Email marketing remains one of the most commonly used tools by online marketers. If you are one of those who continue to use this marketing option for businesses, let us pose to you one question: what email marketing metrics are you tracking to measure how the tool is helping you realise your goals, whatever they may be?
You may take pride in how well-written and well-optimised your emails are, but those email masterpieces of yours do not really matter if you can’t see the results of all your efforts. Also very important is tracking the right email marketing metrics, because that’s the only way for you to see how you’re progressing towards any of your goals. So here are the email marketing metrics you should monitor.
Clickthrough Rate
If there’s one email marketing metric that gives you direct insight into the number of people on your email list who are actually engaging with and interested in your content and whatever it is you are offering, it has to be the clickthrough rate (CTR). Simply put, the clickthrough rate is what you can use to determine how well every individual email is performing. If you’re tracking the clickthrough rate on a regular basis, you will also be able to see changes in your CTR as time goes by.
Conversion Rate
To determine the extent to which you’re reaching your goals, you have to closely monitor the conversion rate. It is, after all, directly tied to the call-to-action in your email where you offered a chance for them to download a new ebook, for instance. Your call to action, in turn, is directly tied to your overall marketing goal, and that is why the conversion rate is something you have to track closely.
Bounce Rate
In the world of email marketing, bounces typically happen, where emails sent do not make it to the inbox of a recipient. The percentage of those emails that fail to get through are measured by the bounce rate. When you’re tracking bounce rates, you have to keep an eye on both the “hard” and “soft” bounces.
When an email bounces because of a temporary problem with a valid email address, such as a full inbox or server problems on the part of the recipient, it’s categorised as a soft bounce. It’s called that way because there is still a chance for your email to get through once any problem is resolved, or if you re-send your email.
Hard bounces, on the other hand, are what happen when your email is sent to an email address that’s invalid, closed, or non-existent. There would just be no way for your email to be received by anyone. Since internet service providers (ISPs) use bounce rates to determine the reputation of an email sender, you need to remove these hard bounce addresses from your email list if you don’t want ISPs tagging you as a spammer.
List Growth Rate
As an email marketer, your email marketing list is at the centre of all your efforts. Understandably, you want that list to grow and grow over time, but you have to keep an eye on both its growth and—believe it or not—loss. Yes, approximately a quarter of your entire list expires every year because of natural decay. So instead of focusing on making your subscriber list bigger than ever, you should work on maintaining it at a size that can be considered healthy.
Email Sharing/Forwarding Rate
One of the most important email marketing metrics you should keep tabs on would be the email sharing or forwarding rate. After all, the rate at which your email recipients forward or share your email with others is how you create new contacts. So always egg on your readers to share your emails with their friends if they think your content is interesting and useful, and begin keeping an eye on the number of people you can add to your database in this manner.
Overall ROI
If you want to show your boss and your sales team how essential email marketing is towards achieving desired results, you need to show hard, tangible results like the overall ROI of your email marketing. For instance, you need to show them the number of leads you have generated via email marketing. In addition, you have to illustrate how all those leads translate to potential, and eventually, actual revenue.
There are other metrics you may choose to track, but the ones above are some of the most important ones that will help you see how you’re doing when it comes to reaching your goals. Keep track of the above metrics, and you’ll be on your way towards more effective email marketing.