What Metrics to Measure
First, it is important to know which metrics you should measure for each email campaign. Keeping in mind that each ESP has different ways to measure these numbers, here is a list of the metrics that matter most.
Delivery rate: According to a report by ReturnPath, up to 22 percent of all permission-based emails are not delivered to the intended mailboxes. This is an astonishing number that affects every other campaign metric, but many companies do not realize that their number of undelivered emails is this high because they only monitor specific metrics such as hard and soft bounces. While this is important information to track, it does not account for the emails that are delivered to a junk mail folder or filtered by ISPs. To accurately track your deliverability rate, you must account for all of these things.
Abuse report rate: Many email clients allow users to report a message as spam without even opening the message, even if the user has subscribed to your list and has requested to receive emails from you. You should monitor this metric very closely as a high spam rate will ruin your reputation and will cause severe deliverability issues in the future.
Read rate: Read rate differs from open rate and some email marketing tools do not measure the difference even though it is substantial. The open rate tracks emails that were viewed in the preview screen of an email client as well as emails that were opened just to be immediately deleted or closed. The read rate tracks emails that were opened and remained open for five seconds or longer, giving the reader time to at least scan the email to see if any headlines capture their attention. While five seconds might not seem like a great amount of time, it is almost twice as long as the general marketing standard of three seconds. Measuring the read rate instead of the open rate will give you a more accurate impression of the number of subscribers that are viewing the information in your email campaigns.
Unsubscribe rate: With every email that you send, a number of recipients will unsubscribe to your list. However, it is imperative that you closely monitor the number of recipients that opt-out of your list as it could be a sign that your emails are not relevant to your subscribers. You should measure your unsubscribe rate with every email you send and monitor it over time. That way, you will notice any spikes in your unsubscribe rate and you will be able to take action immediately.
Forward rate: Many email service providers offer an easy way for subscribers to forward the email to a friend or colleague. This feature is a great way to expand your marketing scope and reach customers you might not have found through traditional marketing methods. When tracking the forward rate, it is important to look at the overall number of forwards as it confirms that you are sending relevant, interesting messages. However, it is more important to capture the email addresses that your subscribers forward the messages to. That way, if the person converts you will know the exact marketing source that generated the business.
Click-through rate: The click-through rate is extremely important as it measures the relevancy of your email offering. However, it is not a measure of end-goal conversion and it should not be treated as such. When tracking this number, you must count the number of unique click-throughs instead of the overall number of click-throughs as it will give you a false impression and could lead you to make assumptions about your campaigns that are not true.
Goal Conversion rate: Integrating web analytics with your email marketing tool gives you an easy and quick way to track the metric that matters most – goal conversion. Google Analytics allows you to set four different goals (such as brochure download, customer representative contact, online demo, and online sale) and, when used in accordance with email marketing, you can track the individual subscribers that clicked-through your campaign to see which ones converted by completing your end goal. This measures the exact success rate of each email campaign. To learn more, read Listrak’s white paper Using Google Analytics to Increase Reporting Capabilities of Email Marketing Campaigns and Boost Relevancy and Response.
Return rate: Because web analytics allows you to tie goal conversation back to a specific email address or campaign, it is easy to measure the metrics that directly affect your bottom line, such as revenue per subscriber and return per email campaign. To figure out what your return is, take the total amount it cost you to create your message, including costs for designers, programmers, and other members of the creative development team. Next, add it to the cost per message fees you are incurring from your ESP. If your ESP charges for undelivered messages, include these fees in your total costs. Finally, divide the total number of emails sent by the total costs and you will have the cost per message. Knowing what it costs to send each message will help you determine what your overall return on investment is. From there, you can break it down to revenue per subscriber and return per email campaign.
