These Are the Only Email Marketing Metrics You Need
Here’s a question – how many email marketing metrics do you think you should be tracking? A dozen? Maybe a hundred?
The answer – four…just four main metrics.
According to a recent report from the DMA, a good email marketing strategy can deliver a $38 return for every $1 invested. That’s an ROI of 3,800% - exponentially more than any other comparable marketing strategy.
This is an ROI nobody would turn down, but often proves difficult to achieve. One of the reasons being that a lot of businesses overcomplicate the tracking and analysis of their email campaigns.
When in fact, they really only need to look a four metrics to know exactly what to do next.
Whether running a small branding consultancy or a major international ecommerce enterprise, the same applies. Here are the four email marketing metrics that make almost all other measurements obsolete:
#1: Deliverability
This refers to the delivery rate of your emails, which represents the proportion of emails that reach their intended destination from those sent. Spam filters are becoming more selective and aggressive all the time, making it tricky to ensure all messages reach their intended recipients. Nevertheless, you should be aiming for a delivery rate in the region of 95% or more at least.
Every email that fails to reach its destination represents a failure, which explains the significance of this email metric.
#2: Open Rate
Getting your emails to their intended destinations is all well and good – ensuring they’re opened is something else entirely. This metric concerns the proportion of the emails you send that are at least clicked on and opened by the recipient. It’s also where the importance of a catchy, brief and engaging subject line comes into the equation. Email open rates are rarely as high as delivery rates, though should still be amicable enough.
If you’re not particularly impressed with how many of your emails are being opened, you need to work on your subject lines.
#3: Click-Through Rate
This metric enables you to assess the effectiveness (or otherwise) of the overall content of your emails. If the reader chooses to take action, it suggests they’ve engaged with your email and taken something of value from its content. If not, you’ve missed the mark – or perhaps reached the wrong person in the first place. In any case, readers who don’t take action don’t convert, which is ultimately the goal of every email you send.
There are various reasons why an email recipient would choose not to take action. It’s your job to assess why they didn’t engage with your email and make the necessary improvements/adjustments next time.
#4: Disengagement Rate
Last up, disengagement shows that the recipient of the email has taken an active dislike to something. It could be the frequency of your emails, the relevance of their content or something about your businesses they don’t respond positively to. Your email disengagement rate will tell you how many people are walking away from your brand, but it won’t tell you why. It’s inevitable than some will disappear from time to time – you can’t expect to retain every last person in your list.
But when disengagement becomes a regular or ongoing issue, it needs to be investigated.
Ask the Experts…
Email marketing has the capacity to deliver an unbeatable ROI, but needs to be approached strategically.
If you’d like to discuss the benefits of email marketing or any aspect of your digital strategy in more detail, contact a member of the team at Pivotal anytime.