Optimization is the key to get the maximum from your marketing campaigns. Whether it’s your AdWords campaign or Facebook ads campaign, there is always some room to optimize the performance and results. It is also same with email marketing too. You can optimise your email marketing campaigns.
Firstly, you need to measure the performance of your email marketing campaign that how it is performing.
So, Which metrics are essential to understanding the performance?
There are plenty of metrics you can track. Here is a list of all the metrics with a brief note about each one.
1. Click-through rate
CTR is the percentage of people who clicked one or more links in the email they received. You can either take the total clicks or unique clicks to calculate the % provided you use the same approach consistently.
This is the most important metric to track because it tells you how good your emails are.
2. Conversion rate
The percentage of people who clicked on a link in an email and completed the action that is measured as a conversion. It could be a purchase or completing a form to get lead.
Remember, it’s a tricky goal because the goal of the email is to get the reader click on the links and conversion is the goal of the landing page.
But if the email failed to set up the reader to complete the desired action, even the best landing pages cannot convert them. And, in the same way, even the best-written emails cannot guarantee a conversion if you send the reader to a poor landing page.
You should keep this in mind while measuring the conversion rate.
3. Bounce rate
It’s the percentage of total email sent that aren’t delivered to the intended inbox. There are two types of bounce rates - hard bounce and soft bounce.
A hard bounce is the result of an invalid or closed email address that can’t be fixed, and the soft bounce is the result of temporary issues like mail server problem or full-inbox.
ISPs use bounce rate as a key factor to determine the email sender’s reputation and if you’re having too much of bounce rate could place you in the spammers list.
4. List growth rate
The rate at which your email list is growing is another email marketing metric that tells you when you hit the saturation level.
5. Email deliverability rate
The percentage of emails sent that reached the recipient’s inbox. It’s an important metric because it tells you whether your emails are passing the SPAM test or not.
6. Open rate
The percentage of the people opened the email you’ve send. The email marketing community has a split verdict on the validity of this metric. But, I’d recommend you to track this metric because it gives an idea of how good is your email subject lines.
7. Disengagement rate
These are the subscribers who stopped opening, reading and clicking your emails. You should either consider running an email campaign to reactivate these people or consider removing them from the list.
A low engagement rate can force the email clients to send your emails to junk folder if it’s not fixed soon.
8. Unsubscribers rate
This tells you how many people are finding your content poor or irrelevant. Beware, this should always be seen with the disengagement rate because most of the people who find your emails irrelevant usually don’t go through the unsubscribe process, but usually, stop opening and clicking them.
::: How to Optimise:::
Now, let’s know the optimization techniques.
1. Open rate optimization
If it’s not opened, it won’t be read or clicked. So the first you need to optimize your emails to get them opened.
Tips to get more opens:
- Optimize your email subject lines. Test different subject lines and see which words are attracting your readers.
- Try different senders name and see which one works better. Researches have shown that emails sent from personal sender’s id tend to work better.
- Try different times to send the emails.
2. Click through optimization
The main goal of the email is to get clicks. If it’s not getting clicked, it’s almost a failed campaign.
Tips to get more clicks
- Write better call to actions. They should persuade the reader to click.
- Segment your list. Relevant emails to right audiences can double the click-through rates.
- Make emails mobile friendly. Almost half of all emails sent are opened on mobiles and optimizing them for mobiles can get you more clicks.
3. Email deliverability optimization
- Don’t buy lists. Buying lists mean your recipients don’t know you and may mark your emails as SPAM which will hurt your deliverability rate and reputation.
- Remove your hard bounces. Check your list regularly for hard bounces and remove them from your list.
- Focus on engagement. High engagement will get your ESP love you and get your emails to the primary inbox instead of junk folders.
When you follow the above mentioned email optimization tips, your email marketing will get you the best results.