How to do email marketing well? No solid plan succeed every time.
Following different situation and marketing goals, you need to set a different email marketing strategy.
As an email marketer, what do you want to achieve from your email campaign?
Is it generating more leads? Or, do you want to convert your growing leads into customers?
Finding them out may solve half of your problem.
The next phase is tracking your email marketing KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). They help you to understand how your emails are performing to become successful.
Let’s take a look into these email marketing KPI’s you should track seriously.
What are the Top Email Marketing KPIs You Must Keep Tracking?
We are talking about KPIs. What they really are? Key performance indicators are the metrics regarding any user engagement tools.
As email marketing is one of the best marketing channels, you must understand all of it’s KPIs. They let you know and measure your email marketing campaigns overall performance.
Let’s get along with these top 6 email marketing KPIs below.
#1. Click-Through Rate
Click through rate let you know how much your content of emails able to connect users.
Well, what is CTR? It is the percentage of your email subscribers who click on one or more link in your emails.
You can easily calculate CTR like this: (Total unique clicks ÷ Number of delivered emails)* 100
For example, given that you have 500 total or unique clicks, you have delivered 10000 emails. Then what will be your email marketing CTR?
Take a look.
400 total clicks ÷ 10000 delivered emails * 100 = 4% CTR
You can use either the number of total clicks or unique clicks in the link included in your emails.
Unique clicks are the clicks from a single user. It shows how many individual subscribers clicked on your link.
If a user clicked more than once, it would count as one, not two.
Considering unique clicks, repeated clicks from a single user not measured as multiple clicks.
Clickthrough rate is the most common KPI every email marketers track.
It shows the daily user engagement percentage. You can get the performance results of every single email from CTR.
Besides, how your CTR changes through time let you understand your email campaigns possibility and fault at the same time.
To find new ways to get more subscribers, tracking your email marketing CTR is crucial.
CTR can give you insights about the user’s relationship with your emails.
How are they reacting? How are they appreciate your content? You can determine all those answers from this email marketing CTR.
#2. Conversion Rate
A conversion rate is the percentage of your subscribers who completed the desired action using the link attached with your email.
For example, your email brings someone to fill up a lead generation form or make a purchase.
Measuring your conversion rate is necessary. Unless you go for it, how can you learn about the conversion your email campaign generate?
To calculate your conversion rate, do a little math below:
(Number of people who completed the desired action ÷ Number of total emails delivered) * 100
Suppose, 600 people completed the desired action ÷ 10,000 total email delivered * 100 = 6% conversion rate
Though, every time it’s not that people come to make an action using your content link. You need to add a CTA (Call To Action) button which works in a more helpful way.
When people click on your email link or CTA button, the next phase is taking them to make your desired action.
It may prosper any of your conversion goals we’ve mentioned earlier. But you take must some initiatives which drive them to complete a move.
So what should be your plan to make them complete a conversion? You can offer them a free ebook, video tutorial or commission-based offer, etc.
It depends on the customer types you are dealing with your business.
Those who interested to get a free video tutorial, you can consider themselves as your converts eventually. So, if you intrigue their interest, the chances of conversion will increase.
#3. Bounce Rate
When a recipient mail server restricts the emails you sent, they bounce back to you.
The percentage of these undeliverable email address in your list refers to email marketing bounce rate.
That’s the primary idea of it.
How you can calculate your bounce rate?
You need to divide the total number of your bounced email with the number of emails you’ve sent. Then multiply them with 100.
Take a look.
(Total number of bounced emails ÷ Number of emails sent) * 100
For example:
300 bounced emails ÷ 10000 sent emails * 100 = 3%
Email marketing bounce rate means the percentage of email addresses in your subscriber list that didn’t receive your message because it was returned by a recipient mail server.
There are two types of email marketing bounce rate. Hard bounce and soft bounce. Let’s find them out.
Bounce rate is a failure measurement. It shows you how much your email campaign failed to make an impact. Why do we need to track email marketing metrics like this?
Unless you know your bounce rate well, it’s impossible to improve your marketing approach towards your customer.
A high bounce rate drives you to get it reduced. Which is also a success-motivator in a different sense.
To learn more about it, read our in-depth post on how to reduce email marketing bounce rate.
#4. List Growth Rate
It is one of the top foundations of your email marketing campaign. When you want to know if your email list is growing or not at any point of your economic cycle, you need to track this KPIs.
So, the list growth rate indicates your email subscription lists growth or declines. You can determine your email list progress with it.
How fast your email list is growing and how many of your subscribers unsubscribed from your list? List growth rate helps you to determine clearly. That puts it’s importance to the maximum.
To calculate your list growth rate, do the following:
([(Number of new subscribers) – (Number of unsubscribes + email/spam complaints)] ÷ Total number of email addresses on your list]) * 100 = List Growth Rate
Doesn’t it look like an easy equation? Yes, it is.
Besides your other email marketing KPIs, it’s essential to track your email list growth or decline.
Nonetheless, it’s one of your email campaign goals to grow your list and expand your reach, widen your audience aka marketing approach.
The most fruitful solution is using a double opt-in process. Take someone in, who is interested in getting into your list.
#5. Email Forwarding Rate
Email sharing or forwarding is another vital email marketing metrics. What does it mean?
It’s the rate of your emails shared or forwarded by the customer to social media network, or their email network.
How to calculate your email forwarding/ sharing rate?
Do the following:
(Number of clicks on a share and/or forward button ÷ Number of total delivered emails) * 100
That’s it. For example, you have 200 clicks in your share button, and you have delivered 10000 emails.
So your email forwarding rate is, 200 ÷ 10000 * 100 = 2%
It seems a normal one, but if you look closely, you must find it essential.
How? Social media share or share anywhere countable. It meets with new contact every time.
It’s the only way you can multiply your subscribers via word of mouth by the regular subscribers. We believe you get it right.
88% of purchasing decisions are made by good word of mouth — people impact on people.
Positive or negative, it both works. While sharing an email or forwarding is a positive thing.
And, before convert to a service, review from friends and family impact each other.
So you must encourage your regular people to forward your emails.
That helps to enrich your subscription list with fresh leads.
People who take an interest in your content via a third-party may also like to get in touch with you directly.
Always try to influence people to share your content. Keep track of this sharing to measure how you are performing through various ‘other’ network.
It’s also an aiding metrics to get an insight about your likability among random customers.
#6. Overall ROI
Let’s go for a definition.
Overall ROI is the total return on investment of your email campaign. Which means, total revenue divided by total spent and you get your overall ROI.
Return on investment is a performance measurement to evaluate any of your business investment.
You can use it to compare the success of your email marketing with a bunch of other investments too.
What is the primary formula to calculate your ROI?
(Your additional sales – the amount invested in the email campaign) ÷ the amount invested in the email campaign * 100
There are several formulas to measure your overall ROI. It depends on the types of business, and your advantages in calculating it.
Why it is important to calculate your email marketing ROI? It will let you know how your email campaign performs in term of generating profit.
It’s no wonder, email marketing produces considerably high ROI compared to other marketing channels available in the market.
You can read our detail post on how to calculate email marketing ROI. It may help you to gain an insight clear enough.
How to Track Your Email Marketing KPIs Following Your Marketing Goals?
We have started our discussion with this point. Email marketing is a big game, and getting bigger every day.
You can’t apply the same success formula for a long time. There are no golden rules which fit every type of business.
You need to essay your email campaign plan following the genre or types of your business.
What made someone’s plan successful doesn’t mean to work the same for you.
What should be your plan? It depends on your very different marketing goals.
You don’t need to track all the KPIs at the same time. Track what matters especially for your business.
There are a lot of KPIs that motivate your business types. You need to find them out. Before you start sending emails, it’s a must.
How can you arrange or prioritize your email marketing KPIs with your marketing goals?
We are going to discuss it. Following one goal, you are going to set another; it’s a chain that matters.
Keep reading.
Subscriber List Growth Rate
Is it your goal to boost your subscriber list to a more higher level?
If you want to attract more subscribers, want to build a more significant reader base for your blog, or want to reach a broader user base, you can’t do it without growing your subscription list bigger.
Also, if you have a product or tool, and you want to let your subscribers use it for free.
You need to generate a grand subscriber list. More people use your products; more your reputation will increase with time.
The point of tracking this KPI particularly with the highest intensity is: you want to succeed all the goals mentioned above.
There is no other way you put more importance to other metrics considering this goal we’ve said.
Unengaged Subscribers
It’s not a wise thing to stay with inactive subscribers. They remain as bulk in your email list. They are never going to help a bit.
So, while you are tracking your list growth rate, tracking unengaged subscribers is very important.
After you track down all the people aren’t engaged with your emails, supposedly graymail, you must remove them from your list.
Why is it crucial?
Users who are not engaged can harm your deliverability rate. How this takes place?
For example, you sent a lot of emails to this graymail address and didn’t get any response for a long time.
The email client marks your low engagement following this graymail.
And, all of your emails lost importance to most of the email server. They set aside your emails to the junk folder eventually.
You can get help from the email automation platform like OmniKick.
OmniKick automatically performs this action, remove the unengaged emails from your subscription list at ease.
The Number of New Leads in Your List
In such cases, when your target is to grow more leads rather than focusing on the subscription list, you can focus on lead generation with your emails.
You should execute a plan following this goal. Send emails which intend to bring people to a lead generating form.
You main offerings should be the content that adds values and people pays a keen interest to become one of your leads.
After you determine your goal is lead capture, you need to measure day to day numbers.
How many new leads are you getting every day, month, and a certain period? You need to track this KPI.
Lead to Customer Conversion Rate
This is one of the critical email marketing KPIs.
If your goal is turning your current leads to customers, you send emails with goal-oriented content. Something that makes people enthusiastic about your product or service.
The next thing is to track how your emails are performing regarding this goal.
How your email content influence people to become your lead and make a purchase? This metric is going to help you a lot.
Most of the marketers underestimate the vitality of measuring this KPIs after setting their goal.
Unless you can’t be able to find out how your emails help your total conversion, you are never going to make a difference.
You must track your path, how all of your efforts invested in the email campaign are performing.
Final Thoughts
It’s your choice to find the most necessary KPIs and track them. The matter highly depends on your different email marketing goals.
Be careful and try to think critically.
You must measure the performance of your every email, the entire substantiality of your email list and the overall results it produces. Yes, you need to get that close.
Now that you learn all the essential email marketing KPIs, what will be your next step?
