We’ve come across a lot of marketers who use a cookie-cutter approach with email marketing. Email marketing is one of the most profitable marketing channels even now. But for that, you have to stay on top of the most important email marketing metrics and KPIs.
The success or failure of your email marketing campaign can be determined by how well you track and measure its performance. By tracking the right email marketing metrics, you can improve your campaigns and achieve your desired results.
On that note, here are 10 email marketing metrics that you should track…
# 1- Email open rate
The open rate is the percentage of people who open your email out of the total number of people who received it. It’s one of the most important email marketing metrics ever. For one, it helps you understand how effective your subject line is. A dismal open rate generally indicates that your subject line isn’t effective or that your email is being filtered out as spam.
Campaign Monitor says that the average open rate in the UK is 22.9%. It can vary slightly depending on the industry and the time of the week. But 23% is a decent starting point to compare with the performance of your campaign. If it’s lower than that, there’s scope for improvement. To track your open rate, you need to use an email marketing tool that tracks it for you. Most modern email marketing tools do this by default.
#2 – Click-through rate
The click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on a link in your email out of the total number of people who opened it. It’s a good indicator of how engaging your email content is to your subscribers.
The average CTR for an email in UK is about 3%. But this varies depending on the industry and the type of campaign you’re running. For example, the CTR for agriculture peaked in 2021 at 5.2%. But it was a dismal 0.9% for retail. So, it’s important to track the CTR for your specific industry and campaign.
Poor CTR rates can be caused due to a number of reasons. Your content might not be interesting enough. The email might be irrelevant to your subscribers. Or the design is poor with CTAs not highlighted.
#3 – Conversion rate is one of the critical email marketing metrics
The email conversion rate is the percentage of people who take the desired action after clicking on a link in the mail. It can be anything from filling out a form to buying a product.
Statistics reveal that emails are extremely effective at driving sales. That said, the average conversion rates vary extensively depending on the intended action. Order follow-up emails have a 5% conversion rate. While newsletters fare the poorest with a 1% conversion rate.
#4 – Unsubscribe rate
The unsubscribe rate is the percentage of people who unsubscribe from your email list out of the total number of subscribers. It’s a good indicator of how happy your subscribers are with your content.
A high unsubscribe rate usually means that your subscribers aren’t interested in your content or that they find it irrelevant. It could also mean that you’re sending too many emails. It could also be that your subscribers aren’t receiving the content they expect from you.
#5 – Bounce rates
The bounce rate is the percentage of undeliverable emails out of the total number of emails sent. Emails can bounce for a variety of reasons. A few are incorrect email addresses, full inboxes, or server issues.
Bounces can be harmful to your sender’s reputation and could lead to your emails being filtered out as spam. Many email marketing companies also monitor your bounce rate and could suspend your account if it’s too high. There are two types of bounce rates that you can track.
- Soft Bounces – These are emails that couldn’t be delivered because of temporary issues such as a full inbox or server outage
- Hard Bounces – These are emails that couldn’t be delivered because of permanent issues like an incorrect email address
You can track your bounce rates by using the reporting features in your email marketing tool.
#6 – Spam complaints is one of the email marketing metrics to carefully watch
The spam complaint rate is the percentage of people who report your email as spam out of the total number of subscribers. It’s one of the email marketing metrics we watch carefully at Rockstar Marketing.
International spam laws state that you can only send marketing emails to people who have subscribed to your list. If you’re caught sending unsolicited emails, you could face hefty fines. Not to mention that you risk getting your account suspended by the ISP.
Not only does it reveal about email marketing list hygiene, but it also shows how customers feel about the email content in general.
#7 – Email marketing metrics will be incomplete without tracking ROI
Sometimes marketers spend a lot of time obsessing over data that isn’t as important as they think. While they overlook the more important ones like ROI.
ROI is a calculation of how much revenue you generate from each pound sterling you spend on email marketing. To calculate it, simply divide your total revenue by your total marketing expenses. This is a critical metric to track because it tells you how successful your email marketing campaigns are at generating revenue for your business.
The average ROI for email marketing is 42:1. This means that for every £1 you spend on email marketing, you generate £42 in revenue. However, there’s a lot of variation between industries. Also, brands sometimes fail to accurately calculate their marketing costs.
There are email design, copy, list acquisition, testing, and deployment costs to consider. So make sure you have a good understanding of all your marketing expenses before calculating your ROI.
#8 – List growth
List growth is the number of new subscribers you add to your email list each month. It’s important to track this metric because it tells you how successful your marketing efforts are at acquiring new customers.
Ideally, you want to see a consistent upward trend in your list growth rate. This means that your marketing efforts are paying off.
There are a few things you can do to increase your list growth rate. You can run giveaways, offer free content, or provide a valuable freebie in exchange for an email address. But if your list growth rate is stagnant, then you are probably not doing something right.
#9 – Email sharing rate is one of the key email marketing metrics
Email sharing rate is the percentage of people who open your email and then share it with their friends. It’s a good indicator of how engaging your content is.
If your email has a high email sharing rate, it means that your content is entertaining and interesting enough to prompt people to share it with their friends. It means you provide value. It’s improving the customer experience. Did you know that friend recommendations can influence 81% of buying decisions?
It’s all the more reason to make sure your emails are highly engaging and entertaining. Also, to keep an eye on the sharing rate, one of the most telling email marketing metrics for us.
There are a few things you can do to improve your email sharing rate. You can include social media buttons in your emails, write catchy subject lines, and use interesting images. But the most important thing is to produce high-quality content that people want to share.
#10 – Email read rate
Modern email marketing tools let you analyse granular details. One of these is the email read rate. The read rate is the percentage of people who open your email and actually read it.
We’re not talking about skimming through the content mind you. We’re talking about those who take the time to go through your email in full.
This is one of the most important email marketing metrics for us. There are a number of reasons why your email read rate might be low. The most common reason is that your he copy is not effective enough. Conversational and personalised copy works best for emails. Maybe the design is poor. No one likes to read a block of text.
It’s important to track this metric because it tells you how successful your email marketing campaigns are at getting people to read your emails.
Our team at Rockstar Marketing carefully monitors the email read rate and tweaks our campaigns accordingly to ensure that more people are reading our emails.
Conclusion
Email marketing is one of the most effective channels for promoting your business. But to make sure your campaigns are successful, you need to track the right email marketing metrics and KPIs.
That’s the only way to know which aspects of your campaigns are working and which ones need improvement. With tonnes of metrics to track and complex data to decipher, some small brands may find this overwhelming. That’s where our skilled UK-based email marketing agency can help.
If you would like more information or help setting up your email marketing campaigns, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We would be happy to help!
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