Before you execute a successful email campaign, establish your target market first. After you determine who to send your words of passion and insight, you’re going to need a method to track overall response.
Newsletters flood email inboxes every second of every minute of every single day. Approximately 205 billion email messages are sent every day which breaks down to 2.4 million emails every second and 74 trillion emails sent every year. Do we need to say that is a lot of emails?
Some emails contain valuable information and some are pure nonsense. Friendly greetings include queries and offers of which the largest percentage are never opened. With all the social media platforms available today, how much of a chance does an email from an unknown source have of being read? How can an unsolicited email compete for consumer interest in a product or service? Especially in the face of how many businesses use email marketing as a means of prospecting.
But before we move on and look at a few important metrics it is worth noting that the goal of your email campaign is to establish trust and confidence. It is not necessarily to make a sale. That will come later. If your conversion is in the form of a sale then count yourself lucky but don’t expect it all the time. Email marketing takes time and patience. Imagine yourself as one of your prospects. Are you someone you would want to do business with? You’re just another face in the crowd. What is it about you and what you offer that will attract prospects and bring conversions? Some good old-fashioned friendliness will go a long way. You should try to do it better than everyone else.
The following metrics examine emails from the time they are sent, opened or not, how the recipient responded, and a method to calculate ROI.
Open Rate
How many emails sent were opened? That question will generate some confusion because you can’t base the numbers of emails opened against the number of emails sent. Only non-bounced emails should be included in the open rate percentage. Remember that emails that include images and/or links are emails that are counted as opened or not. If you include emails that were bounced you will arrive at an inaccurate number. Aim for a 20-30% open rate.
Click-Through-Rate
CTR is the percentage of email recipients who click-through on one or more of links in an email. These links should lead to a relevant page on your website where a call-to-action button is strategically placed. CTR is an ongoing metric and sometimes used to show results from an A/B test. CTR also provides marketers with valuable insight into how prospects are interacting with their brand. The formula for CTR is the total number of clicks divided by the number of emails delivered. Multiply that number by 100 to arrive at your CTR percentage. One way to improve CTR is to make your emails mobile friendly. Today, 66 percent of all emails are read on either smartphones or tablets. Read this article by HubSpot to get an idea of the type of CTR you should expect.
Conversion Rate
Included in this metric are the number of readers who click on a link in an email and then move on to complete a desired action. Conversions consist of signing up for your weekly newsletter, ordering a free e-book, or simply registering to be able to see more of your website. Only 22% of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates.
Calculating ROI
In general, ROI is the total revenue realized from an email campaign divided by what overall cost. A basic ROI formula is to subtract the amount of campaign cost from the sales made. Divide that number by the amount invested in the campaign and multiply by 100. Is it possible to accurately predict ROI on any email marketing campaign? Click here to try the HubSpot ROI calculator or here for a calculator more email marketing specific.
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