When it comes to your company’s email campaigns, there are many things to address. You have types of emails, types of campaigns, and scheduling considerations. But at the end of each month, or each campaign for that matter, what does it all amount to?

Do you take the time to review the success of each of those? What are the goals you had? Do your metrics reflect the initial goals you set out to achieve?

Analyzing a successful email campaign doesn’t have to be abstract. By setting your goals ahead of time and tracking the metrics as you go, you can determine how effective your email marketing is. You can find areas where you need to make changes to see improvement. You can measure successes and failures. Keeping an open eye aimed at these metrics can make all the difference between your last campaign and your next.

Open Rates

In your email metrics, keep an eye on your open rates. This is the percentage of people who opened the email. If everything goes according to plan, an open leads to a click, which leads to a purchase. In looking at our open rates, we have to monitor how this number compares according to our goals.

Depending on the industry and who is doing the surveys, an average open rate for a campaign rests somewhere a little over 20%. If you’re ranking a 30% open rate for the majority of your email campaigns, you’re considered in the top tier of email marketing.

If you are seeking to improve your current open rate, you can play with the subject line until you find a formula that works. Your customers may find a different wording more intriguing, or you may need to provide more enticing designs.

Click Rates

The click rate within your email is how many subscribers received the email versus how many opened the link within the email. These are not necessarily people who opened the email, just anyone who had the email in their inbox.

Click rates are generally around a little over 2%. Maybe you are encouraged by this, testing it against your own click rates. Perhaps seeing such a small percentage lets you know that your business isn’t doing all that bad.

But there is a downside. If only 2% of your email subscribers are clicking on what you’re offering, you’ll want to target strategies for increasing your subscriber base.

In all areas, you’ll need to consider how to increase this number. It starts with getting more opens. Ensure that your CTA (Call to Action) in the email is clear and at the forefront. Review whether or not the offer is enticing enough for the customers. And be sure that they aren’t suffering from promo fatigue from your emails.

Click-to-Open Rates

While click rates are compared to total recipients of the email, the click-to-open rate is different. It measures how many people opened the email and then clicked. This averages somewhere between 10-15% of those who open your email who also click on the Call to Action.

We just looked at ways to maximize click rates. If your click-to-open rate is low, you will be able to see where you’re losing sales. It means that your Call to Action needs better consideration within the email. Look at how your layout impacts the CTA.

Is your email too wordy? Do you have too many promotions included, crowding all the different CTAs? Or is it simply a matter of your industry having lower averages because it’s uncommon to have immediate repeat customers?

Think how these circumstances will impact your metrics and look at steps you can take to drive them up.

Unsubscribe Rates

Always keep an eye on your unsubscribe rates. Time and time again, companies fret those who leave, worrying about the people who have decided not to follow them. In reality, we shouldn’t fear drips and drabs of unsubscribes. They actually improve our open rates and ensure that our focus is on engaged consumers.

But if we notice steep drops in subscribers and an incline in unsubscribes, it’s important to consider those emails. For instance, let’s think about if you send out a newsletter for a new campaign. You’re looking at your metrics, and you have higher than usual numbers of people removing themselves from your list. Take the time to look through the email. What was it that they found so off-putting?

Did you include something controversial? That’s not always a bad thing, and it strengthens your relationship to those aligned with your vision.

Was it too sales-y without the relational balance? Did it include paragraphs and paragraphs for your audience to read just to learn about a summer discount?

Maybe it’s just a matter of the economy and consumers not wanting the temptation in their inbox. But if there is anything you can do to minimize the occurrence of drastic unsubscribes, it’s best to put in the effort.

It’s up to the subscriber if they want to unsubscribe, delete without reading, or mark you as spam. Nevertheless, there are a few ways you can mitigate your spam rates, although subscribers beyond your control.

Make sure you send a welcome email. When someone first subscribes, an automated welcome email is something that lets them know who you are. Consumers need this from the moment they are excited about your emails. They are less likely to forget about you. But it’s also useful to keep unengaged subscribers segmented. Those who don’t read your content frequently shouldn’t receive emails as often. If they feel bombarded, they are more inclined to mark you as spam if that’s easier for them than deleting or unsubscribing.

Was it a Success?

After comparing your results to your goals, take time to find the holes in your email strategy. If you’re struggling to push to the next stage, a company like Planify can help you out. Your email marketing strategy doesn’t have to be hard, but it does need to be thoughtful. If you’re ready to step it up, check out our newest free download, the Email Performance Checklist.