New digital marketers may sometimes find email marketing to be intimidating because of the different strategies and practices needed to succeed.
However, the truth is that these strategies all boil down to marketing metrics that can be measured through email marketing statistics.The best way to know if your email campaigns are successful is through the use of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can track as the campaign progresses.
Don’t be surprised if there are several marketing metrics to choose from. All you need to do is to choose which metrics are most important to monitor to ensure your success.
Don’t worry because we’ll also be guiding you on which email marketing metrics you’ll need to keep an eye on. If you’re not sure where to start, then here are the 5 metrics that you shouldn’t forget to track.
1. Open Rate
It may seem like a no-brainer that open rates should be monitored, but some marketers still forget that this is the most basic email marketing metric. Monitoring whether or not your subscribers open your emails gives so much information for so little effort required.
Low open rate means that subscribers aren’t informed on the latest news you provide. You should aim to get at least 17% open rate, which is just slightly below the average open rate of successful marketing campaigns. Open rates that are lower than 15% means that there are problems in your campaign that need to be addressed.
How to improve it:
Open rate is a bit like measuring site traffic in that open rate, by itself, doesn’t have an impact on the actual conversion you’re bringing. You can have an amazing open rate but if your subscribers aren’t clicking through to your site, it doesn’t mean anything.
With that said, a great open rate is what opens the door for conversion to happen. It’s definitely worth looking into. If you have a lower open rate, it means that you need to work on and test your subject lines.
2. Bounce Rate
If open rates are about the number of emails sent that were received, then bounce rates are about the number of emails that didn’t reach the intended subscribers. It’s always a good idea to measure the bounce rate because it gives you a clearer picture of the problems that hinder your campaign’s reach.
Having a high bounce rate is the same as having a low open rate, but the problem is that there might be opportunities wasted in a high bounce rate because of interested audiences not getting the emails they want. The aim is always to have near-zero bounce rates whenever possible.
How to improve it:
It’s time to look into your email deliverability. Try some IP warming by sending emails to your absolute best customers (the ones that have the highest engagement) and increase that amount over time.
3. Email List Churn Rate
Churn rate is a metric that refers to the number of subscribers that have chosen to unsubscribe to your email list. Churn rates must be monitored because it provides you feedback on the relevance and quality of the content you provide. If left unchecked, high churn rates may cause the growth of your campaign to slow down.
How to improve it:
It’s normal to have recipients unsubscribe to email lists, but you should aim to have only 5% churn rate to avoid losing momentum for your email campaigns. When your churn rate is high, it’s time to segment your email list so that subscribers only receive emails they’re interested in. Go for quality over quantity if you want to improve content.
4. Click-Through Rate
Click-through rate (CTR) is an important metric that focuses on the actual performance of the email marketing campaign. As its name suggests, this metric refers to the actual percentage of clicks made to the link provided in an email. As a result, CTR also measures how many readers have been redirected to the target landing page.
Tracking your CTR can help measure how well your campaign’s call-to-action works. Without CTR, it would be difficult to do A/B testing on your call-to-action. You need to have at least 5% CTR to ensure that your campaigns are competitive.
How to improve it:
- Make sure to keep track of your CTR and continue to modify your campaign in order to get better results. Take a good look at your email campaigns and think about a few things:
- Is your CTA clear and does it pass the squint test? Squint at your email. Does your CTA still stand out?
- What copy are you using in your CTAs?
- Is your CTA above the fold?
- Do you have the right ratio of text to images? (50/50 is usually a good bet and you can test from there)
Conversion Rate
CTR is often partnered with the conversion rate, which refers to the percentage of people who performed a specific action after clicking the link provided. These actions can be subscribing to an email list, purchasing a product, or entering a promo.
Tracking the conversion rate gives you a clearer picture of how your reach to a wide audience turns into actual profits for the brand. Higher conversion rates also mean that your email campaign is successful in achieving its purpose.
How to improve it:
There are tons of factors that impact your email conversion rate. It could be copy, images, CTAs, or even just the offer combined with the incentive. The best way to improve conversion is to A/B test each element of your campaign to look for an impact.
Conclusion
The 5 above mentioned metrics are some of the most important statistics you need to track when you do email marketing. As a marketer, make sure that you monitor these metrics and use them to improve your email campaigns.