Email marketing can be hugely powerful, but if it’s not getting through to your customers, it’s a big waste of time and money. How can you tell whether your emails are disappearing into the ether or hitting the mark with your customers?
Performance metrics can help you gauge the impact of a particular campaign, helping you analyse your work, spot trends and gain valuable insights for future campaigns. Of course, you also need to know how to benchmark that performance for new and existing customers.
Here’s what you need to know:
Email marketing metrics explained.
Email metrics tell you what’s happening in your campaign, but what exactly do they mean?
- Open rate – the percentage of your audience that opens the email content you send. This tells you whether you’ve written a compelling subject line or missed the mark.
- Click-through rate – the percentage that clicks on the ad or link in the email. This metric helps you understand how well your email is selling your offer – or if customers are losing interest before they reach your call to action.
- Conversion rate – the percentage that completes your email’s call to action, such as signing up or making a purchase. This gives you insight into the strength of your offer.
- Unsubscribe rate – the percentage that unsubscribes from your emails. This rate can reflect a few factors – including email oversaturation, an offensive subject line or customers that may have signed up to your mailing list for the wrong reasons.
RELATED: Email marketing tips to improve your open and click-through rates.
Benchmarking for existing customers.
Your existing customers already have some loyalty to your brand, so they’ll probably be easier to reach with eDMs. For this reason, you’ll want to aim for slightly higher performance outcomes with this group.
- Open rate.
Because you’ve already built a relationship with existing customers, it’s normal for these figures to be higher than with prospective customers. Aim for a rate between 25-35%.
- Click-through rate (CTR).
As with your open rate, customers already know and trust your brand, so they’re more likely to engage with content than non-customers. A good benchmark is between 5-10%.
- Conversion rate.
This varies depending on your industry and specific campaign goals, but a 3-8% rate is reasonable.
- Unsubscribe rate.
Existing customers should be less likely to unsubscribe than non-customers. To maintain a strong customer base, aim for an unsubscribe rate of less than 1%.
RELATED: What is email marketing, and how does it work for small businesses?
Marketing emails to potential customers.
Every new customer is a win for your business. So how can you tell if your email content is winning them over?
- Open rate.
There’s a lot to consider with your open rate for potential customers, like your industry and specific audience, but aim for a 15-25% benchmark.
- Click-through rate (CTR).
The higher the CTR, the more likely your content is relatable and relevant for your new audience – and they want to act on your offer. Aim for a rate between 2-5%.
- Conversion rate.
Depending on the goals of your campaign and the stage of customer acquisition, a good conversion rate for prospective customers is between 1-3%.
- Unsubscribe rate.
Before you’ve gained someone’s loyalty to your brand, it’s normal to see some people unsubscribing. But to ensure you’re still growing your customer base, try to keep the rate under 1%.
RELATED: 8 examples of brilliant email marketing campaigns.
Keeping tabs on eDM success.
You spend a lot of time crafting your email content, so you want it to deliver results. Whether you’re targeting new customers or selling to your existing base, email performance metrics help you understand how well your emails are working. With those insights, you can tweak your current campaign and optimise the design of your next one. In the long run, it’s about gaining customers, boosting sales and growing your business.
Need some extra help with your email campaigns? Check out our eDM marketing guide for more handy tips.
