing strategy. You just have to know which numbers to monitor.
Here, we have discussed seven of the most important email marketing metrics to keep an eye on. From the open rate to the click-through rate to the overall return on investment, each has its part to play in how effective your email marketing is. Embrace the power of data-driven marketing and make your email marketing campaigns even more successful.
