How to define success in franchise email marketing campaigns

In today’s world where digital marketing is the norm, franchise business owners must turn their marketing efforts to mediums such as video, social media, and more email.

Sure, while most franchise businesses have a brand-wide marketing strategy, it’s up to the franchise owners to implement a good majority of local marketing, and email campaigns are vital to this process.

So how many franchise owners are taking advantage of email campaigns? Forty-four percent said that they already engage in email campaigns, while another 29% say they plan to begin engaging in email campaigns in the future. That’s a lot of franchisees not taking advantage of such a powerful marketing tactic!

Forty-four percent said that they already engage in email campaigns, while another 29% say they plan to begin engaging in email campaigns in the future.

Source: Benchmark Email

Creating a franchise email marketing campaign.

Before you can define the success in email marketing campaigns for a franchise business, your marketing team needs actually to plan, build and implement one.

A comprehensive lead nurture campaign is a great way to begin because it shows consumers that a brand cares about its customers.

When creating your campaign, you’ll want to keep these factors in mind:

  • Brand consistency

  • Target audience

  • Available tools and resources

  • Quality content

Defining the overall success in email marketing campaigns for franchise businesses can seem a bit daunting at first. This post will help outline the process and set you up for success.

Before discussing the metrics you should be monitoring, it’s vital to understand the industry benchmarks to shoot for.

What are the industry benchmarks for effectiveness?

When it comes down to a franchise business, the actual industry can range anywhere from accommodations to child care services to fitness centers. So, instead of looking at one specific industry, we pulled averages across all industries, and also picked out a few industries that tend to have popular franchises.

Overall average

When defining the success of email marketing campaigns for a franchise business, there are several different factors the marketing team will want to look at. These are cross-industry averages:

Open rate: 16.19%

Click-through rate: 7.06%

Bounce rate: 9.57%

Unsubscribe rate: 0.02%

Accommodations (e.g., hotels, campgrounds, inns)

When we compare the average benchmarks for email marketing campaigns of accommodation franchises to the overall average, we see several drops in the averages, although, the unsubscribe rate stayed steady.

Open rate: 15.24%

Click-through rate: 6.27%

Bounce rate: 7.84%

Unsubscribe rate: 0.02%

Automotive services

Automotive franchises saw more of a decline in the overall benchmarks for email marketing campaigns when compared to the overall average. The one increase we see is in the overall unsubscribe rate, which isn’t ideal, especially after having the other benchmarks drop.

Open rate: 12.51%

Click-through rate: 7.88%

Bounce rate: 7.60%

Unsubscribe rate: 0.03%

Child care services

Child care service franchises saw a few mixed results when compared to the overall average. While they saw a greater overall open rate, they also saw a lower bounce rate and a steady unsubscribe rate. However, they also saw a decrease in the overall click-through rate.

Open rate: 19.30%

Click-through rate: 5.15%

Bounce rate: 6.09%

Unsubscribe rate: 0.02%

Fitness centers

Fitness centers are a popular industry franchise, and while their overall open rate saw a bit of a decline, as did their click-through rate. However, they did see an overall reduction in the number of unsubscribes.

Open rate: 14.51%

Click-through rate: 5.64%

Bounce rate: 9.48%

Unsubscribe rate: 0.01%

Insurance

Insurance franchises saw an overall decline in metric benchmarks when compared to the overall averages. The only increase was in their unsubscribe rate.

Open rate: 14.33%

Click-through rate: 5.67%

Bounce rate: 7.79%

Unsubscribe rate: 0.03%

Restaurants

While restaurant franchises also saw an overall decline in metric benchmarks, they did see a slight lowering in overall bounce rates, and their unsubscribe rates stayed pretty steady when compared to the global average.

Open rate: 13.82%

Click-through rate: 4.53%

Bounce rate: 9.58%

Unsubscribe rate: 0.02%

Review the metrics

While the benchmarks mentioned above only include four metrics, there are a wide variety of metrics that should also be considered when defining the success of an email marketing campaign.

Open rate

This figure is the percentage of subscribers that chose to open your email campaign when compared to the total number that was sent out.

This figure is the percentage of subscribers that chose to open your email campaign when compared to the total number that was sent out.

Source: Campaign Monitor

Click-through rate (CTR)

The click-through rate is the percentage of consumers that not only received and opened your email campaign but the total number who chose to click on a call to action or another hyperlink that was included in the email.

Bounce rate

An email can bounce for a variety of reasons. Typically, these are emails that can not be delivered due to a delivery failure that is related to either a server or spam issue. Finding this average merely involves taking the total number of bounced emails and dividing that by the total number of emails in a campaign that you sent out.

Unsubscribe rate

This is the average of consumers that choose to opt-out of receiving any further emails. This rate is significant because it tells you that something isn’t sitting well with your audience and that it’s time to re-think your email marketing campaign strategy.

Other metrics to consider

Other popular metrics that marketing teams should consider measuring are the overall open rates on different devices such as desktops and mobile devices.

These factors can then help guide the marketing team in the overall design of their next campaign.

  • Open rate on desktop computers: The total percentage of email users that chose to open your email campaign on their desktop computer.  

  • Open rate on mobile devices: The total percentage of email users that chose to open your email campaign on either their mobile phone or tablet device.

Testing these aspects over time will help define success in email marketing campaigns.

Once you’ve designed your campaign, your team should consider testing it out before sending it off to everyone on their email list. One of the most effective methods of measuring the success of an email marketing campaign is to run it through an A/B test.

Proper email A/B testing is best done with the appropriate marketing tools because it will be able to pull the numbers and run the test, overall, in a much easier fashion. However, running your own A/B test isn’t all that difficult.

This is designed to test particular aspects of an email campaign by sending out a version A to a small sample of your email list and sending a slightly altered version B to a second sample set of your email list.

Keep in mind, you’ll want to test individual pieces at a time, such as:

  • Email subject line

  • Images

  • Email message

  • Included content

  • Calls to action

Once you’ve sent out each version, you’ll want to monitor the metrics we mentioned above, especially the open rate and click-through rate. These will tell you which emails not only caught the reader’s attention but also interested them enough to click-through to your website for further content.

 

Once you’ve sent out each version, you’ll want to monitor the metrics we mentioned above, especially the open rate and click-through rate.

Source: Emma

Wrap up

Fifty-nine percent of marketers see the most return on investment from emails and email campaigns. That means franchise businesses should be investing their time in this medium because it’ll not only help them create a more trusted bond with consumers, it’ll help them reach those that want to be contacted.

Remember, when a franchise business is building their campaign, they not only want to keep in mind the factors mentioned earlier, they also should include:

  • Opt-in: Ensures the consumer is receiving the information they wish to receive.

  • Unsubscribe options: By law, users should have a clear and simple way to opt-out of receiving emails from a brand.

  • Clear calls to action: These will help to drive up your overall click-through rate.

Remember, when a franchise business is building their campaign, they not only want to keep in mind the factors mentioned earlier, they also should include:

Source: Really Good Emails

Now that you know what to look for when defining success in email marketing campaigns for franchises, it’s time to turn your attention to how to drive growth with your email campaigns. Check out our how-to guide and let us help you get the results you want to see.

About the Author

Emma is an email marketing platform that gives you all the tools you need to send campaigns that really connect with your subscribers. With our

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