Analytics can supercharge your email marketing efforts.

Email marketing is more important than ever. According to a recent study 44% of email recipients made a purchase in the last year based on an email.

Email marketers who aren’t using data are hurting their business. Without a measure of key success factors, marketers lose profit and revenue with every email send and every marketing campaign. 

Not to worry. We’ll show you exactly how you can use success measures to improve the return on your resource investment. You’ll discover how you can quickly amplify your email marketing Return on Investment (ROI) with every campaign.

Success Factors in Email Marketing – Rocket Fuel for Your Business

There’s a well-known saying that illustrates the connection between analytics and success in email marketing.

“If you measure it, you can manage it.”

By measuring key success factors, savvy marketers have critical data at their fingertips. And by utilizing this data, they can accurately optimize their strategy.

You can see what’s working in a campaign and what doesn’t. You’ll tailor email messaging and design to maximize your email marketing ROI with minimal effort!  

Best practices are another benefit of analytics.

Turn every email send into a learning opportunity. Identify and capture the factors that make an email successful. Learn the tips, best practices, and lessons that inject rocket fuel into the business. 

Companies that aren’t using data and analytics in email marketing are fumbling. Any success is equal parts luck and good fortune. And, if management doesn’t have the data and reports they need for better business decisions - frustration grows for everyone on the team.

Below, we’ll review the 7 key success factors in email marketing you should be measuring. You’ll see how you can increase your return and maximize your efforts by turning data into business success.

7 Key Success Factors in Email Marketing

New technology is powering the rise of digital marketing. Email marketers have access to more data than ever before.

The secret to success isn’t increasing the amount of data you collect. Success starts by identifying the critical success factors – measures or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Once you collect and use this critical data, you can guide you marketing efforts to increase your email marketing ROI and maximize your efforts.

Every company is different, with different goals and different success drivers. However, we’ve identified the core factors that every company should be tracking. 

Once you have these measures in place, you should have a better idea of what else you should be tracking and adapt your analytics as needed.

Let’s get started.

1. Key Success Factor: Total Send

How big is your email marketing list? 

If you don’t have enough recipients in your list, you’ll struggle to meet your marketing goals. No matter how incredibly awesome your email design or offer is, you need people to see it.

Keep in mind, with the changes in consumer privacy laws maintaining and updating your list is crucial. In fact, according to a recent study a b2b email list can expect to lose 2.1% of subscribers each month.

Review your list and see if you have enough subscribers to deliver the return you expect for an email. If not, move some of your marketing efforts to growing your list. 

2. Key Success Factor: Clickthrough Rate 

Clickthrough rate is the percentage of recipients who are interacting with your email – the people who click on the links. The higher the percentage, the more recipients who are exploring your offer and the more business you can potentially generate.

Your clickthrough rate is a measure of performance. If people aren’t interacting with your email, you’ll struggle to meet your marketing and business goals. There’s a lot that goes into the clickthrough rate. The email design, the subject line, and the Call to Action (CTA) affect clickthrough rate. The message and tone can also influence your success.

Many email marketers use this KPI as the key success measure for A/B testing. Run a quick A/B test and measure the clickthrough rate to track and forecast the success of your campaign.

3. Key Success Factor: Conversion Rate 

Typically, conversion rate measures the percentage of recipients who are accepting your offer. In most cases, the offer is on the other side of the links in your email.

This KPI determines the success of your campaign. Your email marketing ROI is directly tied to your conversion rate.

If you aren’t seeing the conversion rate you want with an email and you are satisfied with the clickthrough rate, it may be time to re-evaluate your offer. Even if you have the best designed email with a can’t miss, super-awesome Call to Action (CTA), you’ll struggle with a low conversion rate if you have an offer no one wants. 

4. Key Success Factor: Email Sharing

Many email marketers consider email sharing as an afterthought when designing and planning a campaign. 

For the health of your business and success of your email marketing, it’s time to consider sharing as a key success factor in email marketing.

Email sharing is the percentage of recipients who forward the email to a friend or share the post to a social network. This is powerful publicity for your offer and business. After all, online reviews and recommendations from friends are important factors in a purchase decision.

Plus, who knows your key marketing demographic better than your key marketing demographic? 
Improve your business. Make sharing a key success factor in your email marketing. Look at how and where you are including “Share This” options in the email. You might even consider sending an email designed to be shared by recipients.

5. Key Success Factor: Bounce Rate 

Bounce rate is the percentage of emails that never reached their destination. 

There are two types of email bounces – a soft bounce and a hard bounce.

A soft bounce is temporary difficulty with delivery. A full inbox or a problem with an email server could be the cause. Resending the email will often clear up the problem.

A hard bounce is more serious. They occur when an address is invalid, non-existent, or has been closed. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use analytics to determine if a company is a spammer. Too many hard bounces and you may have an issue with your provider. Save yourself a headache by tracking the bounce rate.

Also consider the source of the address. If an acquisition source is returning addresses that result in a hard bounce, you may need to adjust your strategy.

6. Key Success Factor: New Subscribers 

The success of your business requires not only recipients converting to your offer, but also new subscribers.

You need to grow your list with prospects ready and willing to learn more about your product. 

Your goal should be to add new subscribers at a rate much higher than the list will decay. This way, each month you are sending emails with juicy, money-making, and high-value offers to more people. 

If your list is shrinking, you may need to devote more resources to acquisition strategies. If your new subscribers aren’t growing fast enough, consider a new acquisition channel or a new market.

7. Key Success Rate: Email Marketing ROI 

ROI calculates the revenue generated with each email send. 

Your ROI is the return the business receives after all the expenses for a campaign are covered. The higher the ROI, the more successful the campaign.

If you aren’t satisfied with the ROI, or your return isn’t sustainable for your business, start by looking at expenses. Each expense that goes into your campaign should deliver a return. If the return isn’t high enough, consider eliminating or reducing expenses. 

Also look at the pricing of your offer. If the price is too high or too low, it will negatively impact your return.

Your business relies on revenue. ROI must be a key success factor in email marketing. 

Wrap Up

In the rush and excitement to launch a new product, many marketers never set the key success factors for email marketing. They aren’t collecting data or tracking analytics. 

Once the first email campaign starts filling inboxes across the internet, they never take the time to set-up the mechanisms to acquire data. Without taking the time to analyze results, when disaster strikes, and a campaign fails the team is left scrambling to figure out why.

Identifying key success factors in email marketing is an important step in setting attainable business goals. Using the data to improve results is the difference between success and failure for many new businesses.

Luckily for us, modern email marketing solutions make it easy to collect and use data. Your platform can automatically track success factors. The system puts the data at your fingertips, so you have real control and can accurately and effectively manage your email marketing.

Measuring key success factors for email marketing is the key to unlocking the true potential of your business!