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Before a team meeting or when a product owner asks about content engagement, checking your email analytics dashboard is crucial. Take the time to understand the dashboard, as it provides valuable insights that can enhance your email strategies.
Dashboards generally display two types of reports: volume and percentage. Percentage rates allow for comparisons against industry benchmarks, while volume offers essential context; for instance, a 1% unsubscribe rate indicates that 1,000 individuals have opted out.
Now, let’s take a closer look at each metric along the way.
All email metrics lose their significance if your email service provider (ESP) fails to deliver the message to the recipient’s email server. The ESP plays a crucial role in sending emails to the Internet Service Provider (ISP), managing feedback loop data, and taking necessary actions.
Here are some common ESP metrics:
These “fail” metrics can point to various issues. Sometimes, non-delivery happens because the ESP blocks the message before sending it, while at other times, the ISP prevents the email from reaching the recipient.
Email Service Providers (ESPs) protect your sender reputation by automatically adding risky contacts to a suppression list. This prevents you from accidentally sending to dead addresses, which could lead to acceptable use policy (AUP) violations and serious deliverability issues.
Suppression Metrics:
A common misconception is that removing suppressed contacts cleans your list. This is not true; a hard bounce doesn’t mean the contact should be deleted. The individual might still want to hear from you but has switched mailboxes. Instead, stop emailing hard-bounced addresses to protect deliverability while retaining their data for future outreach.
Bounces happen when emails can't reach a recipient's inbox, and they are logged to help pinpoint delivery problems. For instance, Gmail offers insights into the bounce, detailing the reason along with an RFC (Request for Comments) code. If you overlook a high bounce rate, ISPs might conclude that you're:
A high bounce rate can harm your sender reputation, making it essential to manage bounces effectively for better deliverability.
Types of Bounces:
Congratulations, your message has successfully landed in the inbox! This indicates that you're following deliverability best practices and that ISPs are permitting your emails to pass through. However, the journey doesn’t stop here; the way recipients engage with your email will greatly influence your future deliverability.
Let’s take a look at the actions your subscribers can take…
The open metric measures how many of the delivered emails have been opened by recipients. Dashboard usually provides insights into both total opens and unique opens.
These metrics are useful for estimating recipient engagement and assessing the effectiveness of your subject line, BIMI branding, and preheader text. Open rates are influenced by factors such as inbox placement, list health, and audience segmentation.
However, it's important to be cautious when interpreting open rates. They are tracked through a single-pixel image embedded in the email, which may not be recorded if the recipient has images disabled, uses a preview pane, or is on certain email clients. Therefore, consider this metric as a general guideline rather than a definitive measure.
Click rates are among the most important metrics for email performance. They require recipients to open the email and click on at least one link or call to action (CTA). There are two main distinctions to consider:
Understanding these metrics is essential for assessing how effective your email content and calls to action are.
Click Metrics Limitation
Although click rates provide valuable insights, they do have their limitations. For instance, click statistics do not account for multiple clicks within a single email. To obtain this data, you’ll need to set up an attribution system using UTMs for link tracking.
Low click rates might suggest poor targeting or unappealing calls to action, which can result in low conversion rates and a disappointing return on investment. You can enhance click rates and overall email engagement by employing strategies such as content optimization, design improvements, list segmentation, and A/B testing.
An unsubscribe happens when a user chooses to remove themselves from your mailing list, and it's measured as a percentage of your total subscribers. There are three main types of unsubscribes:
Unsubscribes are beneficial for senders as they help keep the mailing list clean without needing manual updates. It's important to note that users can unsubscribe from one list while still being subscribed to others.
Complaints are a critical area of focus for inbox providers. A spam complaint happens when a user clicks the “mark as spam” button in your email. Generally, you can expect higher complaint rates for email marketing campaigns compared to transactional messages, which tend to have lower rates. Spam complaints serve as a key indicator for ISPs to identify email spammers, making this statistic particularly alarming.
To reduce this risk, ESPs implement Feedback Loop (FBL) notifications to monitor complaint data. When a complaint is filed, the recipient is automatically placed on a suppression list. This helps safeguard your sender reputation and reduces the chances of future emails ending up in the spam folder.
Email metrics provide valuable insights into your email program's performance. Access to comprehensive data—ranging from delivery rates to opens and clicks—is essential for identifying issues and troubleshooting potential threats to your deliverability. Looking to boost your email deliverability? Let us help you with this simple guide. You've got this!
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