#1: Number of emails delivered
Just because you have 10, 100 or 1000 names on your email list, doesn’t mean your emails are
being delivered.
That’s because a 100% deliverability rate is actually impossible.
For example, if 85% of your emails make it into the inbox, that means 15% might as well not
exist. So if you have 1,000 names on your list, that means 150 people never got your email.
Secondly, you need to know if there’s a sudden dip in deliverability. Sometimes, through no
fault of your own, a marketer can suddenly be blacklisted by an ISP, especially if you have
a shared—rather than dedicated—IP. If you suddenly can’t email anyone with a Gmail address,
for example, you need to act immediately to find out why and fix the problem.
One caveat: There’s a difference between an email being “delivered” and actually making it
into the inbox. It could very well be delivered, yet go straight to a recipient’s junk folder. That’s
why more marketers are starting to use the Inbox Placement Rate (IPR) as a KPI, so they can
measure how many emails actually make it to the inbox.
#2: Number of emails opened
Simply making it into the inbox isn’t enough.
You’ll also want to note how many emails are opened. If you get 85% of your emails delivered,
and you have IPR of 79%, that still doesn’t mean subscribers are paying attention to your
message. That’s why you need to track the open rate.
Much like deliverability, you want to track trends in the open rate and adjust accordingly.
You might want to compare your open rates to what’s typical for your industry to have a
benchmark. Make sure the comparison is industry-specific since some industries like finance
and hospitality typically see higher open rates (which makes sense given that people are going
to open emails from their banks and the hotels they frequent) — so don’t compare to a broad
standard.
Keep in mind, some people use preview panes for their email. This can register email opens
that aren’t actually opened. Also, text–only emails won’t register as opens, even if they are.
#3: Click-through rate
The click-through rate (CTR) indicates how many people clicked on a link in your email.
However, unlike opens and deliverability, you’ll need to dig a little deeper. For each campaign,
you need to know not only which links interested them the most but also where those links
were located.
For example, if most of the clicks are above the fold, then you’re passing the blink test.
Let’s say you offered the same link but worded two different ways and one performed better
than the other, then you can optimize your text CTA accordingly. Also, compare buttons to text
links.
Remember to track what recipients actually clicked on. Clicking on the unsubscribe link might
count as a click — that’s a BAD sign!
#4: Click-to-open rate
Your click–to-open (CTO) rate is the number of opens compared to the number of click-
throughs.
Of the people who opened your email, how many actually clicked on a link? This metric tells
you how well your subject line and content are working together. If your subject line generated
a lot of opens but few clicks, there was a disconnect. If you had a lot of clicks but few opens,
you had a great offer but didn’t nail the subject line.
Other factors can influence your open rate, such as the quality of your list, the email address of
the sender, the day/time you send, etc.
#5: Unsubscribe rate
Seriously, this KPI is a must!
