Email marketing takes practice. It involves adhering to best practices, avoiding rookie mistakes, and optimizing emails for increased engagement.
Marketers Must-Know Email Marketing Metrics
- Open rate
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Bounce rate
- Conversion rate
- Revenue per email
- Overall ROI
- Spam reports
1. Open rate
Email marketers have long used open rate as one of the most basic metrics. Open rate tells us how engaged our subscribers are and how effective different subject lines are.
However, when Apple makes Mail Privacy Protection publicly available, it will effectively disable open-tracking for users who choose to use it, making open rate an unreliable metric. Open rate will become increasingly unreliable as more inbox providers follow suit.
Fortunately, this list includes many more success metrics.
2. Click-through rate (CTR)
CTR is another common metric for campaign performance. CTR measures how many people clicked your email’s links. For example, if you included a coupon link, the CTR measures how many subscribers clicked on it.
There are a few ways to increase email click-through rates. Include links throughout the email and a prominent call-to-action button for subscribers to redeem your offer.
Open rates typically outperform click-through rates. Most campaigns have an average click-through rate of 4%.
3. Bounce rate
When sending an email campaign, keep track of the bounce rate. Bounce rate measures how many subscribers did not receive your email. Soft bounces track temporary email address issues while hard bounces track permanent email address issues.
Bounce rates versus open rates give you a better idea of your list’s quality. If you have a high percentage of hard bounces, your list may contain fake, old, or incorrect email addresses.
By requiring a double opt-in, you can reduce your bounce rates. A double opt-in requirement ensures better email list quality and lower bounce rates.
4. Conversion rate
Your conversion rate measures how many people clicked on your link and then completed a specific action. For example, if you sent an email with a link to a Black Friday sale, the conversion rate tells you what percentage of people clicked the link made a purchase.
Conversion rates provide unique insight into ROI. You can tell if your campaign is successful by looking at how much you spent and how many subscribers converted.
5. Revenue per email
The ROI shows the overall ROI, but the revenue per email shows the individual success of the emails.
This figure can help you determine which emails perform best and which emails reduce the overall ROI.
The best way to measure an email’s ROI is by tracking clicks, web traffic, and conversations.
6. Overall ROI
Every email marketer should track overall ROI. It tells you your campaign’s overall ROI.
To calculate this, subtract the campaign’s sales from the campaign’s execution costs, divide the result by the campaign’s investment, and multiply the result by 100.
Email marketing is one of the most cost effective digital marketing strategies.
7. Spam reports
It’s discouraging when your emails are marked as spam. You may prefer to ignore these instances, but spam complaints must be addressed.
Providers want to monitor spam complaints and ensure quality. If this rate rises too high, your email provider may take action and block your account.
You should monitor this number yourself to ensure that your emails are technically sound and that your copywriting meets your expectations.