Patience Hurlburt-LawtonDo you dare google it? Your fingers twitch before you type it. Who knows what can of proverbial worms this will crack open?
“What metrics should my business track?”
And—GAK!—there it is, exactly what you were dreading: a dizzying array of opinions from marketing gurus, E-commerce sites and…hey wait…did a precocious 7th grader write this one? Who to believe?
Well, three measurements are especially helpful to track when it comes to your email marketing:
List Size Matters—Sort of
Let’s get basic.
The adage “The Bigger, The Better” may ring true when it comes to IRAs or cheeseburgers, but email lists can grow so huge and unwieldy they become more of money-sucking liability than a boon.
Sure, you want your contact list to grow, but with contacts that are the most interested and the most passionate about your brand.
Click-Through and Conversion Rates
Yes, yes, we know these are actually two metrics, but think of them as the twin sides of hinge.
Consider: Sending out thousands of emails is one thing—but are these messages finding their way “home”? That is, do the receivers actually open your emails and become so inspired that they visit your landing page for further investigation?
And more lucratively, are these emails resulting in transactions on your site?
These two metrics study the number of clicks from your targeted email to pages on your website, and then how many of those clicks result in actualized profit on your end.
Unsubscribe Requests and Spam Complaints
Lastly, something we’re all familiar with.
As consumers, we know a number of factors make us unsubscribe from a website or even report it as spam. Maybe it’s because we get too much email, or the messages are irrelevant to us, or maybe we’re just tired of seeing that same tired panda-on-a-unicycle logo in a header.
Whatever the reason, if more than two percent of a business’ email list responds in an unreceptive way, then that’s a good sign that there are problems with the email’s timing, frequency or content.
But Wait! There’s More
No, seriously. This is just a small glimpse into the world of email metric tracking.
If your head is already spinning, relax.
We happen to know a team of pros who sort of do this as a day job. Solutions 8 knows that data and statistics are only useful if you know exactly what is being measured and what it means. That’s what we’re here for: to focus your search and empower you to achieve your business goals.
