Email marketing is still one of the top ways to market online. If you aren’t working on building your email list every day then you are making a big mistake. Every email marketing program allows you to analyze your analytics and it is important you do so. To get the most out of your email marketing here are a few analytics that you’ll need to focus on.
Delivery Rate
If your emails aren’t reaching inboxes then your audience can’t open them or respond to your call of action. It is important to figure out why some emails aren’t being delivered. If your non-delivery rate is really high, find out why. It’s possible that your subject lines or the text within your emails results in them being flagged as spam.
Open Rate
Once your subscribers receive your emails are they opening and reading them? If not, try switching up your subject lines to improve open rates. Subject lines are very important. Make sure every newsletter you send out is full of valuable information for your subscribers. You are being judged by every email you send and if you send even one email that has no value to your readers then they might stop reading your emails or even worse, unsubscribe.
Click-Through Rate
This is a great indicator of whether your audience is answering your calls to action or not. If they aren’t then maybe your calls to action are not prominent enough. Always make sure your call to action is above the fold and at the end of the email. Your call to action should always be clear and direct. Tell your subscribers exactly what you want them to do and/or how.
Bounce Rate
When people click through, do they stay on the page you directed them to or do they leave? If you have more than a 50 perfect bounce rate then make sure to tweak your landing page to improve it. Try changing one small thing at a time to see if it improves. You could also so a split campaign and test out different pages with your audience.
Unsubscribe Rate
It is inevitable, people are going to unsubscribe to your list and you have to allow them. When someone unsubscribes you can take a look and try to determine why they did. Email marketing programs such as MailChimp, ask subscribers why they are unsubscribing, so you may be able to gather some information from there. You always want your unsubscribe rate as low as possible, but sometimes it is good to just clean out your list and get rid of the subscribers who aren’t interested. They aren’t doing you any good if they aren’t reading your emails anyways.
Spam Complaints
If you find yourself receiving spam complaints then you need to figure out why. Are you emailing your list too much, or have you incorrectly targeted your audience? If the people that sign up to your list don’t really want what you have to offer, then unfortunately they might end up reporting your emails as spam.
Engagement
Do people reply to your email messages? If so, always respond back. If your audience is engaging with you in a positive way then this a good thing. If people aren’t responding to you then figure out why.
Sharing Rates
How often are recipients sharing or forwarding your email messages? A high rate of sharing and forwarding is a good sign that your information is valuable to others. Think about how you can increase sharing. One way is to ask your audience to share and make sure to add share buttons to all your emails.
These metrics need to be studied often, at least weekly to determine if the work you are putting into your email list is working. When things aren’t working then that is a sign that you need to tweak things. Overtime things will improve and you will gain better results from your email marketing efforts.
