As you probably know, we are big fans of a well-executed Email campaign. Though some may assume email marketing is an old-fashioned way of connecting with customers, it’s important to understand that, according to Campaign Monitor, emails were clicked on and opened more frequently in 2020 than in years past (thanks, COVID). Couple this with the fact that 94% of marketers say email is in the top 3 of their list of effective marketing strategies and it becomes crystal clear that email campaigns need to be part of your overall marketing plan.

But how do you know if the campaign you worked so hard to create actually did what it was supposed to do? The answer lies in the email metrics (or KPI’s) which can help you understand if your campaign was successful or somehow missed the mark.

Let’s look at some of the most important metrics to analyse when evaluating the success of your email marketing campaign.

Unsubscribe Rate

Seeing your unsubscribe rate and knowing potential customers have essentially said, “It’s not me, it’s You. Buh-bye” is never easy. If you want to look on the bright side, you can think of those who unsubscribe as pals who are interested in improving your email list hygiene. After all, some attrition is a normal part of doing business and they’ve just helped you clean up your email list.

But it’s also important to take a hard look at why people are unsubscribing, particularly if you have an unsubscribe rate over .5%. If that’s the case, you may need to get to the root cause. Are you:

• Sending too many emails
• Providing content that doesn’t help your customer (tons of promotional ads with no value for them)
• Using content that is irrelevant to your customer
• Including lackluster subject lines

Email Open Rate

No surprises here—the open rate measures the rate at which people open your email upon receiving it. Your open rate provides a valuable window into customer engagement and, ideally, you hope to see an open rate that increases over time, which indicates what you have to say or offer is increasingly valuable to clients. An average email open rate should be somewhere around 15 – 25%.

Click-through Rate (CTR)

CTR measures the percentage of people who clicked on a link in your email and is important to know because it tells you just how interested people are in the content of your email. Ideally, your CTR for an email campaign should be around 2.5%

You can improve your CTR by making sure your email is optimised for mobile use, includes one eye-catching call to action (CTA) and includes appealing and interest-inducing images that compel readers to click.

Conversion Rate

This measures the percentage of customers who, upon reading your email, did what your campaign asked them to do—whether that is making a purchase, filling out a form, or clicking on a link. Your conversion rate will let you know just how successful your email campaign was.

To determine a successful conversion rate for your campaign, you’ll need to know what your goal was (to get people to make a purchase, sign up for an event, fill out a form, etc) and you’ll need to define your base. Are you going to base your conversion rate off the total number of emails sent or only off those who opened your email? Once you’ve made that decision, simply divide your total number of conversions by your base.

Spam Score

Much like your unsubscribe rate, no one wants to see a client have reported your carefully crafted email campaign as spam—that kind of thing cuts straight through the heart. But having your emails marked as spam isn’t just painful on a personal level—it can hurt your business.

When an email you sent is marked as spam a complaint is logged by providers like Google, AOL, and Outlook, and this can affect the reputation of your domain name.

There are plenty of free spam score checking tools out there that allow you to upload your email and receive a report with any points of concern (inappropriate content, suspicious domains or IP addresses, etc.). Mail Tester is a great free site for getting a spam score before you send out your campaign.

If you’ve created a well-planned, on brand email campaign, odds are you have a significant amount of time and effort invested in it. To know just how successful your campaign is, you’ll need to analyse some key metrics to determine what worked…and what needs to be improved.

If you decide you’d like a little support when creating your next email campaign, reach out to us at Digital Canteen. We’d love to develop an on-brand email strategy for you that fits your voice and offers a strong return on your investment.

References:
Opt-in Monster
CXL Optimization Industry
Campaign Monitor
Hub Spot
Barilliance
Do Not Pay

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