It’s 2020, and email is still going strong.
It’s been over fifty years since the first email was sent. But despite multiple avenues of internet-based communication, this still remains the preferred channel for most. In fact, it is estimated that the number of email accounts is only steadily growing. The total number of active email accounts in 2020 is close to four billion. And almost 250 billion emails travel around the world every day.
With such exposure, it’s no wonder that email marketing still forms the crux of the digital marketing strategy for most businesses. Experts all over the world agree that without a sound email marketing plan in place, no digital campaign can achieve its full potential.
But just starting a campaign is not enough.
Why Tracking Is Important
In 2020, every email marketing campaign must be accompanied by a sound data tracking strategy. Any email effort that you initiate is bound to generate a large amount of data. This needs to be tracked in order to measure the impact of your campaign.
Trouble is, every campaign generates a huge amount of data, and it can become difficult to understand which ones to track. Many major businesses end up falling into a rut by tracking the wrong metrics.
It’s important to know which metrics to track in order to drive your campaigns to success. In today’s post, we are going to let you in on the top email metrics that you should be tracking in 2020.
So without further ado, let’s begin!
The Open Rate
The open rate is simply the percentage of your emails sent that are actually being opened by the recipients. Usually, open rates of about 15 to 25% are considered benchmarks that you should be aiming for.
As is evident, open rates are one of the important metrics to track. This tells you how many people are successfully interacting with your emails. By measuring this metric you can gain an idea of which emails are working, and which are not. Remember, open rates are influenced by the subject line of your emails, so be sure to include a snappy one that grabs attention.
The Click-Through Rate
After open rates, this is the next important metric that you should be tracking. The click-through rate simply represents the percentage of recipients who actually click on any link inside your emails. As your target will be to get your subscribers to take a converting action, you’d want this metric to be high.
Industry-wide click-through rates hover around 2.5%, so if you’re getting anything around or above this range then you’re good to go. Remember, click-through rates are largely influenced by link position and email content, so make sure to prepare a smashing copy.
The Bounce Rate
Bounce rates measure the total percentage of emails that could not be delivered to the target’s inbox. Bounce rates allow you to understand whether your recipients are actually receiving the emails or not. Emails can bounce based on a number of reasons such as invalid email addresses or overloaded inboxes. Overall, try to aim for a bounce rate of less than 2%.
The Unsubscribe Rate
As a rule, you need to give your recipients the option to opt-out of your mailing lists. This is usually in the form of an unsubscribe button in your email body. But only providing the button is half the job done. You need to track how many users are actually clicking on it and opting out. This percentage is measured by the unsubscribe rate. Standard unsubscribe rates vary between 0.2 to 0.5%.
The Conversion Rate
The last and most vital metric to track is the conversion rate. This denotes the percentage of recipients who are taking the desired action, for example making a purchase. Conversion rates are reflective of the success of your campaign, and you should aim for one higher than 20%.
Final Words
And there you have it! The top five email marketing metrics that you should be tracking in 2020. In case you think it’s all too complicated for you, just give shout to Okdot. Our expert professionals can take care of it all for you.
