Use your email campaign results to make everything better

Email marketing is one the best methods to advertise online. Every dollar you invest into an email campaign can generate forty dollar return according to a DMA study (2011).

You can track every open, click or a sale that resulted from your newsletters. It’s a great way to know your customers better and optimize your next campaigns. Today, we’ll talk about interpreting and comparing email metrics.

Email campaign results: positive feedback metrics.

- OPEN RATE. It’s the number of emails that were opened vs. the volume of emails that were delivered. The average open ratio is about 15-16%, but you can always add extra 5-6% to your results (opens are registered only when subscriber clicks on the “Display images” link).

- CLICK-THRU RATE. It’s the number of clicks on the links vs. the amount of emails that were delivered. Contrary to open ratio, this metric is 100% accurate. The average CTR is around 4%.

- CONVERSION RATE. It is the final action you want the subscribers to take: clicks on the “Buy now!” button, number of times your ebook was downloaded, etc. It varies for every sender, depending on the aim of their emails.

Email campaign results: alerting feedback metrics.

- SPAM COMPLAINTS. It’s the number of people that click on the “This is spam” button vs. the amount of emails you sent. It shouldn’t exceed 0.1 – 0.2%. If higher, your newsletters might stop hitting the inbox and get blocked by providers such as Yahoo! or Gmail.

- BOUNCES. It’s the number of undelivered emails vs. the amount of emails you sent. Keep an eye on the bounces generated by addresses that do not exist. The ratio for such bounces shouldn’t exceed 5%.

- UNSUBSCRIBES. It’s the number of people that click on the resignation link vs. the amount of emails you sent. The industry average is 2% opt out ratio per a newsletter. List churn is a natural thing and although it’s not a positive experience, it’s better to let people resign this way than make them mark your emails as spam.

Use your email campaign results to make everything better