During last year's WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference), Apple announced that it will be disabling open rate tracking. As expected, this announcement created a huge buzz across the email marketing industry. How is this going to impact email marketing?

Email marketing depends a lot on the numbers learned from email analytics, without which, a marketer may lose sense of their strategy. It is not unlike a driver or a ship captain with no compass.

In this blog , we’ll cover what you need to know about email analytics, the most valuable metrics for email marketing, and how you can take actionable steps using those specific metrics:

What Is Email Analytics?

Email analytics is a simple and effective way of measuring and analyzing your email marketing performance. It allows you to track the number of people opening your emails, clicking your links, and even which links they are clicking on.

By analyzing the data which an email analytics tool could provide, you can figure out which emails are getting opened and the links are getting clicked, by which you can then determine what your audience wants from you.

Why Is It Important to Choose Your Email Marketing Software Wisely?

It may not be easy for a beginner to perceive in depth the importance of the right email marketing software. An email marketing software can be your best friend when you are trying to make money online because it can help you to increase your sales and improve your overall business.

The problem is that there are so many email marketing software programs in the market today, each of which claims that it is the best. How do you know which one to choose?

There are three features you must consider when choosing an email marketing software:

1. Easy to Use

The only way you can generate a large number of email subscribers is by making your landing page quick & easy to fill out. You can achieve this with simple and easy-to-use email marketing software. There’s no use in having an excellent email marketing software that you cannot operate.

2. Identify the Right Data

If your email marketing software can’t help you with precise email analytics, then it is of no use to you

When you choose an email marketing software, ask yourself if it can help you to find out who your best customers are and what they like. Can it help you to identify what your audience wants and see if the value of your product is meeting the expectations of the market or not?

3. Reasonably Priced

The higher the expense an email marketing tool is the better its features & its ability to provide you with all necessary tools necessary to help you to understand your customers and your market. But you must do your research on how the software works and what it offers before you buy it.

What Metrics Do You Need to Start Tracking?

The most important metrics you need to start tracking are:

Bounce Rate

Bounce Rate refers to the percentage of emails that were bounced back to the sender as it was undeliverable. The bounce rate can be calculated by dividing the number of bounced emails by the total number of emails sent.

Formula: Bounce Rate = (total bounces / total emails sent) x 100

This number is crucial to know because the higher the bounce rate, the less likely your audience will keep receiving your emails. A low bounce rate is ideal, below 10 percent. A high bounce rate, on the other hand, might indicate a bad email address, spam filter, or your email going directly to the trash. It may also indicate that your email is poorly written, your content isn’t interesting, or your list is very niche and specific.

Open Rate

Open rate refers to the percentage of emails that have been opened by recipients. The open rate can be calculated by dividing the number of times an email was opened by the number of times it was sent.

Formula: Open Rate = (total opens / total emails sent) x 100

This number matters because the higher the open rates, the more likely your audience is to read your emails. A low open rate may mean that your email subject didn’t draw enough attention, that your email was sent out to the wrong list, or that your list is too niche. On the flip side, a high open rate could mean that your list is too broad, but it could also mean that your audience is very interested in your content.

Click-Through Rate

Click-through rate, otherwise known as CTR, refers to the percentage of times an email link was clicked. The click-through rate can be calculated by dividing the number of times the links in an email were clicked by the number of times it was sent.

Here is the formula: Click Through Rate = (total link clicks / total emails sent) x 100

This number is important because the higher the click-through rate, the more likely your audience is to click your links. A low click-through rate may mean that your links did not attract enough attention. It may also mean that your audience is not clicking on anything. On the flip side, a high click-through rate could mean that your links attract a lot of attention, but it could also mean that your audience is very interested in your content.

Unsubscribe Rate

The unsubscribe rate refers to the percentage of people who clicked the “unsubscribe” link and successfully unsubscribed from your email list.

If your list of subscribers is getting shorter and shorter, then you might want to check your unsubscription rate and see what you can do to change it. If you want to keep your subscriber list, look into what they don’t like and address them accordingly.

List Growth Rate

The list growth rate refers to the rate at which your list is growing over some time. It’s best to measure this number over a month or a quarter. This number can also be calculated by dividing the change in the number of subscribers by the difference in time.

Formula: List Growth Rate = Change in number of subscribers / Time difference

This reflects how your list is growing over some time. It is generally easier to attract new subscribers if your list is growing at a good rate.

Conversion Rate

The conversion rate refers to the rate at which your subscribers are converting into paying or returning customers.

Formula: Conversion Rate = (number of paying customers / number of subscribers) x 100

This number is important because it tells you how many paying or returning customers you have per 100 subscribers. A high conversion rate means that your emails are attracting paying customers, or that your subscribers are interested in what you have to offer.

Delivery Rate

The delivery rate refers to the rate at which your emails are delivered to the inbox of the subscriber.

This is the major difference between send rate and delivery rate. Send rate refers to the number of emails that were sent out, including the undeliverable ones. Delivery rate, on the other hand, refers only to the number of emails delivered and not the ones which were bounced back to the sender.

Formula: Delivery Rate = (total deliveries / total emails sent) x 100

This number is important because the higher the delivery rate, the more likely that your emails are going into the right inbox. A low delivery rate may mean that your emails are going to the wrong inbox, that your list is very niche, or your content is not interesting enough to force the audience to read your emails but instead, they simply delete it.

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How You Can Transform the Data You Gather Into Actionable Insights?

Once you’ve gathered this data, head on over to Google Analytics or any other email analytics tool and check out the traffic on the landing page where you’ve collected the data.

Analyze everything! No one size is suitable for all. Depending on what you’re doing, you might have to look at a few different metrics. If you’re a SaaS company, you might be able to look at conversion rate and bounce rate. If you’re an e-commerce company, you might be able to look at conversion rate, the money spent per transaction, average order value, and user retention.

You might also have other metrics to look at depending on the nature of your business. Once you’ve found the metrics that are relevant to your business, break them down further to understand what’s going on in each part of your business.

Conclusion

Successful companies always have an interest in learning from what works. Good email marketing software will allow you to track and analyze data that will help you improve your business.

For example, if your email marketing software tells you that your readers are not clicking on your email links, then you might want to write better content based on inputs, keywords, and insights with the help of analytics data. If your email marketing software tells you that your bounce rate is high, then you might want to look into your email list. If your email marketing software tells you that your open rate is low, then you might want to consider adding a CTA to your email subject lines to make them more interesting. More importantly, if you find out that your lists are too broad or too niche, then you might want to refine your list to make them more relevant.

Needless to say, you are only going to be able to look at these numbers and take action if you are using the right email marketing software that lets you track them. MailSend can help you with that. The Email Analytics feature of MailSend allows you to analyze your performance and improve your marketing strategy. Learn more about the features of MailSend and our affordable pricing today!