What Do My Email Metrics Really Mean?
Get a full breakdown of what common metrics are and what factors can directly influence them.
You built your list of subscribers, you sent some creative email campaigns, and now you have started to measure your results. Email metrics are self-explanatory, right?
OR, CTR, clicks, and unsubscribes are all seemingly easy to understand. Numbers like Open Rate and Click-Through Rate should be higher. Unsubscribes should be lower. Basic logic aside, there is actually some deeper meaning behind these numbers.
For example, finding a pattern in a newsletter’s declining CTR could be a symptom of several issues.
Read on to learn more about analyzing your email results, how different metrics relate to each other, and what could be the specific causes of the numbers you’re seeing.
Open Rate
What is an Open Rate?
Open Rate (OR) means the number of times an email is opened divided by the number of emails delivered.
OR = # email opens / # emails delivered
What does my Open Rate really mean?
Measuring how many opens usually tells you how well your subject line is performing. If the subject was appealing to your target audience, the OR should be higher.
However, the OR could also tell you if you are targeting the correct audience. For an outbound campaign, a low open rate may mean your product or offering could more appealing to someone else.
When can a high open rate be bad?
Achieving a high OR is not always a good thing because it’s only a piece of the entire campaign. For this reason, it’s important to tie the OR to other metrics. Here is an example of a subject line that could get a high OR for the wrong reasons:
Subject Line:
Build Your Dream Home on a Budget
Email Content:
Try the newest game in your app store! Build your dream home start to finish, and design each room to reflect your taste. Download the app now for free!
What would you expect after reading that subject line? Probably a low interest rate loan or a budgeting tool. Although the subject line was interesting, it was actually pretty misleading.
This subject line’s potentially high OR performance is at the expense of losing clicks. This email also puts the company at risk of damaging their brand credibility, and it would likely drive people to unsubscribe from the list or report as spam.
Reasons my email’s Open Rate could be high:
· (The obvious) Your subject lines are catchy, funny, or interesting; and they inspire further reading.
· You are building an increasingly engaged list, and you are reaching your target market.
· You are removing unengaged people from your list.
· Unengaged people are unsubscribing, and it’s easy for them to access this option.
Diagnosing my email’s declining Open Rate:
· Your subject lines aren’t interesting enough, or they seem spammy.
· Your emails are getting labeled as spam, or people are filtering them out.
· You are sending too many emails.
· You are sending emails on an irregular schedule. Emails sent on certain days of the week at certain times will perform better than others.
· You are adding unengaged people to your email list.
Click-Through Rate
What is a CTR?
The Click-Through Rate (CTR) is the number of clicks divided by the number of emails delivered.
CTR = # clicks / # emails delivered
What does my click-through rate really mean?
Because it takes a strong OR to get a good CTR, the CTR is takes into account:
· The strength of the subject line
· The strength of the email itself
· The relevance between the subject line and email contents
Therefore, to understand what’s causing the high or low CTR, you have to break it down by looking at the Open Rate and the Click-Through Open Rate (CTOR).
Click-Through Open Rate
What is a Click-Through Open Rate?
The Click-Through Open Rate (CTOR) is the number of clicks divided by the number of opens.
CTOR = # clicks / # email opens
What does my CTOR really mean?
Unlike the CTR that is based on multiple metrics, the CTOR is more straightforward. As long as the subject line is relevant to the copy, the CTOR takes the subject line’s catchiness out of the equation and solely measures the effectiveness of the email itself.
However, an irrelevant subject line could “bait and switch” and damage the clicks.
Reasons my email’s CTOR could be high:
· Strong email copy: an appealing offer, clever copy, or interesting / useful content
· Strong email design: visually appealing graphics, eye-catching design, and colors and details that match the target market’s preferences
· Mobile-friendly: a Litmus test can help you see how your email looks across various devices and email clients
· Plenty of opportunities to click: the email should include both text links and buttons as the reader scrolls
Diagnosing my email’s declining CTOR:
· Poor copy: unclear benefit, typos and grammar errors, not enough copy to give the reader grounds to make the decision to click
· Poor email design: too image-heavy, graphics that make the text hard-to-read, or an outdated look with poor aesthetics
· Poor mobile experience: a bad mobile experience could mean the images and text don’t resize, or certain pieces of the email don’t show up
· Not enough click opportunities: if there is only one button or one link, it is more likely someone will scroll past it or not scroll down far enough
Raw Clicks
What do my email’s count of clicks really mean?
The main point of your email is likely to get unique clicks. Depending on the link, clicks could: drive traffic to a web page, lead to purchases of a product, get downloads of an e-book, or get someone to subscribe to another email list.
Unless your goal is general awareness, clicks are probably the ultimate goal in your email campaign.
Reasons my email’s clicks could be high:
· A growing email list
· Increased engagement in a stagnant email list: this could be due to increased value in the offer, or improved email design and copy
· Increasing Open Rate: refer back to causes of an increasing OR above
Diagnosing my email’s decreasing clicks:
· A shrinking email list (due to unsubscribes or cleaning the list)
· Decreased engagement in an email list: this could be due to repetitive offers, or poor email user experience
· Decreasing Open Rate: refer back to causes of a decreasing OR above
Other Metrics & Final Notes
Please note, I only picked a few metrics that help me best measure email performance (CTR, OR, clicks, and CTOR). There are plenty of other metrics that are useful!
For example, the deliverability of your emails is a very important factor that your technical team should be measuring. Your email list size does not equal the number of emails delivered to an inbox! The number of emails sent does not equal delivered either!
Also note: The reason behind using rates / percentages is to standardize email performance across varying list sizes. If you are comparing different emails sent to the exact same list, raw numbers (like opens and clicks) will be equally effective.
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