According to JupiterResearch, the average email marketer sends out 5.2 million emails a year, a 24% increase since 2005. Working with so many emails, how do email marketers gather any results?
Tracking email marketing campaigns allows email marketers to analyse statistics (‘metrics’) such as open rates, bounces, click-throughs, forwards and unsubscribes, and gives them detailed information on each individual recipient. But tracking email marketing campaigns isn’t easy. Email metrics aren’t always consistent, and the ones to rely on are changing as the internet continues to evolve.
Follow these 3 steps to get started on tracking email marketing campaigns:
1. Make sure you are using reputable tracking software. The best software will allow you to build opt-in lists and construct and customise email marketing campaigns whilst tracking them all in one. Your tracking software should include all the necessary statistics outlined above, and some of the latest software now includes graphical summaries to make it a lot easier to pinpoint where your email marketing campaigns are really succeeding.
2. Learn which stats are better than others. Open rates are useful, but just because an email has been opened it doesn’t mean it’s been read. Click-through rates (the number of recipients who clicked on a link in your email) are more telling because they indicate that your emails are successfully converting consumers into prospects.
3. Act on results. Highlighting where your email marketing campaigns are succeeding is one thing, but acting on where it isn’t is another. It’s easy to get swept up in impressive open rate or click-through statistics, but acting on growing unsubscribes is crucial to get your email marketing campaigns back on track.
Ryan Owen Gibson is a copywriter for Design Logix, a full-service web agency providing dedicated web hosting, web design and email marketing solutions.
www.design-logix.co.uk
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