The Best Practices Based on 2019 Email Marketing Metrics
Marketers can only make improvements if they take the time to assess the effectiveness of their previous campaigns. This is where email marketing metrics enter into the picture.
With the help of metrics, you will be able to identify which actions you should continue using and which ones you should rather pull the plug on. The following are the most important email marketing metrics that you should pay attention to and a couple of best practices that will help you to give your percentages a boost too.
Open rate
Your open rate is pretty unambiguous and straightforward. In short, it refers to how many of your email subscribers have actually opened a specific email.
By analysing your open rate, you will learn more about which subject lines were the most effective and which days are the ideal time to send those emails. Not only is this metric easy to make sense of, but you do not have to work out this percentage on your own as this metric is also included by all the different email platforms in every email campaign report.
Though, achieving a good open rate is unfortunately more challenging! For instance, the open rate of an e-commerce company’s marketing email campaign is only about 18% on average. So, if you want to improve on that average open rate, you should seriously consider segmenting and customizing your campaigns.
Spam rate
A possible reason why subscribers are so reluctant to open a promotional email is because they often perceive it as spam. Thus, one rate that you do not want to see increase is your spam rate (in fact, you should strive to keep it as low as 0.1%). If your spam rate increases, it basically means that increasingly more subscribers are labeling your emails as spam.
So, before you just send those emails, ask your subscribers if that will be okay with them. Then, once you have received everyone’s permission, be sure not to email them too often and try not to include a deal in every email that you send.
Bounce rate
For your subscribers to be able to open your emails, they need to have received it in the first place. This might sound like common sense, but you will be surprised that some emails actually do not reach their destinations.
The bounce rate measures the percentage of emails that do not reach their intended destination. It could simply be that your subscriber’s inbox is full (referred to as a soft bounce). Though, if your bounce rate is more than 4% it could be a sign that it is time that you update your subscriber list as many of the email addresses very likely no longer exist.
Click-through rate
So, your email managed to sidestep the Spam folder and has, in fact, been opened by the subscriber. You can now shift your focus to your click-through rate which refers to the number of subscribers that clicked on at least one link found in your email.
A high click-through rate is a sign that your writing team is doing a good job as the call-to-action prompts were effective and your subscribers found your content interesting. If your click-through rate is too low, consider segmenting and customizing your email campaigns. Also, pay attention to your email’s structure. It should be easy to scan and click. Ultimately your recipients should know exactly which action they should take next.
Conversion Rate
Two goals of email marketing are to get more people to sign up to a newsletter and, needless to say, boost your sales. Unfortunately most email service providers do not offer conversion rate metrics. Instead, you will have to use Google Analytics or a tool like Omnisend.
Your conversion rate is one of the most important things to assess. If you boast a great conversion rate, it is a sign that your email campaign is targeting the right group. What’s more, it is also an indication that your offer is attractive and that people are convinced by your copy to take action.
Return On Investment (ROI)
You have probably spent some money on your email marketing campaign. In that case, you would like to work out if you have gained anything, right? You can assess if your email marketing campaign has been successful by working out the return on investment (ROI). The formula is very simple: take what you have gained (in other words, the sum of all the sales that you have made via your email marketing campaigns) and subtract what you have spent (like the fee of your marketers and copywriters). Then, divide this answer by what you have spent (yes, the same amount that you used earlier) and you will get your ROI percentage.
Unsubscribe Rate
The reality is that you will always have subscribers who choose to hit that unsubscribe button. That being said, luckily, on average only about 0.25% of subscribers choose to unsubscribe. Though, if your e-commerce business has loads more who opt to unsubscribe, it could be that your content is too promotional or one-sided or that you are simply sending emails too often.
Wrapping Up
You can only manage your email marketing campaign effectively, if you take the time to analyze the metrics. Start by looking at your open rate to determine if your subject lines need more attention, while your click-through rate will help to determine if the rest of your copy needs to be improved. Whatever you do, do not send emails too frequently! While it may be tempting, your spam and bounce rate will only suffer.
Author : Whitney Blankenship
Content Marketing Manager for Omnisend. When not writing awesome content, Whitney is reading up on the latest in digital marketing, ecommerce, and social media trends. Obsessed with pop culture, art, and metal. Powered by coffee. Fastest Googler in the West.