Measure, analyse & process results

3. Key statistics and KPIs

It is clear by now that you can learn a lot about your own email strategy by measuring and analysing the right performance indicators or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). They tell you how successful your email campaign is, what works best for your target audience and what adjustments you can make to score even higher.

A good tip is to focus on the most important KPIs, as listed below.

Reception rate

The reception percentage indicates how many of your sent emails actually end up in the inbox of your contacts. It shows how well you succeed in reaching your contacts.

The reception rate also influences your email reputation as a sender, so it can only benefit your email reputation.

If your email is not deliverable, it is usually due to one of these 2 reasons:

1. The email address does not exist or is incorrect. Your email cannot be delivered and will result in a so-called 'hard bounce'.
2. Your email ends up in the spam folder. In other words, your email does not survive the spam filters. Their job is to protect inboxes by detecting unwanted emails and keeping them out. To do this, they use a long list of criteria, the most important ones of which are:

• Reputation of the sender's IP address and domain
• Quality of the subject line and content of the email
• Quality and safety of links in the email
• Proportion of images to text and links in the email
• Recording a text version of the email
• Whether the email is opened by the recipient
• Amount of time a recipient takes to read the email
• Whether the recipient scrolls all the way down in the email
• The recipient marks certain email as spam
• Which markings the recipient adds to emails
• In which folders the recipient saves emails

Tips to improve your reception rate

• Keep your hard bounce rate, i.e. the percentage of undeliverable emails, below 1%. To do this, carefully update your mailing lists by systematically deleting non-existent and incorrect email addresses.
• Work with a double opt-in. If you ask a new contact for permission to use their email address twice, you are more certain that they are indeed interested in your emails.
• Never buy mailing lists. They have a poor return on investment. Chances are you will only reach uninterested people and they will mark your email as spam.
• Pay attention to your spam complaints. Prevent recipients from continuing to report your email as spam by turning complaints into unsubscribes. Better one fewer contact than one too many spam complaints.
• Outsmart the spam filters. You already have a good chance of doing this by delivering high-quality content and with professional formatting you start off strong, but that's not all. Pay attention to your subject line and avoid typically misleading spam phrases such as 'free today only' or 'open now'. Also keep in mind the list of criteria that spam filters follow.
• Carry out spot checks to see whether your emails end up in the inbox or the spam folder. In specific software programmes for email/automation, like Flexmail, you can easily find this information. It also gives you an indication of the state of your email reputation.

Open rate

Besides the influence on your email reputation as a sender, the open rate also speaks to the effectiveness of your email marketing. Because after all the effort you put into preparing your email strategy down to the last detail, you obviously want your contacts to read what you have to say.

The open rate is calculated by comparing the number of delivered emails with the number of recipients who open the email.

The percentages vary greatly depending on the sector. On average, you can consider it a success if your open rate exceeds 18%.

Tips to improve your open rate

• Create the right expectations from the start. Your recipient has an idea of what is in store for them if, when they sign up, they already know how often and when they will receive your email messages.
• Sending relevant and interesting content obviously increases the chance that your recipient will read your email and therefore open it. Make sure to put the most important information at the top of your message. Many recipients will first read the preview and only then decide whether to open or ignore your email message.
• Make your email recognisable. By using the same style each time, contacts will notice your emails more quickly in their often overflowing inbox. Leaving a clean and professional impression builds trust.
• Consider unsubscribing contacts who do not open your emails several times in a row. Use Google Analytics to track these contacts, but don't fool yourself. Your open rate will skyrocket, but the number of opened emails, or in other words the number of contacts reached, will remain the same. Do you also want to increase the number of opens? Then prepare your mailing list and increase the frequency of sending. Always do this in a qualitative and well-considered way to avoid negative effects on your open rate. It is certainly a challenge to keep finding the ideal balance.
• Run A/B tests to see what works for your target audience. Experiment, for example, with:
  • The length and content of your subject lines
  • Using emojis
  • Different forms of personalisation
  • Shipping dates

Click-through-rate

Now you know the delivery and open rate of your email. The next step is to get your readers to click on the link in your email to your website, form, blog... The goal of your email is ultimately to persuade them to take this action.

The number of clicks generated by your email campaign in relation to the number of opened emails is the click-through-rate or CTR.

An average CTR is around 14%, but this statistic, too, is highly dependent on your sector. If your email campaign is aimed at consumers, a CTR of 5% could be great.

A low CTR is an important signal that your call to action and segmentation may need to be optimised.

Tips to improve your click-through-rate

• Pay attention to the layout and language of your message. Deliver your message in a structured and understandable way and make sure the recipient immediately understands what it is about. Make your text scannable by using paragraphs, bullet points or bold to highlight parts of your text.
• Use one clear CTA button. Avoid too many choices that lead to choice overload or a feeling of being overwhelmed. For best results, put the call to action at the top so the reader doesn't have to scroll to take action. Buttons are user-friendly and eye catching, especially for smartphone users. Vary the colours and text of your button.
• Make sure your link is formatted correctly and leads to the landing page you want the reader to visit.
• Choose a responsive design that automatically adapts to the device used. Almost half of all emails nowadays are opened on a mobile device.
• Vary your shipping moments and learn from them. This is easily done with an A/B test.

Conversion rate

What conversion means to you depends on the objective of your email campaign. For example:

• Sales through your webshop
• Subscribe to your newsletter
• Download your white paper
• Like or share your social media post
• Link to your blog

Tips to improve your conversion rate

• Create a clear and attractive added value. Your reader has to feel that your offer is especially for them. Emphasise what their advantage is, why it is interesting for them or how they benefit.
• Make contact with your reader. It should not be a one way street. Explain your message as you would to a friend. Use conversational language and avoid jargon and complicated language use.
• Limit distracting factors such as visual elements or unnecessary content. Your visitor will automatically focus better on the actual purpose of your email.
• Make sure you have the necessary tools to quickly monitor and analyse your conversion rate. With Google Analytics, you can see to what extent certain mailings contribute to your various conversion goals. If you do not reach the set conversion percentage for your email campaign and your ROI for this campaign is therefore not good, take action quickly and make adjustments where you can.

5. Key tests

In module 3 we already underlined the importance of testing your messages. Now that you know how to analyse the results of your email campaigns, you probably understand better that you learn the most by comparing rates. By testing different elements, you collect comparable data to help you learn what effect the changes you make have on the behaviour of your contacts.

Always keep in mind when testing:

• Never test more than one element at a time. For example, if you want to know the effect of two different images, make sure that the alt text and its position remain unchanged.
• Also pay attention to the distribution of your mailing list. Make sure the population in both test groups is as equal as possible.
• Elements that have a major impact (such as the sender of the email) should be tested as early as possible in the process.
• Do not lose sight of your segmentation. Make sure that your segmentation is always up-to-date and conclusive. What works for one target group, does not work for another.
• Make your test volume large enough to achieve significant results. Do not waste time on tests that are too small and will not provide useful insights.

• Frequency testing
  What is the ideal timing for your email campaign? Which day of the week? What time of day? How often do you send out emails?
• Topic testing
  What is the ideal length of your subject line? What type of subject line invites the right contacts to open the message? What is the effect on the open rate, the click-through-rate and the conversion rate?
• Content testing
  Do certain topics work better than others with your target audience? Which formats (blog article, webinar, white paper ...) do your readers prefer? Are your contacts fans of lists or do they prefer detailed written texts?
• Format testing
  What influence does the length of your email message have? Do columns work better? Do you tell your story with images or text? How do you package your call to action?
• Sender test
  From which email address is your email sent? Does your email arrive in the inbox and not in the spam folder? Does the sender work equally well for transactional and promotional messages?
• Segmentation testing
  Which communication is most relevant to which segments of your target group? How do you divide your segments? What is the value of the different segments within the bigger picture?
• Image testing
  Which images do you use? In what colours? And how many? Where do you place them in your email? What mood or emotion do your images convey?
• Landing page testing
  How do you describe your message here? What images do you use on your landing page? Where do you place the form? How many fields do you have to fill in? How do you phrase your questions? How do you place your call to action?