Email marketing growth is commonly measured regarding opens, clicks, and conversions. The idea behind these three metrics is that getting more people to interact with your content is the key to growth. While it is true that a healthy interaction rate with your audience is the key to growth, you need to be careful not to get too attached to these numbers.
1. Open Rates
One of the most basic metrics that you’ll likely collect is the open rate of your email marketing efforts. When a recipient opens an email, you can be sure that they have seen your message and are interested in what you have to say. Keep in mind that not all opens are created equal, so pay close attention to the pattern of those numbers as you examine your growth.
When someone opens your email, they are immediately interested in the content you offer. If you’re using an email marketing platform such as MailChimp, you can easily track opens by clicking on the Reports button in the upper right-hand corner of your template. This will give you a preview of the sorts of information that you can get about your open rates. For example, you can see the percentage of people who opened your email, the days and times they opened it, and how many times they opened it.
2. Click Rates
Just like with the opening rate, the click rate of your email marketing is just as important to track. When a person clicks on a link or an image in an email, you can assume that they’ve been interested in what you’ve had to say and are now taking the time to follow up on that interest. When someone clicks on an email link or image in your marketing emails, you can be sure that they have seen your content and are interested in what you have to offer.
Again, like with the opening rate, not all clicks are created equal. You’ll need to look at the sort of content that you’re using to see how many people are clicking on the links and images within that content. If you’re not sure where to start, look at the content that is performing the best. You can use an email marketing platform like HubSpot to track clicks by going to the “Analytics” tab within the platform and clicking the “Clicks” button.
These numbers will appear on the right side of your screen. You can get a general idea of how many people are clicking on the various links and images within your email content by playing around with this metric for a while and seeing how it changes. You might want to look at the best days and times to post to see if a pattern is emerging regarding when your audience is most engaged with your content.
3. Conversions
An open and a click aren’t the only way to grow your email list. You can also grow it through conversions. A conversion is any action a person takes after opening your email. You can look at your email marketing platform‘s dashboard to see how many people are taking action after they’ve opened your emails. For example, if someone opens your email and clicks on a link at the end, that is a conversion. If someone signs up for your email list within your marketing platform, that is a conversion. If someone downloads a coupon from your email, that is a conversion. Etc.
You’ll need to look at your audience’s behavior to track conversions from your email marketing. This will help you determine what actions you can take to increase the number of people who engage with your content and eventually sign up for your email list. You can do this by looking at the number of conversions within your email content and how you can increase those numbers. Doing so can be tricky, as you don’t want to make any drastic changes to your content without getting enough data to back up your assumptions. Once you’ve determined how many conversions you’re currently getting from your email content, you can work on increasing those numbers.
4. Cost per Conversion
Another important metric to track is the cost per conversion. To calculate this number, simply divide the total cost of your email marketing campaign by the number of conversions you get. Generally, the lower the cost per conversion, the healthier your email marketing is. One of the reasons why this number is so important is that if your cost per conversion is too high, it could signal that your strategy is not working. It’s also important to look at the sources of your conversions to determine where you should focus your efforts. For example, suppose you’re getting the most conversions from organic search. In that case, you may want to re-evaluate your strategy and determine whether or not you should be investing in paid ads versus building a quality organic presence on social media websites.
5. Cost Per Acquisition
The last metric that we’ll discuss here is the cost per acquisition. Just like the previous metric, this one is important because it can help you determine the financial health of your email marketing program. The difference is that this number will tell you how much it costs to acquire a new email subscriber. It is also important to look at this metric as a benchmarking tool to see how your strategy is performing. Sometimes it can be difficult to see how much a program costs you if you’re not recording this information regularly. If you’re unsure where to start, look at your email marketing platform’s administration pages and the various reports they provide. You can get a sense of the average cost per acquisition from your email marketing and use that figure to determine whether or not your strategy is effective.
6. Unsubscribe Rates
Having a low unsubscribe rate is important because it means that your strategy is keeping your subscribers engaged with your content. While getting carried away with the metrics your email marketing platform provides is often convenient, you must always remember that a low unsubscribe rate can signal that something is wrong. If you don’t know how to reduce your unsubscribe rate, consider looking at your email marketing platform’s administration pages for help. Getting a substantial amount of your email list from one source may signal that your strategy is not working as efficiently as it could be.
7. Retention Rates
The last important metric that we’ll discuss here is retention rates. Like the other numbers mentioned so far, this one is important because it can indicate the health of your email marketing strategy. The difference is that this one measures the rate at which you keep your existing subscribers engaged with your content. To calculate this number, simply take the total number of subscribers within your email marketing program and the average number of emails sent per day (assuming a standard email marketing program) and divide them by the number of days since the last email was sent. This number can help you determine how effective your strategy is in retaining your subscribers. If this number starts to drop, it could signal that you’re losing potential subscribers due to a lack of content or the constant sending of promotional emails. You should check this number regularly to ensure it doesn’t become a trend.
8. Number of New Subscribers
The last but not least important metric we’ll discuss here is the number of new subscribers. Like the other numbers mentioned so far, this one is important because it can indicate the health of your email marketing strategy. The difference is that this one measures how you get new subscribers to interact with your content. To calculate this number, simply take the total number of people who’ve subscribed to your email list (whether or not they’ve opened your emails) and the average number of emails sent per day (assuming a standard email marketing program) and divide them by the number of days since the last email was sent.
This number can help you determine how effectively your strategy generates new subscribers. If this number starts to drop, it could signal that you’re losing potential subscribers due to a lack of content or the constant sending of promotional emails. You should check this number regularly to ensure it doesn’t become a trend.
Use These Email Marketing Trackers
If you’re looking to grow your email program and don’t know where to start, you may be tempted to measure its success with the simple measures of opens and clicks. The truth is that getting people to open your emails and click on your links isn’t the only way to determine the success of your email program. It can be quite the opposite. In this article, go over these eight email marketing metrics again and show you how to use them to understand better how your program is doing and what it needs to improve.
