5 Most Important Metrics to Focus On In Email Marketing

Article By Alisa Bargrii,

There are so many reasons why email is considered as one of the most effective marketing channels. First on the list is that email is highly customizable wherein marketers can easily tailor the needs of their customer. Second, it offers every marketer a chance to directly speak to their target customer anytime, which is convenient for them. And last, but not the least, emails are action-oriented, which means, as a marketer, you can use email as a channel to eventually drive your sales and send direct traffic to your site.

But the question is, how would you know if your email marketing plan is effective? In fact, there is no distinct answer to this question. To all email marketers out there, here are 5 most important metrics to focus on in email marketing. These metrics will show you if all of your efforts are being paid off.

• Deliverability Rate

If you want to evaluate how effective your email marketing is, you need to focus on your deliverability rate. This email marketing metric refers to the number of emails received by the receiver’s server. You can easily lessen the number of subscription cancellations as well as spam complaints by means of:

– deleting any email addresses that are invalid or incorrect;

– removing soft and hard bounces;

– updating your email list regularly.

The main reason why every email marketer should focus on Deliverabilty Rate is to grow their email lists. Nevertheless, if you recognized that the total number of unsubscribe list was increasing, take a look at your email’s content and its relevance to the subscriber.

 

• Open Rate

The open rate is the best email marketing metric to use if you want to know how effective your email’s subject lines are. And you should know, that 33% of email recipients open email based just on its subject line. However, this metric should be regularly improved and monitored. The best way to do it is to utilize A/B testing in order to evaluate the email’s subject line of two slightly different emails. You send them to some part of your audience and later compare which of them triggered the most engagement. The majority of email/campaign tools will help you to calculate an open rate.

 

• Click-Through Rate or CTR

When a certain receiver simply opens your email message, in fact, it is not enough for your brand. They should answer back to your offer or hit off the action for you to acquire better results. By segmenting your email lists you will be able to increase your CTR. Therefore, if you want to send your emails to a certain audience or create more directed emails, you need to focus on this email marketing metric. Marketers say, show me you CTR, and I will tell you how successful your email marketing strategy is. Simple formula – fast success.

• Social Sharing Rate

Basically, social sharing is all about sending videos, website links, pictures, as well as product recommendation, using different social media platforms. And social sharing is denoted by small buttons that are normally seen on your email or business website.

Once thousands of people visit your site or become interested in your brand, your website traffic increases. That’s why, placing social sharing button at the place, visible to customers, is crucial for your business. But it’s important to place it where it won’t detract from the purchasing experience.

You don’t essentially have to add social sharing buttons to every email you’re sending. If you really want to upsurge your social sharing rate, make sure to include Social Sharing Buttons at the end of your E-mails. After someone makes a purchase, give them the option to share it, but don’t push them for doing it.

• Unsubscribe Rate

This email marketing metric is a decent sign of the overall appeal, value, and relevance of your E-mail Messages. It is identified as a percentage of the overall number of users who unsubscribe from your emails. But as a marketer, make sure that you have the correct perspective on the real meaning and value of unsubscribing. A good unsubscribe rate is considered to be below 0.5% and it shouldn’t go higher than 1%. The RetunPath offers an Unsubscribe Calculator, that can help you to measure your rate due to your email marketing campaign.

However, if you really want to measure those who opt-out of receiving your emails, then unsubscribe rate can be a good email marketing metric to target over time. Nevertheless, if you want to measure inactivity then you should opt for the click-to-open or open rate.

 

Final Thoughts:

For sure, the majority of email marketers knows that a successful email marketing does not happen instantly. These five important metrics become significant when applied to comprehend how value-oriented, appealing, informative, enticing, and engaging your email program is over a long period of time. By using Analytics Platforms, learning how to use this data and checking the latest marketing trends, you’ll be able to improve your strategy.

On the other hand, the most important metrics that every marketer should focus on is the one which is related and relevant to their goals. Don’t use a metric just because it is being used by many. And always remember, all marketers have different goals.