| The use of email in sales and marketing efforts is now | | | | Your unsubscribe rate is another indicator of interest in |
| a given. It's clear to most marketers that the impact of | | | | your email content. Still, if your unsubscribe rate |
| email is increasing--despite the also increasing problem | | | | increases drastically, your email frequency may be too |
| of deliverability. What isn't clear, however, is what that | | | | high. |
| impact actually is to your bottom line. Measuring and | | | | - Open Rate: BENCHMARK: 10-30% The number of |
| monitoring email campaign return on investment (ROI) | | | | recipients who opened your message. Good open |
| and list growth metrics is still an ad hoc process...at | | | | rates are a show of interest by list members in hearing |
| best. | | | | from you. If open rates are declining but click throughs |
| YET, keeping your email campaigns producing for you | | | | are stable it's likely image blocking filters in Outlook and |
| heavily relies on knowing and understanding your email | | | | other browsers are the reason. Try testing the same |
| metrics. Tweaks can be made quickly when you | | | | offer-one with the same design and one with image |
| understand what each metric is and what it indicates | | | | blocking in mind. Also, subject lines play big in the open |
| about your email format, subscription process, email | | | | rate of an email campaign. Be sure your subject line |
| content, frequency, landing page design, and list size | | | | reads like a headline...with intrigue and value to the |
| and segmentation. | | | | audience. Use short subject lines as studies show a |
| Whether your email purpose is lead generation or | | | | 28% increase in opens when subject line is 35 |
| revenue generation, here are the 6 metrics that you | | | | characters and under. |
| should be tracking (and what they mean): | | | | - Click Through Rate: BENCHMARK: 2-6% The total |
| - List Size: BENCHMARK-4-6% growth The number | | | | number of clicks each email receives, based on the |
| of email addresses you send emails to. What you | | | | total number of emails sent. Click through rate is a |
| want to track here is your list growth and attrition | | | | good indicator of interest in your content. But, a better |
| month over month. Are you adding more email | | | | metric for content quality is the click-to-open rate, |
| addresses each month than you lose through | | | | which is the total number of clicks, based on the total |
| unsubscribes and hard bounces? Remember...open | | | | emails opened. A low click-to-open rate or steadily |
| and click through rates decrease as list size increases | | | | declining click-to-open rate means an overhaul on your |
| so when benchmarking use rates from similar size lists. | | | | content should be considered. Also, low conversion |
| This fact demonstrates the importance of segmenting | | | | rates with high click through rates might tell you that |
| your lists. Also, if list growth is off, you may want to | | | | the challenge is in your choice of landing page or some |
| examine your sign-up opportunities. Are you collecting | | | | disconnect between the offer in the e-mail and the |
| e-mails at every reasonable point of influence? Do you | | | | actual offer on your website or landing page. |
| have an e-mail capture method on every page of your | | | | - Conversion Rate: BENCHMARK: Conversion rate is |
| site? | | | | the number of click throughs that either ordered or |
| - Hard Bounces: BENCHMARK-2-5% The number of | | | | acted upon the "offer" such as downloads, demo |
| email addresses not delivered due to a bounce back | | | | requests, etc. Conversion rates dropping but bounces |
| from the target server. This could be due to invalid | | | | and unsubscribes staying low-could be list decay or |
| email addresses either from email changes or typos in | | | | subscribers waiting for a strong discount or offer. |
| the email address itself. Monitoring your hard bounces, | | | | Segmenting these e-mail addresses and sending an |
| and removing them, is critical to both deliverability of | | | | aggressive offer to just those who have clicked |
| your overall list (ISP's monitor the number of hard | | | | through in the past may boost return. |
| bounces your list has hitting their servers and may | | | | Saying you should measure these items and DOING it |
| block you for high volumes), as well as the monitoring | | | | are two very different things. However, it is worth the |
| of your list growth percentages. | | | | effort to track your campaign ROI and email list |
| - Unsubscribes: BENCHMARK: .25-.5% The number of | | | | growth...you just may be surprised at the numbers! |
| email addresses who request removal from your list. | | | | |