Email marketing is one of the most effective and affordable digital marketing strategies that can help you grow your business and achieve your goals. However, to succeed in email marketing, you need to measure your email marketing success and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Measuring your email marketing success means tracking and analyzing various metrics that reflect your email marketing performance and goals. These metrics can help you understand how your email campaigns perform over time, in comparison to each other, and against industry benchmarks. They can also help you identify what works and what doesn’t in your email marketing strategy and optimize your campaigns for better results.
In this article, we will explain what are some of the most common and important metrics to measure your email marketing success and how to use them. We will also provide you with some resources that can help you learn more about email marketing analytics and best practices.
Table of Contents
What are Email Marketing Metrics?
Email marketing metrics are numerical indicators that measure different aspects of your email marketing activities, such as:
- How many people receive, open, and click on your emails
- How many people take a desired action or outcome after receiving your emails
- How many people opt out of receiving future emails from you
- How many emails fail to reach the recipients’ inboxes
These metrics can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts and provide you with valuable insights into your audience’s behavior, preferences, interests, and satisfaction.
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Why are Email Marketing Metrics Important?
Email marketing metrics are important because they can help you:
- Monitor your email marketing performance and progress
- Compare your email campaigns against each other and against industry standards
- Test different email elements and variables and find out what works best
- Segment your audience based on their engagement level, interests, behavior, and loyalty
- Personalize your email messages and offers to match your audience’s needs and expectations
- Improve your email deliverability and sender reputation
- Increase your email open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI)
- Reduce your email unsubscribe rates, bounce rates, spam complaints, and costs
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How to Measure Your Email Marketing Success?
To measure your email marketing success, you need to choose the right metrics that align with your email marketing goals and objectives. You also need to set up a measurement plan that specifies how often and how long you will track and analyze your email metrics. You also need to use an email marketing platform or tool that can provide you with accurate and reliable data on your email metrics.
Here are some of the most common and important metrics to measure your email marketing success and how to use them:
Open Rate
This metric shows the percentage of total emails sent that were opened by the recipients. It indicates how well your subject lines and sender name attract your audience’s attention and curiosity.
You can use this metric to test different subject lines and optimize them for higher open rates. You can also use this metric to segment your audience based on their engagement level and send more targeted emails to them.
To calculate your open rate, divide the number of unique opens by the number of emails delivered (excluding bounces) and multiply by 100.
For example, if you send 1,000 emails and 200 of them are opened, your open rate is 20%.
The average open rate for all industries is 18%, according to Mailchimp.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
This metric shows the percentage of total emails sent that received at least one click on any link or image in the email. It indicates how well your email content and design motivate your audience to take action and visit your website or landing page.
You can use this metric to test different email layouts, copy, images, calls-to-action, and offers and optimize them for higher CTRs. You can also use this metric to segment your audience based on their interests and preferences and send more relevant emails to them.
To calculate your CTR, divide the number of unique clicks by the number of emails delivered (excluding bounces) and multiply by 100.
For example, if you send 1,000 emails and 100 of them are clicked, your CTR is 10%.
The average CTR for all industries is 2.6%, according to Mailchimp.
Conversion Rate
This metric shows the percentage of total emails sent that resulted in a desired action or outcome, such as a purchase, a sign-up, a download, etc. It indicates how well your email campaigns align with your business goals and generate revenue or value for your business.
You can use this metric to measure the return on investment (ROI) of your email marketing efforts and optimize your email campaigns for higher conversions. You can also use this metric to segment your audience based on their behavior and loyalty and send more personalized emails to them.
To calculate your conversion rate, divide the number of conversions by the number of emails delivered (excluding bounces) and multiply by 100.
For example, if you send 1,000 emails and 50 of them result in a purchase, your conversion rate is 5%.
The average conversion rate for all industries is 0.1%, according to Mailchimp.
Unsubscribe Rate
This metric shows the percentage of total emails sent that resulted in recipients opting out of receiving future emails from you. It indicates how satisfied or dissatisfied your audience is with your email frequency, quality, relevance, and value.
You can use this metric to monitor your email list health and retention and adjust your email strategy accordingly. You can also use this metric to identify the reasons why people unsubscribe from your emails and address them in your future campaigns.
To calculate your unsubscribe rate, divide the number of unsubscribes by the number of emails delivered (excluding bounces) and multiply by 100.
For example, if you send 1,000 emails and 10 of them unsubscribe, your unsubscribe rate is 1%.
The average unsubscribe rate for all industries is 0.1%, according to Mailchimp.
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Bounce Rate
This metric shows the percentage of total emails sent that could not be delivered to the recipients’ inboxes, either temporarily (soft bounce) or permanently (hard bounce). It indicates how valid and up-to-date your email list is and how well you maintain your sender reputation.
You can use this metric to clean up your email list regularly and remove invalid or inactive email addresses. You can also use this metric to avoid spam filters and improve your deliverability.
To calculate your bounce rate, divide the number of bounces by the number of emails sent and multiply by 100.
For example, if you send 1,000 emails and 50 of them bounce, your bounce rate is 5%.
The average bounce rate for all industries is 0.7%, according to Mailchimp.
How to Improve Your Email Marketing Success?
Measuring your email marketing success is not enough. You also need to use the insights from your email metrics to improve your email marketing strategy and tactics. Here are some tips on how to improve your email marketing success:
- Test different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, preheaders, sender names, layouts, copy, images, calls-to-action, offers, etc. and find out what works best for your audience.
- Segment your email list based on various criteria, such as demographics, location, behavior, interests, preferences, engagement level, loyalty level, etc. and send more targeted and relevant emails to each segment.
- Personalize your email messages and offers based on the information you have about each subscriber, such as their name, purchase history, browsing history, preferences, etc. and make them feel valued and special.
- Automate your email campaigns based on triggers or actions that your subscribers take or don’t take, such as signing up, making a purchase, abandoning a cart, celebrating a birthday, etc. and send timely and contextual emails that increase engagement and conversions.
- Analyze your email performance over time and compare it with industry benchmarks and best practices. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your email marketing strategy and make data-driven decisions to optimize it.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a powerful and profitable digital marketing strategy that can help you grow your business and achieve your goals. However, to succeed in email marketing, you need to measure your email marketing success and adjust your strategies accordingly.
In this article, we explained what are some of the most common and important metrics to measure your email marketing success and how to use them. We also provided you with some resources that can help you learn more about email marketing analytics and best practices.
We hope you enjoyed this article and found it useful. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to contact us or leave a comment below.
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