The 6 Most Important Email Marketing Measurements

One of the reasons email is such a powerful marketing tool is that it is completely measurable and data driven.

This means that you’ll be able to see exactly what is working and what’s not. As my buddy Scott Hardigee says, “Email is honest.”

I couldn’t agree more.

The 6 most important email measurements of your email campaigns performance are…

Emails Delivered

This one is pretty straight forward. This is the number of people who received your email.

This number is usually a benchmark for figuring out other measurements like opens and clickthroughs.

Bounces

A bounce simply means that your email was rejected by the recipients ISP for one of a number of different reasons. It’s important to note that there are two different types of bounces, hard bounce and soft bounce.

A soft bounce means your email failed to be delivered to a reason like a server failure or a full inbox

A hard bounce occurs when your email fails to be delivered due to something like an invalid email address or spam block

Bounce rates are important to note because hard bounces tells you that the reason for non delivery is due to a permanent condition, while soft bounces indicates a more temporary condition.

Open Rates

This is a measurement of the number of email opened by the recipient, usually expressed as a percentage.

Open rates are important to monitor because an email can be delivered but not opened. Low open rates might be an indicator that you arent using effective subject lines, or that your email might not be relevant to your subscribers.

Unsubscribes

High unsubscribe rates usually mean you’re doing one or more things terribly wrong. In such a case, you need to become extremely focused on the execution of your email.

Unsubscribes are a result of neglecting to test email consistently.

Pass On Rate

This a metric that shows how many subscribers are forwarding your email to other people. This is a good measuring stick for how much people enjoy your email.

The higher the pass on rate the more viral your email becomes.  Adding a “forward to friend” link in every email will encourage this number to increase.

Click-through Rates

This is a measurement of the effectiveness of the email in regards to the placement of links in the content.

The goal of your email is ultimately to get people to take action. You use an effective call to action so you can entice subscribers to convert or click through on your links.

High click through rates are a byproduct of well constructed email, that usually lead to increase customer loyalty and higher revenue.

What About You?

Are you measuring you’re email? What are you measuring?