Measuring Effectiveness of Email Newsletters in Your Marketing

Email Newsletter Metrics You Need to be Keeping Abreast Of

Many marketers are making the transition to email newsletters as they can provide a whole host of new marketing opportunities. Gone are the days of plain text emails you can now have full color messaging with embedded documents, coupons, links to other pages, the options are endless.

Hence nowadays most people will choose rich content email newsletter templates for messages which look more akin to the page of a magazine. The increased usage of mobile devices and tablets has also helped increase the acceptance of this media.

So you’ve gone to a lot of trouble to create a visually attractive, content-rich email newsletter that’s your pride and joy. But is really it working for you? How do you know how effective they are and whether the additional cost and effort to produce an electronic newsletter is worthwhile?

There are a handful of email metrics that apply directly to this, and keeping an eye on them will give you a leg up when you’re tweaking and optimizing for better results. Let’s examine a few of these metrics and how you should understand them.

Several key email newsletter metrics to keep an eye on

• Clicks and conversions – Presumably at least one of the reasons you’re sending out your newsletter is to generate clicks to your offers or other form of conversion. You should track this metric most closely of all, as it’s often the gateway to the rest of your products and services.
• Bounce rates – To put it simply, emails that aren’t delivered successfully are known as as bounces. A “hard bounce” is where you have an email address that is no good, while a “soft bounce” suggests either full inboxes, or perhaps server issues. If your bounce rates are excessive, your email provider will likely want to have a word with you.
• Open rates – This one is not quite as important, but only because there isn’t a completely accurate way to track the numbers on this. (Due to image files loading) However, as a general guide, it’s worth keeping an eye on. The industry average for email marketing opens is generally between 15-20 percent.
• Delivery rate and spam complaints – If you see that your email delivery rate is below 95 percent, there is likely an issue with the quality of your list, (dead addresses) or your email provider itself. Also, if your spam complaints are creeping north of 1 percent, you need to act. In fact, you’ll probably be compelled to by your email provider.
• Unsubscribe rates – You’re gonna have people unsubscribe from your list every now and then; there’s no way around it. A normal rate is less than 1 percent, and if any particular email newsletters design or series of them is anywhere near 5 percent, you’ll need to take a detailed look at why. Either the quality of the message has slipped, or maybe your mobile version isn’t what it should be. More than half of all emails are now read on a mobile device, so it’s vital that your emails be mobile optimized!