If you're like most online business owners, checking your email metrics may not be at the top of your priority list. But there are a few key email metrics that you should be monitoring regularly to make sure you're creating content that is resonating with your subscribers and encouraging them to consume and take action.
I'm sure you've heard that email marketing is one of the most effective ways to connect with your customers and generate more revenue for your business. But how do you know if your email marketing campaigns are successful?
In this blog post, we will explain the differences between three important email metrics (open rates, click rates, and click-through rates) and give you some ideas on how to improve yours.
What are the 3 most important email metrics to be tracking?
Email open rates, click rates and click-through rates are all valuable pieces of information that provide unique insight into the performance of your emails.
Open rates tell you how many people opened your email.
Click rates tell you how many people clicked on a link in your email.
And finally, click-through rates tell you how many people clicked on a link in your email divided by the total number of people who opened your email.
Email Metrics #1: Open Rate
The email open rate is the number of people who opened your email divided by the total number of emails that were sent. This metric helps you understand how many people are actually seeing your email content. A good open rate is between 15-30%.
Tips to improve your email open rates
Previously, most digital marketers thought that the email open rate was the most important email metric because it measures the percentage of subscribers who are interested enough to open your email.
Due to data privacy changes over the last few years, this metric has become less important, as the information that's recorded in your email metric reporting may not be as accurate due to the updated privacy changes.
That doesn't mean you should ignore your email open rates; it just means you shouldn't rely on this metric to tell the whole story about your list engagement.
To improve your email open rate, you can segment your list so that you are sending targeted content to specific groups of people. This will ensure that your email content is relevant to the people who are receiving it, which will make them more likely to open it.
You can also improve your email open rates by writing an engaging subject line. Your subject line should be clear and concise, and it should give the reader a reason to want to open your email.
Timing is [almost] everything when sending emails to your list. You can improve your email open rates by sending your emails at the right time. The best time to send an email is when your subscribers are most likely to check their inboxes. For most people, this is early in the morning or late at night.
Finally, you can improve your email open rates by making sure that your “from name” and “from email address” are recognizable to the recipients. If they don't recognize your “from name” or email address, they are less likely to open your email.
Email Metrics #2: Click Rate
The click rate is the number of people who clicked on a link in your email divided by the total number of emails that were sent. This email metric helps you understand how many people are interested in the content of your email enough to click on a link. A good click rate is between 0.75-1.5%.
Tips to improve your click rates
Considering how many emails the average person receives in one day, it's likely that most people are email skimmers, which means they aren't taking time to read every word that you write (shocker, I know). Knowing that, the more you can do to improve your click rates, the better!
First, you can make sure that your email content is relevant to the people who are receiving it. If your email is targeted and relevant, people are more likely to click through to your website or landing page. (If you're hearing a resounding emphasis on list segmentation, you're pic king up the right stuff, and I’ll be covering this topic deeper in future articles!)
Second, you can use strong calls to action in your email. Your call to action should be clear and concise, and it should tell the reader exactly what you want them to do. Some examples of strong call-to-action words include:
* Click here
* Learn more
* Find out more
* Get started
* Shop now
* Sign up today
3. You can also improve your click rates by making sure that your links stand out in your email content. You can do this by using a different color for your links or by underlining your links.
4. Finally, you can use eye-catching images in your email. Images can help to break up your text and make your email more visually appealing, which will make people more likely to click. Just make sure that you're using images that are relevant to your email content, and make sure you hyperlink your images, too.
Email Metrics #3: Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The click-through rate is the number of people who clicked on a link in your email divided by the total number of people who opened your email. This CTR helps you understand how effective your email content was in getting people to click through to your website or landing page. A good click-through rate is between 0.25-2.0%.
This is a different metric than your regular ole click rate because it only focuses on the people who have opened your email versus taking into account everyone that was sent the email.
Don't be surprised if your CTR is significantly higher than your click rate. The reason this number is higher is because it's measuring the actions of a smaller group of people; and math tells us that the smaller the sample size, the higher the percentage will be.
Tips to improve your click-through rates
If you want to improve your click-through rates, the same rules apply for improving both the click and click-through rates.
1. Make sure your email content is relevant to the people who are receiving it.
2. Use strong calls to action in your email.
3. Make sure that your links stand out in your email content.
Conclusion:
Open rates, click rates and click-through rate email metrics all tell a different story about the effectiveness of your email marketing strategy.
Understanding and regularly tracking these key email metrics is important because they'll give you a good indication of how well your email content is resonating with your audience and how well you're encouraging them to take action.
By understanding and tracking these three email metrics, you can make changes to your content or calls to action that will help increase engagement and conversions from your email list.
If you're ready to improve your email metrics, try some of the tips I've shared in this blog post and see how it affects your future email marketing rates. You can also book a Discovery Call to see how I can further help with your email metrics.
What other email metrics do you track? Let me know over on Instagram!
