The Value of Email Metrics

Distributors today enjoy a virtually endless selection of marketing channels to consider. One of the most-popular channels is email. It’s easy to see why.

Distributors experience many benefits by using email marketing. It’s accessible, affordable, and maintains a direct line of communication between a distributor and its customers. And virtually all of a distributor’s customers and prospects have a business email account, making it easy to reach their target audience. In addition, it’s also fairly cost-effective when compared to other channels.  Plus, it gives distributors a direct way to communicate with their customers (source). Email can also be utilized to gain better brand recognition, generate more sales, and build stronger customer relationships in the process. With email, a custom message is crafted and sent directly to a target audience’s inbox. This message can feature key products or promotional offers. Email marketing also provides metrics to track the effectiveness of a campaign.

Metrics are one of the primary reasons why email campaigns are so valuable. They directly show companies the impact their efforts make. Marketing professionals pay close attention to this data and use it to demonstrate the overall effectiveness of campaigns. So what type of data comes from these email campaigns? The answer is all types of measurements. This can overwhelm those who have to shift through the numbers. With a wide range of measurements to evaluate, it can be difficult to tell what to do with each type of metric. But, there is a way to navigate and digest this data!

The first step is determining a goal. Different campaigns may have different goals, which is why different metrics may be used to measure success. For example, if a distributor wants to generate sales for a specific product, they’d focus on how many opened emails result in a sale. These measurements are sometimes called key performance indicators or KPI’s.

Metrics to use for broad campaign awareness 

Companies need to be aware of what happens within the email campaign. Certain data can clue-in on a problem early on. The best metrics to use for this are those that measure the basic functions of the email campaign. Measurements include delivery rate, inbox placement rate, bounce rate, open rate, rejected rate, and click-through rate.

• Delivery rate: This metric is calculated by dividing the volume of emails delivered by the volume of emails sent. It gives a good baseline of how many emails are making it to an inbox.

• Inbox placement rate: this metric measures the percentage of emails that land in the inbox. This is more accurate than delivery rate because delivery rate measures all emails that aren’t bounced or rejected.

• Bounce rate: bounced email is a sent message that doesn’t get delivered for any reason. This metric measures the amount of bounced emails a campaign is seeing. It’s valuable to know at what rate emails are reaching recipients but more importantly, what amount isn’t.

• Open rate: This metric is calculated by dividing the number of emails opened by the number delivered. An email is only counted as opened if the images are displayed. It is a good baseline to look at for engagement, but there are more in depth measurements to indicate cause.

• Rejected rate: this type of email is a type of bounced email. It includes messages that aren’t delivered due to reputation issues such as complaints and blocking. It is also a good baseline and can lead to looking at another metric to determine cause.

• Click through rate: This metric is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the volume of emails delivered. This can clue into engagement levels from recipients as well as measure how engaging email content is.

Metrics to use for deeper performance insight 

It’s important to know if an email campaign is meeting basic goals. But, to look deeper into the impact of the marketing effort, you have to look into deeper data. These are the metrics that look at more specific functions and actions taken. They provide a detailed picture of how the emails are performing. These measurements include hard bounce, soft bounce, read rate, complaint rate, deleted before reading rate, and unsubscribed rate.

• Hard bounce: these emails are messages that are permanently rejected due to issues like invalid email addresses and domains. This helps bring to light issues with list quality.

• Soft bounce: these emails are only temporarily rejected due to issues with the recipient’s email account. For example, if their inbox is full or if the server is down. This can help determine the cause when the bounce rate is high.

• Read rate: this metric is similar to the open rate, but is more accurate. It measures all emails viewed, regardless of whether the images are downloaded or not.

• Complaint rate: this metric is calculated by dividing the number of complaints by the number delivered. This can be a strong indicator of email reception, with a high rate meaning overall negative engagement.

• Deleted before reading rate: this metric measures the number of emails that are deleted before reading. This can reveal whether recipients don’t want to read an email or if they simply don’t check their inboxes frequently.

• Unsubscribed rate: this metric is calculated by dividing the number of unsubscribers by the number of emails delivered. It can clue in to the reception of email content.

Metrics to evaluate connections between recipients 

Engagement is a key factor in any type of marketing campaign. Certain data can clue companies in on how email recipients respond to the promotional materials. These measurements are suited for providing feedback on how the campaign is received. Measurements include click-to-open rate, “this is not spam” rate, conversation rate, and forwarded rate.

• Click-to-open rate: The metric is calculated by totaling the ratio of total clicks to total opens. It is the most accurate of click-based metrics and indicates the effectiveness of the email campaign.

• “This is not spam” rate: This metric measures how frequently recipients click the “this is not spam” button after an email is delivered to the spam inbox. It’s great at indicating engagement since it shows if a recipient determines the email important enough to go in their main inbox.

• Conversion rate: This metric is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of visits. Although this measurement can show engagement levels, it typically speaks more to the quality of landing page or website content.

• Forward: this metric measures how frequently recipients forward an email to others. This is a great indicator of the virality of email content and whether or not it is engaging.

How to problem-solve with metrics 

Data can also be used to address certain problems within a campaign. The metrics provide insight into what is happening to the emails sent. It shows how actions that are taken can affect performance. Companies and marketing professionals can also tweak strategies to see how the metrics are affected. By looking at specifically which metrics change, they can come to know which actions have which effects. This can improve future campaigns and provide marketers with better strategies that more effectively reach goals.

Overall, email can be a great avenue for marketing. With lots of data to shift through, companies get a good feel for campaign performance. Insight into effectiveness helps improve future marketing strategies. This makes metrics an important tool. And you know who loves metrics? Rivet|MRO! Here at Rivet|MRO, it is important to us that you see the desired results when we help you market. We love to see our customers reach their goals. Let us show you how we can craft an effective marketing strategy today. Visit our case studies and project galleries on our website to see some data from previous campaigns we’ve done. Contact us today to see how we can help you reach your goals!

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