Email marketing is a strategy that involves sending messages to a list of subscribers via email. It is an effective way for businesses to reach out to potential customers and build relationships with existing ones.
Measuring performance is essential to determine the success of email marketing campaigns. This is where Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) come in. KPIs are metrics that help measure the performance of specific aspects of a marketing campaign.
Understanding these KPIs can help businesses improve email campaigns and increase ROI. So without further ado, let’s start.
Open Rate KPIs
Open rate KPIs measure the percentage of email recipients who opened an email. This metric comes from dividing the number of unique opens by the number of emails delivered, and it is expressed as a percentage.
The open rate KPIs provide insight into how well a subject line or preheader has captured the recipient’s attention. A low open rate shows that the subject line or preheader needed to be more compelling or that the email ended up in the spam or junk folder.
On the other hand, a high open rate implies that the subject line effectively grabbed the recipient’s attention.
Pro Tip: Moosend’s Refine tool can help you with this scenario by optimizing your email subject line with AI.
Back to KPIs, there are three main types:
- Overall Open Rate: The overall open rate KPI measures the percentage of all opened emails.
- Unique Open Rate: This KPI measures the percentage of individual recipients who opened an email. It eliminates multiple opens by the same recipient, providing a more accurate picture of how many people opened the email.
- Open Rate by Device: The open rate by device KPI measures the percentage of email opens by the device type used. It helps to determine the effectiveness of email design and optimization for different devices, such as mobile or desktop.
Click-Through Rate KPIs
Click-through rate (CTR) KPIs measure the percentage of email recipients who clicked on a link or call to action (CTA) within an email. It is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of delivered emails. CTR KPIs are essential in email marketing because they provide insight into how effectively the email content and CTAs drive engagement and conversions.
CTR KPIs help businesses determine whether their email content and CTAs resonate with their audience and motivate them to take action. A low CTR could indicate that you need to write better content or that the CTAs must be more prominent. On the other hand, a high CTR suggests that the content and CTAs effectively engage recipients and drive them to take action.
There are three main types of CTR KPIs:
Overall CTR: The overall CTR KPI measures the percentage of all delivered emails that resulted in clicks.
Unique CTR: The unique CTR KPI measures the percentage of individual recipients who clicked on a link or CTA within an email. It eliminates multiple clicks by the same recipient, providing a more accurate picture of how many people engaged with the email.
CTR by Device: The CTR by device KPI measures the percentage of clicks by the device type used. It helps to determine the effectiveness of email design and optimization for different devices, such as mobile or desktop.
In conclusion, CTR KPIs are essential in email marketing, as they provide insight into how effective email content and CTAs are at engaging recipients and driving them to take action. Tracking and analyzing these metrics can help improve the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns and optimize ROI.
Conversion Rate KPIs
Conversion rate KPIs measure the percentage of email recipients who clicked on a link or call to action (CTA).
It is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of delivered emails. Conversion rate KPIs provide insight into how effectively the email content and CTAs drive engagement and conversions.
Conversion rate KPIs also help businesses determine whether email content and CTAs resonate with their audience.
A low conversion could indicate that the content needs to be more relevant or compelling enough or that the CTAs need to be more prominent. On the other hand, a high conversion suggests that the content and CTAs effectively engage recipients and drive them to take action, ultimately increasing eCommerce conversions.
Revenue KPIs
Revenue KPIs measure the financial impact of email campaigns. Several revenue KPIs can be used to measure the ROI of email campaigns.
Total revenue KPI tracks the total revenue generated from email campaigns. This metric provides insight into the financial impact of email campaigns on the business.
Revenue per email sent is a revenue KPI that measures the revenue generated per email sent. This metric helps to identify the most profitable email campaigns and can be used to optimize future campaigns.
Revenue per subscriber helps to identify the most valuable subscribers. This metric is essential for developing targeted marketing strategies for different subscriber segments.
Revenue KPIs are crucial in email marketing because they provide insight into the financial impact of email campaigns. They can also help businesses make informed decisions and manage resources for future campaigns.
List Growth KPIs
List growth KPIs measure the growth and retention of email subscribers over time. These metrics are important because a growing and engaged email list drives revenue and improves ROI.
The following are examples of list growth KPIs:
Total number of subscribers: This KPI measures the total number of subscribers on an email list. It provides insight into the size of the email list and can track list growth over time.
Subscriber growth rate: This KPI measures the rate at which the email list grows. It provides insight into the effectiveness of list-building efforts and can also help identify areas for improvement.
Subscriber churn rate: This KPI measures the rate subscribers leave the email list. A high subscriber churn rate may imply that you need to improve your email content, follow some email marketing trends, or change the frequency of your email campaigns.
Unsubscribe Rate KPIs
The unsubscribe rate is the percentage of subscribers who unsubscribed from an email list. It provides insight into the health of the email list and the effectiveness of email campaigns.
Although it could appear harsh, you shouldn’t be hesitant to check your unsubscribe rate. It’s painful to think of someone scrolling through the content you’ve worked so hard and clicking the “unsubscribe” button.
The truth is that you don’t need to take it personally. Consider the unsubscribe rate as a tool to say if your email list is clean. The unsubscribe rate can help you understand the people who read your emails, the material they enjoy, and how you can increase their engagement.
Remember that unsubscribe rates under 2% are within the range of industry standards.
But here are also some tactics that can help you reduce unsubscribes. Start with a healthy list and use strategies like segmentation, automation, and personalization. With this approach, you will build a solid customer base of engaged users more likely to engage with your campaigns.
Spam Complaint Rate KPIs
Spam complaint rate KPIs measure the percentage of subscribers who mark an email as spam or junk after receiving it. By tracking spam complaint rate KPIs, businesses can identify trends and make informed decisions about optimizing their email marketing strategies for maximum ROI.
Remember that if you send to providers without an FBL (feedback loop), the reported complaints may appear unnaturally low when examining spam complaint rates. Because of this, using spam complaint rates alone is less effective than comparing them with other metrics over time.
In general, the lower the spam complaint rate, the better. Low spam complaint rates, however, may not accurately reflect an email’s success. This happens because receivers cannot classify emails as spam if they are already in their spam folder. This ultimately becomes a deliverability problem.
To prevent harming the sender’s reputation and your ability to reach the inbox, it is crucial to analyze and deal with high spam complaint rates as soon as possible.
To optimize your campaigns and ensure you have high-converting emails:
- Recognize the material that recipients do not want to receive.
- Identify issues with the list-building, targeting, and unsubscription processes.
- Pay attention to spam words that can trigger the CAN-SPAM act.
Bounce Rate KPIs
The percentage of emails that fail to reach recipients is known as the email bounce rate and consists of two types.
On the one hand, we have hard bounces caused by faulty email addresses. On the other hand, we have pending or soft bounces that signify technical difficulties with the email server of the sender or the receiver.
But what’s a good email bounce rate?
According to research conducted by Campaign Monitor, the average email bounce rate across all industries is 0.7%. A low bounce rate means you always reach the recipient’s inbox, maintain a clean contact list, and avoid spam filters. You also get extra points if your email open rate is high!
Now, what about a high email bounce rate?
You might reconsider your strategies if a high bounce rate is 2% or more. Using an email template builder is one example of optimization. Another is writing more catchy subject lines and curating your email content.
Here are some excellent practices to remember to maintain that email bounce rate as low as possible:
Many emails never reach recipients when your email bounce rate is high. When you clean your email lists, you can significantly improve email deliverability.
You may delete inactive subscribers and enable address verification for new subscribers. Doing this ensures the email addresses are still functional to receive your next emails. Also, you raise your chances of staying out of the spam folder.
Double opt-ins and sending a confirmation email to the recipient will ensure the address is valid. This email verification can greatly impact bounce rates as it stops robots and spam emails from subscribing.
To reduce spam email addresses, optimize your signup forms without making them overwhelming.
Your Google or Yahoo email accounts may be marked as spam or added to a blacklist if you repeatedly send email marketing campaigns.
Consider sending email campaigns via Moosend, Sendinblue, or other alternatives and utilizing a business-related email address. ESPs, or email service providers, are affordable and help you optimize your email marketing campaigns.
Engagement Rate KPIs
When someone receives an email, they form an initial impression of your brand or company. This may mean the difference between a successful transaction and a dissatisfied consumer.
An essential metric is email engagement to help you understand your audience and deliver more engaging email content. For instance, you can know which products are popular if you notice high click-through rates. Or, you can see which products underperform.
That can imply that your target market needs to see the benefit of doing business with you again. It’s often a sign that you must improve your subject lines or call to action to reach the right audience more effectively.
Let’s discuss this further to comprehend how to optimize your email templates for this KPI.
The most crucial thing you can do to improve email engagement is personalization. You’ll notice increased open rates, click rates, and conversions when customizing emails.
You can start by using the recipient’s first name or the specific day of the week that you send your campaigns. When you get familiar with this tactic, you can always use more advanced personalization fields to create more unique emails.
The easiest approach to interact with or follow up with your subscribers is through email segmentation.
With segmentation, you target your subscribers with information about the topics they are already interested in. For instance, you may automate welcome sequences for new subscribers if you use an email marketing service.
This ensures that their experiences are more than transactional when they buy or are added to your list.
Subject lines are among the most critical factors of open rates, so consider how to make yours stand out from the rest of the emails. To ensure higher open rates, avoid spam words that trigger spam filters and provide value right from the header.
Forward Rate KPIs
Forward rate KPIs measure the percentage of subscribers who forward an email to other people, helping to measure the virality of email content and the effectiveness of email campaigns in reaching new audiences.
This indicator might help you decide whether your communications are compelling enough for your contacts to share with their friends. A high email forward rate is ideal for brands looking to improve their word-of-mouth marketing approach.
By regularly tracking and analyzing forward rate KPIs, businesses can identify opportunities to improve email content and CTAs for maximum virality and reach, expand their subscriber base, and increase their overall marketing performance.
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The Takeaway
In conclusion, email marketing remains a critical component of digital marketing, and it is essential to measure its effectiveness through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Regularly measuring and analyzing KPIs can help inform email marketing strategy, identify areas of improvement, and ultimately drive better ROI. It is crucial to focus on the KPIs that align with your email marketing goals and objectives and track them consistently over time.
Author Bio
Alex is a content writer and marketer at Moosend with a passion for filmmaking. He brings a unique perspective to every piece of content, infusing it with creativity and storytelling. Dedicated to creating content and sharing marketing strategies that inspire and inform the readers.
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