Tracking the results of an email campaign is fairly easy, but it not only reveals whether your ROI is good or not, but more importantly, it holds invaluable insight on why it is good or not, and how to make it better.
In that spirit, we have compiled a list of the most telling metrics of email campaigns’ performance. On other SEO and ranking matters, visit proranktracker.com
Deliverability
Deliverability is easily the most important metric on the list, simply because there’s no way for emails to accomplish their intended purpose if they don’t actually get delivered.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate refers to the percentage of emails that don’t actually get delivered. Bounce rate is very important not only for your immediate email campaign’s results, but also for its future success, as Internet service providers monitor this metric and determine your sender credibility largely based on it. Bounces fall into one of two categories – soft and hard. Soft bounces occur when the receiver’s inbox is full.
Hard bounce refers to occasions on which an email is sent to a non-existent or closed address. Hard bounces should be kept a close eye on because they damage your sender’s credibility. To them, you need to go through your list after every campaign and remove such addresses.
Open Rate
Of course, your emails’ open rate is almost as important as your deliverability, because if people don’t open your messages, they might as well have not received them.
The open rate is a very telling metric on how eye-catching your emails are. Not just that, but it’s extremely suitable for A/B testing of your subject line, which is the first impression of your email and one of the most central parts of your message.
The open rate can also speak to the way your gather subscribers and how quality they are as leads. If your open rate stays consistently low over a large period of time, you should reconsider your lead generation tactics.
Click-Through Rate
Your click-through rate refers to the percentage of people who clicked on the link in your email from all the people who opened it.
This metric is certainly more revealing of the quality of your email’s actual contents. Unlike the open rate, it doesn’t just show how enticing your email is on the outside, so to speak, but how enticed readers are to take the next step after reading it, which is a true testament to proper engagement.
Click-through rates provide valuable insight into the kind of offers that get the most traction among your subscribers, and also create abundant possibilities for A/B testing of your content, especially of your call to action which is what usually seals to deal.
Conversion Rate
Of course, conversion is the ultimate goal, so naturally, your conversion rate is one of the most definitive measures of your email campaign’s success. You need to tie your campaign to your website analytics tool in order to track it.
The conversion rate is fairly sophisticated, too, as it doesn’t just track direct purchases, but also delayed ones. So, if someone converts at a later stage, be it through organic search or direct link, this metric will still account for it as long as that person first saw the offer in the email.
Unsubscribe Rate
The unsubscribe rate is a clear indication that something went wrong. People usually unsubscribe for a couple of reasons. Sometimes, they are just not quality leads to begin with, in which case the problem is with your lead generation strategy.
In other cases, the problem stems from your content and it not delivering on your promise. A third option is the frequency of your emails. Send too many emails, and people start viewing you as a spammer. In fact, certain service providers include a message, asking bluntly “Getting too much emails from X?” followed by “You can unsubscribe,” which says it all. On the other hand, however, if your emails are too few and far between, your subscribers might actually forget that they actually subscribed.
Generally speaking, anything above 2% is considered high and indicative of the need for change of some sort.
Abuse Reports
Abuse reports occur when a subscriber marks your email as spam. Sometimes, this can look worse than it actually is, as some people find it easier to do that than find the unsubscribe button. Even so, you should clearly try to avoid it as much as possible.
Revenue
Even though revenue can be a bit tricky to measure in some situations, as results can sometimes be delayed, in general, you can hardly track any type of marketing campaign without monitoring revenue. It will determine the budget of your campaigns and if they are worthwhile.
Measuring your email campaigns’ results is almost as straightforward as it is insightful, and tracking those metrics is the most accurate way to do it.
