Chris Pentago — October 6, 2017 — October 6, 2017
Free-Photos / Pixabay
Does your company engage in email marketing?
If so, what kind of success have you had so far?
Like a lot of people who launch email campaigns, you probably have not seen the kinds of results you were hoping for when you first started. One major reason for this may be that you have not been paying attention to the right metrics and KPIs.
4 Email Metrics and KPIs You Must Watch
Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective methods of lead generation. But this only applies to companies that know how to use it. Fortunately, you can use marketing automation tools to create effective marketing campaigns and make needed adjustment from easy to understand analytics.
Finding the right marketing automation platform is key to your success. According to Molly McLaughlin at PC Mag, “GetResponse delivers a marketing automation suite that’s near the top of the class,” yet it’s affordable and easy to use. There are plenty of other options on the market to choose from, as well. The important thing is that you find the best possible fit and begin using it right away.
Whichever platform you use or strategies you deploy, these four metrics and KPIs ensure you get the best possible ROI on your email investments.
1) Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is arguably the most important email metric. It is the percentage of the emails you sent that did not actually arrive in the recipient’s inbox. The higher this percentage is, the less the rest of these metrics matter, so pay attention to it.
- How it is calculated: Total number of emails that bounced ÷ total number of emails sent x 100
- Example: 100 bounced emails ÷ 1,000 sent emails x 100 = 10% rate.
Also, pay attention to which kind of bounce you receive. There are two types of email bounces:
- Soft Bounces: These occur because of temporary issues with valid email addresses. It might be that an inbox is full or the recipient’s server is down.
- Hard Bounces: These happen when the email address is invalid or some other insurmountable problem exists. Remove these email addresses from your list because they will never accept messages, which will affect your status in the eyes of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
2) Clickthrough Rate
After bounce rate, the most important metric is the clickthrough rate: how many recipients actually open the emails you send.
- How it is calculated: Total number of clicks ÷ total number of emails delivered x 100
- Example: 300 total clicks ÷ 10,000 emails delivered = 3% clickthrough rate
This is by far the most tracked KPI among email marketers. It is almost always used when running A/B tests on email campaigns for this very reason.
3) Conversion Rate
Of course, getting recipients to click through is great, but if they do not become customers, the email campaign will ultimately be a failure. The conversion rate can refer to other actions, too (e.g. completing any desired action, responding with specific information, etc.)
- How it is calculated: Number of recipients who completed the desired action ÷ total number of emails delivered x 100
- Example: 500 recipients who completed a desired action ÷ 10,000 emails delivered = 5% conversion rate
4) List Growth Rate
This metric tells you if your email list is growing and, if so, by how much. Eventually, when you are happy with the other metrics, this will become the most important measure of your success. The larger you grow your list, the better your results will be.
- How it is calculated: (Number of new email list subscribers – The number of people who unsubscribed) ÷ number of email addresses on your list x 100
- Example: (200 new subscribers – 20 people who unsubscribed) ÷1,000 email addresses x 100 = 18% email list growth rate
Use a Comprehensive Marketing Automation Tool for Best Results
Even though you now understand the most important metrics you must track to measure the success of your email campaigns, actually doing so may seem a bit daunting.
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