Improving your business is all about tracking to make informed decisions. The same goes for email marketing. Experienced marketers follow specific email marketing metrics to track and improve their campaigns’ performance. But what do email metrics mean?
Email marketing metrics are performance indicators. They help you understand how well your email campaigns are doing. You can categorize these metrics into two groups: engagement metrics and conversion metrics.
Some metrics are so important that every business needs to calculate them. In contrast, other metrics depend on the business’s goals. Below, we’ll discuss seven KPIs, including their definition, calculator, impact, and improvement tactics. So, let’s dive right in!
Why Is It Important for Businesses To Measure Email Marketing Metrics?
Tracking campaign results is essential in creating an effective beginner email marketing strategy. It gives you insights into what’s working for your emails. You can go from good emails to exceptional ones by doubling down on those efforts.
On the other hand, these insights also tell you what isn’t working. Such data isn’t something you should take lightly. It can uncover your mistakes and help you improve things for better results.
Email marketing metrics also tell you how your audience engages with your emails. If a group only responds to certain types of emails, you can stop sending them other messages. This will save you time, effort, and money, maximizing your return on investment (ROI).
You can also judge the language, subject lines, calls-to-actions (CTAs), and offers they respond best. All you have to do now is double down on what’s working and discard what isn’t.
Lastly, you can avoid spam filters by measuring things like email deliverability rates. When you work on improving them, your emails reach the intended inboxes rather than ending up in spam folders.
What Is the Most Important Metric in Email Marketing?
Click-through rates (CTRs) are the most crucial metric in email marketing. But that doesn’t mean you should only focus on them and ignore other metrics. There’s a reason we’re starting by answering, “What is the most important metric in email marketing?”
As you know, choosing some metrics depends on your goals. However, every business should measure its CTR, no matter what goals it has for its email marketing. It’s that important, but what exactly is it?
CTR tells you the percentage of recipients who clicked on at least one link within your email after receiving it. People send emails because they want their readers to take some kind of action. It’s not like they’re sending those emails just for the sake of it. That’s why knowing how many took action is so important. Here’s how you can calculate it.
Email CTR = number of clicks ÷ number of delivered emails * 100
Between 2 and 5, you’re probably good to go. However, a good CTR also depends on your industry. So, if you find your numbers less than your industry’s average, you’d want to improve them. Here’s how.
Start by segmenting your audience. This might seem unrelated, but better segmentation allows for more personalization. If people relate to your emails and find solutions to their problems, they won’t be able to help but click.
Secondly, you can change the timing and language of your email. The more it aligns with your audience’s preferences, the more likely they are to click.
However, nothing can save your CTRs if you don’t provide some kind of value in your emails.
As mentioned earlier, between 2 and 5 is a good email CTR. Some companies take it even higher and enjoy better sales than others. To do the same, you must measure and track your campaigns first.
After all, how will you improve something when you don’t know if it’s up to par? Apart from CTRs, there’s a lot else you need to keep an eye on. However, that doesn’t mean you must track every metric out there. Here’s a list of the six most common metrics to help you decide.
1. Email Deliverability Rate
The first metric on our list is the email deliverability rate. This is the percentage of emails that land in the intended recipient’s inbox, avoiding spam filters and bounces. It isn’t a metric you can improve simply by what you write in the email. There’s a lot that goes into it. But first, let’s see how to calculate it.
Email deliverability rate = delivered emails ÷ total emails sent * 100
Between 90% to 98% is what this number should be. If your result doesn’t lie within this range, there’s a chance you haven’t authenticated your domain. Or, you might not have a good sender reputation. So, to work on that, avoid spammy words, keep your email list clean, and provide clear unsubscribe options.
2. Bounce Rate
Bounce rate means the percentage of recipients whose mail server returns the emails you sent. Your aim should be to lower your email bounces as much as possible. You wouldn’t want to spend time and effort on an email only to have it returned to you. So, here’s the formula:
Bounce rate = number of bounces ÷ total number of emails you sent * 100
If this number is greater than 5%, you need to make changes. However, there are two types of bounces: hard and soft bounces. Soft bounces aren’t worrisome since they’re temporary. They might occur due to the recipient’s mailbox being full.
The mail server delivers them when the load decreases.
On the other hand, hard bounces are worrisome. But you can reduce them the same way you’ll reduce your email deliverability rates.
3. Conversion Rate
A conversion is the ideal situation. It’s when the recipient takes the action you want them to take. Therefore, having a high conversion rate will work in your favor. This would be the percentage of recipients who click on a link and take the desired action. There’s a simple formula for calculating this.
Conversion rate = number of people who took action ÷ number of emails delivered * 100
Fortunately, getting a high conversion rate is entirely under your control. You just have to take a few simple steps. For example, automating your email workflows to increase engagement could result in high conversions.
Again, segmenting your customers will help you create more personalized emails, increasing conversions. You can also try mobile optimization, strong CTAs, A/B testing, better subject lines, and dynamic content.
4. List Growth Rate
This next metric has less to do with what you write in your emails and more with your email lists. The list growth rate tells you how quickly your email list is expanding. The more people you have on your list, the more emails you can send. When that happens, you’ll have more chances of making conversions.
You can calculate it by using this simple formula:
Growth rate = number of new subscribers - number of people who unsubscribed in a given period ÷ current subscribers * 100
You need to tread carefully with this metric. If you have a high growth rate, your open, conversion, and click-through rates should also be high. The best way to increase this metric is to use authentic and legal ways to build your email list.
You can offer incentives, valuable materials, special discounts, giveaways, and even free WiFi (if you own a local business). You need to get people interested in your emails. Otherwise, you’re gathering useless contacts that will either leave or bring you no return.
But remember, this is an ongoing process. As you add more people, you also need to remove the contacts that have unsubscribed. Maintaining your email list’s hygiene will give you a better view of what’s happening.
5. Unsubscribe Rate
There seems to be a dilemma around unsubscribe rates. Some marketers view them as an important metric, while others say they’re misleading. Before we discuss why, let’s define them.
The unsubscribe rate is the percentage of subscribers who opt out of receiving your future emails. You can calculate it using this formula:
Unsubscribe rate = number of people who unsubscribed ÷ the number of emails you delivered * 100
Now, the reason why some marketers deem this metric misleading is that people don’t always follow the unsubscribe process. Sometimes, they stop opening your emails if they’re no longer interested.
If that’s the case, your unsubscribe rate might come out to be less than what it really is. Regardless, it’s good to know the numbers and combine them with other metrics to get the whole picture.
6. Open Rate
The last metric we have for this article is the open rate. This is the percentage of people who opened your emails once they received them. Good open rates mean your subscribers find your subject lines and preheader text interesting enough to read the rest.
If your open rates aren’t ideal, you might want to rethink your subject lines and preheader texts. It would be a good idea to A/B test each email campaign before launching it. Here’s how you can calculate this metric:
Open rate = number of emails opened ÷ number of delivered emails * 100
However, this is another metric that can sometimes be misleading. Mail servers only count an email as opened if the receiver also received the embedded images. Many people use image blockers for space and security reasons. If a person opens your email but doesn’t get the image, it won’t count as open.
So, comparing open rates to previous open rates rather than relying on them completely is better.
Frequently Asked Questions About Email Metrics
1. What’s a KPI in Email Marketing?
A KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. These measure different aspects of a specific email campaign, giving you even better insights.
2. How Do I Choose the Right Email Marketing KPIs for My Business?
Choosing the right email marketing KPIs for your business depends on your needs and goals. Sometimes, multiple campaigns are a part of one goal. Other times, each campaign has a separate goal. So, assess what your campaign needs to do and then choose its KPIs.
Yes! Measuring email marketing performance allows businesses to learn what’s wrong or right with their email campaigns. As a result, they can make the appropriate changes to improve their results.
Measure Your Metrics To Get Actionable Insights Into Your Emails
Measuring email marketing metrics is vital in creating an effective email marketing strategy. It helps you make data-driven decisions. That’s good because you’ll know what works and what doesn’t. It also brings you insights into audience behavior, preferences, and interests.
If you need some help mastering your email marketing metrics, try Beambox. We’re experts in marketing and business. Beambox can help you track the important metrics of your emails and automate the campaigns.
Additionally, you can easily create captive portals for your business to build a list. Start your free trial today!
