Email Marketing Metrics

In order to run a successful email marketing campaign there are three measurement, or metrics that need to be monitored, the open rate, the click through rate, and the bounce rate.  By keeping track of these metrics you can consistently improve your results over time.  So let’s take a look at these items separately.

The Open Rate.
If you send out 100 emails, how many get opened?  This number is your open rate.  Of course, the higher the rate the better.  A high open rate signifies that your email recipients consider your emails valuable, and/or you have created attractive subject lines that compel the recipients to open the emails.

The Click Through Rate.
If 100 people opened your email, how many of those 100 clicked on a link contained in that email?  This is your click through rate.  Again the higher the better.  A high rate here signifies that you have a compelling message in you emails.  And that your audience values and appreciates your message.

The Bounce Rate.
If you send out 100 email messages, how many do not actually get delivered?  This is your bounce rate.  In this situation the lower the rate, the better.

There are a couple of reasons why an email message won’t get delivered.  One is that the email address is bad.  It might be formatted incorrectly, or misspelled, or non-existent.

Another reason for a bounce is that the recipients mail server may be down.  And a third reason might be that the recipients mail box is full.

So which metric is most important?  Well, each one is important to some degree, it depends on your situation.

If very few emails are being opened, then focusing on the click through rate wouldn’t make much sense.  If you are getting a good open rate, but nobody is clicking on any links, then you need to concentrate more on the content of the message, and compel your audience to click on the links.

Industry Norms.
So now you are wondering what are the average/normal rates for these three metrics.

For the open rate the averages run from 20% to 25%.  Of course, this can vary by industry or marketplace.  Also whether the email is Business to Business, or Business to Consumer.

For the click through rate, the averages run about 2% to 10%.  Again, this may vary by industry and marketplace like the open rate.

The bounce rate should be below 2%.

One of the advantages to email marketing is that to a large extent it can be measured.  Using these three metrics will help you do that so that you can measure it’s effectiveness, and make adjustments where necessary.