New clients are great to have, but they aren’t the only way to measure the success of an email campaign. Other, subtler signs also give you clues on how to optimize your campaigns for even better results.
The Big Impact Metrics
After the number of new clients your campaign brings, your conversion rate is your most important metric to measure. This is the percentage of people who received your emails and did what you hoped they would, such as download your free whitepaper or sign up for a strategy session. Most email platforms integrate with common analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to let you track your conversion rates.
Revenue per email, your total revenue divided by the number of emails delivered, is another important consideration. At times, even if your open rates and click-throughs fall, but your revenue per email is up, your campaign is still a success. Maybe you’ve started focusing on luxury homeowners for renovation work, dissuading much of your existing list, but winning more valuable clients. To calculate this number, you’ll need to directly relate new contracts to your email campaigns.
Subtler Signs of Success
What your readers do before reaching your website also tells you how well your emails are performing. One metric to watch here is your open rate. Above 30 percent is perfect and you’re doing well.
If it’s lower than 20 percent, you probably need to improve your subject lines or choose topics that are more relevant to your readers. Segmenting your list can help. By putting, for example, your renovation prospects and commercial office construction prospects on separate lists, you can send more relevant, interest-specific emails to both.
Next, pay attention to your click-through rate, the percentage of people who click a link to your website. Around 5 percent is average.
Your email platform can track these metrics for you. If you’ve already sent out of a few campaigns, reviewing your data for patterns and outliers can help you spot what’s working and what isn’t.