Top 4 Email Marketing KPI’s
Many people have many different opinions when it comes to the best email marketing practices, from length, to CTA’s, to color palette, but what’s the point of optimization if you can’t see how well it’s working?
The question you need to be asking is, “What is the ideal outcome of this email?”
Your ideal outcome can be multifaceted or simple, but you need to know either way. For each outcome, different metrics will be more or less helpful to track.
Open Rate
Open Rate tells you what percent of people open the emails you are sending. This way, you know how many people get past the subject line to actually see the email’s content.
Open Rate is best when used to compare emails sent to the same list, or as a general indicator of email success, as it tends to be somewhat unreliable — emails are not counted open unless the images are downloaded, and many who use an email client have image downloading turned off by default.
Clickthrough Rate
Clickthrough Rate, or CTR, is often considered more valuable than the Open Rate. It indicates how many of those who received your email actually interacted with it by following a link. This can be calculated with either total clicks or unique clicks, depending on your preference.
Clickthrough Rate tells you how much your list is engaging with your content, clueing you into who may be interested in your product or services.
Conversion Rate
Conversion here means to complete a specific and desired action, like filling out a lead form or downloading a white paper. Conversion Rate is the percentage of those who receive an email who follows a link and then complete a desired action.
The goal of email marketing, as with any marketing, is to generate leads and secure sales. Conversion is a vital step in this process, and therefore commonly considered the most important metric of email marketing.
Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate measures the number of emails that aren’t being successfully delivered to inboxes. There are two kinds of bounces that are important to know; what we call “soft” bounces and “hard” bounces.
Soft bounces are the lesser of the two problems. Soft bounces are temporary problems, usually an issue with the recipient’s server or a full inbox. These emails might be delivered once the problem is resolved.
Hard bounces are emails that cannot be delivered at all and result from closed or non-existent email addresses. These can affect your status as a reliable sender, perhaps getting you labeled as spam mail. Each metric has it’s own value, and are best when used in conjunction. Regardless of your end-goal, be sure to keep an eye on these metrics to ensure your campaign’s success.
If you’re unsure about your numbers or want to know more, feel free to reach out for a conversation. We’ll be happy to help.
