Establishing goals and targets, monitoring processes and analyzing results is fundamental for any business, regardless of the area of operation or its size. In this way, it is possible to verify if the strategy is correct or if there is a need to change the direction of actions.
In this context, metrics of various types are essential. They provide, in detail and accuracy, data that can influence not only ongoing plans but also future planning.
In an important sector for the vast majority of businesses – the relationship with the public – there is a very effective form of communication, but it requires constant improvement: email marketing. Then the doubt arises: am I doing it right?
Most e-mail submission tools offer complete reports, full of metrics. However, do you know how to analyze them correctly? Do they guide your message production?
To help you discover possibilities for improvement through the data, we’ve explained in this text five important e-mail marketing metrics to track. Good reading!
1. Opening rate
As the name itself indicates, the opening rate is the number of people who opened the email divided by the number of contacts who received it.
However, this metric is not one of the most reliable, because virtually all e-mail services consider a message to be open just because the recipient authorizes the display of images.
Hence, the actual aperture rate is likely to be slightly higher or lower than that reported by the tool. Also, it is not possible to know if the person has read the entire message or only a part.
However, this does not mean that we should disregard this metric. On the contrary, it helps a lot to define the best subject for the email or the best time to send it, through A / B tests.
2. Taxa de cliques
Click Through Rate (CTR) is one of the most important email marketing metrics to see if the strategy used is working or not. It measures the click rate relative to the number of emails sent.
In addition to indicating the effectiveness of the campaigns, it also points out the quality of its contact base and the public’s interest in specific content. The clickthrough rate is calculated as follows: total clicks divided by the number of emails sent. The calculation still includes multiple clicks from a single user.
This metric needs to be followed often because it shows the performance of each email sent. This data changes daily because a user who did not open the email yesterday can view it today or tomorrow, for example.
The CTR can also help define the language and design that most pleases the user through testing. In summary: Click-through rate can validate your email base and indicate user engagement with the content you produce and send.
3. Bounce rate
The bounce rate indicates how many emails you did not deliver to the recipient. This can occur for several reasons, the most common being a crowded inbox, email typing error, or account disabled.Rejection is classified into two types:
- Soft: when it happens for temporary issues such as full inbox. The message can be delivered later;
- Hard: When typing error or account is disabled. There is a loss of lead if this is the only means of contact;
If the rejection rate is too high, you need to clean the base. After all, there is no use having many contacts if a large number of them do not receive their messages. Most tools do this automatically.
Also, a high level of rejection can cause the emails sent by and your company to be considered spam, which causes considerable damage to the continuity of your email marketing service. Even because, both senders and recipients want to avoid spam, right?
4. Conversion Rate
This is one of the most important email marketing metrics as it pertains to the primary purpose of email marketing. What is expected of the reader? Buy a product, download an e-book, follow on your social networks?
The conversion rate represents the number of people who opened the email, acted according to the CTA, was directed to another place, and completed the intended action for that submission.
For this rate to be calculated, integration with another access platform is required to measure precisely where these conversions come from – if indeed it is email marketing.
A low conversion rate can mean several things like your email base is not consistent with your audience, your approach does not meet the expectations of users or people are being redirected to a page that is not prepared to stimulate conversion.
5. Growth of the base
The base growth rate indicates the percentage of new emails compared to the total of the list, subtracting the newsletter subscription cancellations and the rejected emails.
This is one of the email marketing metrics that will show if the lead attraction strategy is working. The higher the growth, the more effective is the approach to get the user’s email. On the other hand, if that rate is low, it’s time to review plans and invest more in interesting content to turn visitors into leads.
An annual decrease of 25% of the email base is natural, and should not worry. We emphasize that it is more important to have a smaller base, but that interacts, rather than very large, but without interaction.
As we have shown in this article, tracking e-mail marketing metrics is critical in analyzing whether customer communication actions by this means are on track. The five metrics detailed above indicate the success or need for changes throughout the process from lead capture to conversion.
Still, have questions about improving your strategy based on email marketing metrics? Then get in touch with us! We are ready to help you have a better relationship with your audience!